Specialized trusts & private loans can help address some “what ifs”. Estate planning professionals have to deal with ambiguities today. Constant tax law revisions aside, there are contingencies of family life that may require added flexibility in estate planning. Fortunately, there are tools that can help to arrange it. Standby trusts. As the name implies,…

What do you do when an account owner passes away? If your loved ones have invested, saved or insured themselves to any degree, you may be named as a beneficiary to one or more of their accounts, policies or assets in the event of their deaths. While we all hope “that day” never comes, we…

How much attention do you pay to this factor? Could you end up paying higher taxes in retirement? Do you have a lot of money saved in a 401(k) or a traditional IRA? If so, you may be poised to receive significant retirement income. Those income distributions will be taxed. As federal and state governments…

Here are some things to consider. Be sure you understand your options. When the owner of an IRA passes away, his or her heirs must be aware of the rules and regulations affecting the inherited IRA. Ignorance could lead you straight toward a tax disaster. Please note that this is simply an overview. Rather than…

We will all leave this world sometime. Why leave unanswered questions with those we love? We all want to live a significant, successful life. Yet how many of us realize that our important, positive contributions can last long after we are gone? Two things are certain: death and taxes. Some of us grasp that reality…

The two words signify a far-reaching kind of financial care. There’s financial planning, and then there’s wealth management. Think of wealth management as a step up from garden-variety financial planning. One office (rather than one person) provides a range of services for a client: personal financial planning and investment management, tax reduction and estate planning…

While the idea of retirement has changed, certain financial assumptions haven’t. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all leisure. While this is becoming a cultural assumption among baby…

What would you like to have known at 18, 25, or 35? When you were 20 or 25, what was your level of financial literacy? What did you think of when the nightly news mentioned Wall Street or the Federal Reserve? Did you even care about those things at that time? Few young adults fully…

The fact is, the more complex your estate, the more your need for estate planning – and a living trust can be a fundamental tool in that planning. While not everyone needs a living trust, they certainly become more attractive as your estate grows more complex. Why a living trust? Essentially, a revocable living trust…

Those three little letters signify some very high standards in financial planning. “Certified Financial Planner” – what does that title really mean? When you search for a financial advisor, it means everything. Let me explain why the CFP® designation is so important. Today, the financial world is full of credentials and designations. Some are respected,…