Estate Planning

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of making decisions that will make it easier for others to carry out your wishes should you become physically or mentally capacitated or when you pass on. At the very least, you should assign someone you trust to serve as your health care proxy should you no longer be able to make healthcare decisions on your own. You should also formalize a living will that documents whether you want or don’t want life-prolonging treatments at the end of your life. Also consider assigning durable financial power of attorney to someone you trust to manage your finances if you’re no longer able to.   To help ensure that you, rather than a court, determines how your assets in your estate will be distributed to your heirs, make sure that you’ve completed a will that states your wishes and names an executor. Review and update your will if circumstances change. To avoid probate, consider setting up a revocable living trust and funding it with high-value assets such as your home and taxable investment accounts. You’ll need to retitle these assets in the name of the Trust. You won’t, however, need to retitle your IRA accounts and life insurance policies, since these assets will go directly to your assigned beneficiaries.   It’s highly recommended that you hire an experienced attorney to legally formalize these decisions. Since attorneys are expensive, consider working with a fee-only financial planner who can turn your decisions into an estate planning action plan at a relatively lower cost. You can then give this plan to your attorney to execute the legal requirements. 

Om Podcasten

Whatever life after 50 looks like to you, thinking about money in retirement shouldn’t keep you up at night. We’re all dealing with the big questions about money and aging: How much you can really spend, how to invest your life savings without risking it all in the stock market, and should you sell your home and downsize? Then there’s the biggest unknown: how much health care you’ll need, and whether your savings and insurance is enough to cover the costs. This is personal. These topics may not be easy to talk about with your own family. That’s why nationally known personal finance experts Terry Savage, Richard Eisenberg, and Pam Krueger and are here to open up the dialogue so you can learn how to define your retirement and deal with your money on your own terms. These three friends think, write, and speak about these issues. And now they’re joining forces to give you the benefit of their experience, wisdom and advice in their new podcast, Friends Talk Money. Each week Richard, Pam and Terry will discuss a different piece of the retirement pie. Everything from Social Security and Medicare to investing and cash flow management is on the table, with practical, common-sense advice on how to deal with these and other challenges. But don’t expect cut-and-dried answers. These friends have strong opinions, and aren’t afraid to debate the pros and cons of their friends’ recommendations. But what you will walk away after each episode is a greater awareness of the retirement planning issues you’ll need to address with the help of your family, friends and financial advisor.