Retirement planning
When Planning, Focus More on Goals, Less on Numbers
Financial planning is a complex, lifelong process that people tend to approach with a numbers orientation. What rate of return do I need to reach my goal? How much insurance do I need? Can I afford a bigger house? How much money do I need to save for retirement? To support their pursuit of the…
Read MoreYour Plan’s Vesting Schedule: Tailor It to Meet Your Needs
A retirement plan’s vesting schedule, which establishes when employer contributions to the plan will be owned outright by the employee, plays a role in how effective the plan is in helping to attract and retain employees. Employers will want to carefully consider their goals and the available options when selecting a vesting schedule for their…
Read MoreWhat Motivates Your Investment Moves?
When the stock market falls sharply as it did following the recent Brexit Referendum in the United Kingdom, it is not unusual for investors to react emotionally — to act on impulse before thinking through the potential long-term consequences. Why does emotion sometimes cloud your judgment when it comes to making investment decisions? The answer…
Read MoreWhen Protection Matters: Consider a QTIP Trust
Several years ago, Jack’s father died. Jack grieved not only for his father’s passing, but also for his widowed mother who had been married to Jack’s father for 35 years. In due course, Jack’s mother remarried. However, when she eventually passed away, Jack suffered a double loss: Jack not only lost his mother, but also…
Read MoreWhat to Know About Annuities
Are you retiring soon and looking into your options to start drawing down your savings from your employer-sponsored plan? Are you also concerned about making sure your money lasts as long as you need it to? If so, annuities may make sense for you.1 Annuities, simply put, reduce the risk that you will outlive your…
Read MoreTurning the Page: 5 Things Baby Boomers Need to Know About RMDs
The times they are a changin’ for baby boomers. The generation that lived through and influenced the revolution in the retirement industry is now poised to begin withdrawing money from their retirement-saving vehicles — namely IRAs and/or employer-sponsored retirement plans. If you were born in the first half of 1946 — you are among the…
Read MorePlanning 2016: New Realities, New Expectations
Financial resolutions often fall prey to the same procrastination that hinders personal aspirations. Yet current volatility in the financial markets along with other unsettling factors such as the impending presidential election and widespread geopolitical unrest may have led investors to pause, rethink their financial situations, and set new expectations for the future. Resolutions typically fall…
Read MoreFocus on the Forest, Not the Trees, of Investing
It’s a message worth repeating. Investing is a matter of focus. Despite recent disappointments in stock market performance, investors who are willing to assess the whole universe of investment choices may find that the market continues to offer new possibilities. And those who keep their sights set on long-term investment goals may find that a…
Read MoreWealth Transfer in a Low-rate Environment
For those fortunate few individuals whose personal wealth exceeds the current estate-tax exemption threshold — $5.43 million for 2015 rising to $5.45 million for 2016 — today’s historically low interest rate environment offers potentially powerful wealth transfer opportunities. Recent low rates of interest have affected two important factors used to value wealth transfers involving trusts…
Read MoreThree Year-end Tax Reduction Tips
Even though April 15 now seems a distant deadline for filing your 2015 tax returns, in order to take advantage of some of the biggest tax reduction strategies, you have to act before the end of this year. Without further ado, here are three “go-to” maneuvers that you may want to execute by December 31.…
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