Category: Timeless Relevance
Why an Estate Plan Is the Best Gift You Can Give Your Grandchild
While awaiting the recent birth of my first granddaughter, I spent a lot of time thinking about the best possible gift I could give her. Ultimately, I decided that the ideal present for my grandchild was to give her parents–my daughter and her husband–a professionally drafted estate plan. New parents can be overwhelmed with the…
Planning Throughout the Retirement Lifecycle
Three Phases of Retirement We generally think about retirement in three broad phases. Within each phase, distinct trends and priorities have emerged among retirees in the numerous studies that have been completed on the topic. Each client has their own unique plans for retirement, but understanding these general patterns provides helpful context and is a…
Why the Dow and S&P 500 Don’t Tell the Whole Story
At the end of August, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Raytheon Technologies were replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Salesforce.com, Amgen and Honeywell International. ExxonMobil’s removal is notable because the company has been a member of the Dow for more than 90 years: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, a predecessor to ExxonMobil, was added…
The Countdown to Retirement: 7 Smart Ways to Get Ready
Most people become even more focused on planning and saving as they near retirement age. The most common questions we hear people ask is, “Will I have enough money?” followed closely by, “When can I retire?” But what about high earners who know they’ll have enough money for their golden years? Is retirement planning still…
Choosing A Smart Investment Strategy
If you’ve ever looked at a graph of stock market returns, you might notice the similarities with an EKG. Lots of ups and downs. But overall, the trend is up. Over the long term, the stock market has delivered compounded annual rates of return of 8-10% per year. In order to achieve the long-term…
The Benefits of Trusts
Trusts can serve many purposes in a family’s financial, retirement, estate, and tax planning. Trusts can ensure that assets are professionally managed across generations and distributed in line with the grantor’s intentions. Trusts can, among other things, remove assets from one’s estate, carry out charitable intent, reduce income taxes, protect beneficiaries from spendthrift propensities, protect…