The summer season gives families the chance to get together for quality time and fun, but it also presents you with an important opportunity – to have a constructive conversation with your family about your finances and estate plan. Fidelity Investments found that 86% of parents felt peace of mind after having conversation with their children, yet only one-third of parents and children agree about the right timing for these conversations.1 Having this talk helps in three ways: Preparation – inform your family how you want your estate handled and distributed Educational – your family members can learn about the details, their role in the plan and clear up any gray areas Comfort –peace of mind is important and knowing there’s a plan in place to help the transition go smoothly can help If you’ve been meaning to have this discussion but haven’t started it yet, make now the right time to do it. [+] Read More

Let’s start with the most important one: spend plenty of time vetting financial advisors before you hire one. Take time and do your homework to find someone that has experience, a good track record, and who is a constant student of financial planning and investment strategies. Those are the qualities you want. To make the search process easier for you, narrow the field to include only Certified Financial Planners. Unlike many financial advisors, CFP® professionals are required to complete a comprehensive financial planning curriculum, pass an examination that tests their ability to apply financial planning knowledge to real life situations, and complete several years of delivering financial planning services to clients prior to being able to use the “CFP®” certification.1 [+] Read More

The stock market overcame some volatility early in the year but continued to trend higher. As the market has reached new all-time highs, many investors are wondering if it’s too late to put additional cash to work. Others have indicated they’re still waiting for a possible stock market correction before making any decisions. One thing remains clear – despite what happens in the market and when, it’s likely you still need your portfolio growing and generating retirement income over time. There are two types of portfolio strategies that could ease concerns about where the market’s headed while positioning your portfolio for a variety of outcomes. Tactical Strategies are designed to temper the effects of a market decline while trying to capture growth, and Dividend Income Strategies aim to generate income while reducing volatility. Let’s take a look at both. [+] Read More

Probate comes from the Latin phrase “to prove,” and refers to the process of proving to a court that a last will and testament is valid. It is frequently a difficult and lengthy process, and in many cases can be quite expensive. Below, we’ll outline three steps you can take to help your family avoid probate. Settling an estate is a difficult time as it is, so it’s worth it to take the right steps taking today to ensure it goes smoothly. Probate Fees Can Add Up Quickly The fees vary from state to state, but just to give you an idea, the typical probate costs on a $500,000 estate in California could range between $14,390 and $27,390. On the higher end, this could mean losing over 5% of your estate to probate fees, not to mention all the time attorneys and family members will have to spend seeing it through.1 Avoid Probate with These 3 Steps In many cases you will likely need to apply some combination of the below approaches, so it is important to speak with your financial advisor and an estate attorney to know which options are right for you. [+] Read More

First and foremost – don’t pay extra for the advice! As part of a comprehensive investment plan, your financial advisor should provide guidance on your 401(k) asset allocation, and which investments you choose depends on how you’re allocated outside of your 401(k). You should receive a detailed analysis—and this advice—at no extra charge. If you don’t have a financial advisor, have one look at your complete financial picture including your 401(k), and see what type of advice you get. Then, repeat this exercise with two or three different financial advisors and compare each, to see which one offers the most compelling and thoughtful advice. That might be the financial advisor worth hiring. In the meantime, here are 4 sound tips for setting up your 401(k) asset allocation [+] Read More

Many banking institutions now undergo annual stress tests to ensure they’re strong enough to survive another global financial crisis. Looking back, we now know that many banks appearing healthy and operational on the surface actually needed help. Had they conducted stress tests regularly, they may have just survived. As advisors, these bank stress tests and bank failures highlight a valuable lesson when it comes to investment plans—they too should be stress-tested to make sure they can endure future market volatility. Have you checked to see if your investment portfolio can survive another large market decline? Who performs annual stress tests on your portfolio to make sure you’re on the right track? * The Confidence Zone is the range of probabilities that you and your advisor select as your target range for the Probability of Success result in your Plan. Source: Money Guide Pro It’s important to know how your retirement goals and portfolio could be affected during the next market decline. Armed with this information, you can make adjustments so you’re better prepared. Go through these 4 steps to perform a stress test on your portfolio so you know you’re prepared. [+] Read More

Financial advisors often ask the questions: what are your retirement goals? What do you dream of accomplishing? These are important questions and are central to the investment planning process. But they are broad in scope and it can be difficult to know exactly how to answer them. An important feature of solid retirement planning is prioritizing your retirement goals into groups. Do you have enough to cover healthcare expenses? Do you want to buy a second home? Pass along a certain amount of assets to your heirs? Which goal is more important than another? [+] Read More

The transfer on death (TOD) account registration is a good way to establish beneficiaries on your non-retirement accounts. It ensures your assets are transferred to your chosen beneficiaries seamlessly, so your family may avoid the potentially costly, emotionally difficult, and drawn-out probate process. Why Set Up a TOD Registered Account? The TOD designation usually allows your family to bypass probate when distributing assets at your death. For instance, let’s say you have an individual brokerage account where you hold stocks and other securities, but you don’t have a TOD registration. When you pass away, those assets will likely move into probate, and legal parties will have to look to your last will and testament as a guide for how to distribute them. If the language in the will isn’t clear or there are questions, it could make an emotionally difficult time even more difficult for your heirs. The TOD registration bypasses all of that. It takes precedence over anything stated in the will, so the assets will be distributed as you want and there won’t be any questions asked. [+] Read More

In today’s investment world, there are dozens of investment products and strategies out there to choose from. It’s understandable that investors might get overwhelmed when trying to decide which option or combination of options seems like the right choice for them. But amidst all the variables, there’s one thing we encourage investors to remember and fall back on: it’s not so much about the products and strategies themselves; it’s how you allocate your portfolio across different areas of the market. The old fashioned approach still holds true: a properly diversified portfolio can provide better returns with less risk over time.1 [+] Read More