Welcome to our blog! Our aim is to provide you with information designed to bring focus and clarity on what will matter most to your retirement: converting savings to a growing stream of income for life.
With compassion, we would like to share a story with you. About a year ago we had a prospect named Jill come into our office. She was tragically widowed several years ago at the age of 52. She had three children, two who were in...
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Monday, July 19, 2021
A simple explanation of how your Social Security benefits are calculated How Much Will I Get From Social Security? Social Security benefits are based on your lifetime earnings. Earnings are reported to Social Security through a W-2...
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When you leave your employment, what should you do with the retirement plan left behind? Well, the best advice we can give is: It depends on your unique circumstances. Reasons to Leave Assets in the Company Plan: Generally, plan assets...
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4 Ways 529 Plans Can Benefit Estate Planning You may be familiar with the role 529 plans play in helping families set aside funds for future education expenses. Established in 1996 under Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, these...
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When it comes to your retirement accounts, do you know who your beneficiaries are? These types of accounts have complex distribution rules and significant tax implications for those who inherit them. This complexity is compounded if...
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Can children have IRAs? There is no minimum age for having an IRA. Due to the power of compoundinterest, saving tax-free in an IRA from childhood can provide a significant head start on financial security.Saving $6,000 in an IRA...
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Pre-tax retirement accounts are a fairly new retirement planning tool all things considered. It wasn’t until 1975 that the Traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) first became available. And in 1981 the Internal Revenue...
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Thursday, November 12, 2020
The end of the year is the perfect time to review your tax situation and begin tax planning for next year. Year-end tax planning for retirees provides a chance to identify available avenues for you to think strategically and lower your...
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Thursday, November 12, 2020
On October 26, the Treasury Department released the 2021 adjusted figures for retirement account savings. Although these adjustments won’t bring any major changes, there are some minor elements to note.401(k)sThe salary deferral...
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Friday, October 23, 2020
Whether you’re receiving Medicare benefits now, or will begin soon, it’s important to understand how income-based premiums are calculated for Medicare Parts B and D. Your premium is determined by your modified...
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Friday, October 23, 2020
On October 13, 2020, the Social Security Administration (SSA) officially announced that Social Security recipients will receive a 1.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2021. This adjustment will begin with benefits payable...
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You may have read in the news about the SECURE (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) Act that went into effect on January 1, 2020 and wondered if it will affect your retirement accounts. This Act makes some very...
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Did you know that an increasing number of retirees pay federal income tax on their Social Security benefits each year? That’s because Social Security benefits become taxable when a retiree’s income exceeds certain limits....
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Few life events are more stressful than a job loss.If you or someone you know is in this situation due to COVID-19, you’ll likely have several questions about job hunting, unemployment insurance, and health care. You may also be...
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Tucked into the gigantic “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security” (“CARES”) Act were two key changes you should know about, regarding required minimum distributions (RMDs). Both were designed to give...
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Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act). This bill includes a number of measures designed to strengthen retirement savings – like...
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Ask the average person contemplating retirement for one of their top concerns after they stop working, chances are they’ll say something about being able to afford healthcare. And its a very rational concern! The Baby Boomer...
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Beginning in 1998, taxpayers have been permitted to both contribute to a Roth IRA (subject to income limits), and to convert existing assets in a traditional pre-tax IRA to a Roth IRA. In 2006, under the Pension Protection Act, the...
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Anyone with a retirement account, such as a 401(k), Roth 401(k), 403(b), 457 plan, and most IRAs (but not Roth IRAs), will have to deal with something called required minimum distributions at some point during their retirement. A...
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Every successful investor we’ve ever known was acting continuously on a plan; failed investors, in our experience, get that way by reacting to current events in the economy and the markets. We neither forecast the economy, nor attempt to ti
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Friday, October 26, 2018
It’s been a wild few weeks in the markets, some people are surprised, while some are concerned. Some people will be proactive, and others will be reactive. What should you do?
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When creating income from your investments in retirement, the sequencing of your withdrawals, along with the decisions you make regarding how and when to claim social security along with some other pertinent factors, can have a large...
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Our experience of over 20 years tells us that pre-retirees are confused about how to go about determining the amount they need to accumulate in order to be “ready” to retire. . We are all aware of the importance of saving...
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The transition into retirement is one of the biggest and most impactful transitions of a person’s life. The only bigger transition, in fact, is the eventual decline of health along with the progression into old age. With a...
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Most pre-retirees and recent retirees tend to focus on the risks of investing in the stock markets rather than what we believe is a more important risk to manage, protecting your purchasing power! To understand the importance of...
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There is never a one size fits all answer to this question! There is, however, several fundamentals that all successful investors should follow. These fundamentals become even more important to execute as you approach retirement. When...
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Friday, July 13, 2018
When it comes to investing (or anything in life worth doing well) it helps to know what you’re facing. In this case, that’s “the market.” How do you achieve every investor’s dream of buying low and selling high in a crowd of highly resource
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Wednesday, June 27, 2018
What’s Wrong with the Conventional Wisdom for Investing in Retirement? It is not uncommon for us to hear from a prospective client “I’m getting closer to retirement, shouldn’t I be moving my money into something more conservative?”
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Wednesday, June 27, 2018
This is a message of hope! Hope grounded in historical facts, combined with a pragmatic and admittedly limited view of where we are today, and a simple actionable plan forward. And in no way is it meant to be political in nature.
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