Retirement Field Guide

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Will Your Family Be Torn Apart After You Pass?

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Every parent’s nightmare is that your family will be torn apart over money when you pass. I will let you in on an ironic little secret about the inheritance you hope to leave. Money makes people crazy! If you have not planned appropriately - and sometimes even when you have - it is very possible that your family will be torn apart over dollars and cents and over your “stuff.”… Read More

How the SECURE Act Impacts Retirement Planning

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Since my brief posting about the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement), I’ve probably received more emails and questions about it than any other topic since I started this blog. So, it’s clear there are questions out there. Jeffrey Levine, with Team Kitces, put together the below comprehensive visual of the key provisions of the SECURE Act and other provisions that were included in the total legislation… Read More

My (Ir)Rational Fear

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Over the past few months, I’ve started to worry about dying. This sounds morose but stay with me because this is really a post about life. Irrational as though it may seem for a 36-year-old to worry about dying, I seriously do. Oddly though, I don’t worry about dying in a car accident or anything like that - I worry about having a heart attack. Much of this angst can… Read More

7 Estate Planning Essentials

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For most people, estate planning looks something like this: “When all is said and done, more was said than done.”  - Lou Holtz Anyone who has helped in the estate resolution process for a loved one knows it can be either an enormous pain or relatively painless (excluding the loss of your loved one, of course). The level of difficulty is almost certainly determined by the planning or lack thereof done… Read More

Giving Money to Your Children - An Alternative Strategy

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There are two times people can give money to their children - at death and during life. Thank you Captain Obvious. But more and more, I hear people saying that they’d like to give the money now rather than at death so they can experience the enjoyment of giving and seeing what a difference it can make in the lives of their children. I’d like to challenge that strategy today…. Read More