Financial Planning Archive

Year-End Tax Moves That Investors Should Consider
Smart financial investors don’t just think about stock market gains and losses. They also look for ways to balance their investment accounts in order to minimize the taxes they must pay. After all, more money in your account is more… Continue reading

Creating Your Ethical Will – Redefining Legacy
What is money, if not the means to secure a better, more fulfilling life? And how will you communicate to your heirs the importance of your carefully assembled resources? Legacy is about more than cash and property. It’s the transmission… Continue reading

Should I Start a Donor-Advised Fund?
by Sonja Breeding, CFP®It seems like everyone these days has started a foundation. There’s a reason for that. It’s easier than ever to create one and there are many incentives to go down that path, even with smaller amounts of money. The reason… Continue reading

Charitable Planning Essentials – A Smarter Way to Give
We all like the idea of giving back, especially when we feel grateful for the opportunities afforded us in life. That charitable impulse is powerful, and it is an impulse that can be amplified by harnessing simple, proven planning tools. … Continue reading

Let’s Talk About Aging – What We Can Plan For Today!
Aging is natural and normal. It’s just part of life! As we get older, however, it becomes increasingly important to consider how to age securely and safely, as you had intended. Join us for an illuminating conversation about how to… Continue reading

3 Questions Your Advisor Should Ask About Aging
by Sonja Breeding, CFP®When we’re young, retirement can feel like a far-off concept, more fantasy than reality. It’s in our middle years that the reality of aging and approaching retirement starts to hit home. By “home,” I mean your actual home, if you… Continue reading

What to Do with Inherited Money in a Volatile Market
by Sonja Breeding, CFP®The late John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard and for many decades the strongest proponent of common sense investing, had a wonderful way with words. By turning a phrase inside out he could change one’s perspective completely. During challenging markets… Continue reading

Who Needs an Estate Plan? Maybe You
by Christie Whitney, CFP®More than 60% of Americans don’t have a will, much less a full-blown estate plan. It’s understandable. It can feel morbid to think about what happens after you die. Yet many of those same people have life insurance, precisely to… Continue reading

3 Income Scenarios Widows Face with Social Security
by Christie Whitney, CFP®It is incredibly hard to lose a lifelong spouse, and the weeks following a funeral are undeniably tough for the surviving partner. Yet that’s exactly when many recently widowed people are expected to make consequential decisions about their finances, choices… Continue reading