Who needs a trust? Think about it like specialty insurance. Some people genuinely need it based on their circumstances; others don’t. You wouldn’t add rust protection to a vehicle unless your environment called for it. The same idea applies here.
When you’re early in your career, much of financial advice focuses on the essentials — budgeting, saving, retirement contributions — but what a lot of people neglect is what would happen to those assets in case of an early or unexpected loss of life. It’s not a fun topic, but, especially once you’ve started a family, it becomes really important.
As the holiday season approaches, generosity often tends to take center stage, and for good reasons. Giving back not only supports the causes you care about, but it can also provide potential tax advantages before the year wraps up. Whether you give regularly or are considering a larger year-end contribution, here are a few strategies that can help make your charitable dollars go further.
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month, and each year around this time I write about the importance of making sure your family is correctly covered should one of you pass early and the other is left to cover the household bills alone. This usually corresponds with benefit election season in the workplace, and we encourage you to let us look at your benefit packages with you before just clicking the same buttons as last year.
As parents, we all have the best of intentions as we raise our kids. We try to instill good health, hygiene, nutrition, study, and work habits, and we hope that they embrace those lessons and carry them into their adult lives.
Since the pandemic, more and more people have been sitting on higher cash reserves than they used to, and the current interest rate environment has provided a unique opportunity to grow that cash relatively safe and low risk. In this edition of Dave’s Inbox, I wanted to address a couple of questions I’ve gotten repeatedly.
There’s an old trope in the financial planning industry — Nobody likes to work with engineers.
They say engineers ask too many questions. They come in with complex plans for exactly when and how they should retire to maximize their post-career income. They have dozens of spreadsheets taped together detailing every cent of their savings and budgets and interest payment projections. Heck, I’ve seen it myself. They’re trying to play financial advisor for the first time, and I can tell you that it’s not an easy job.
But at Family Financial Partners, we love working with engineers.
Should you be focused on leaving a legacy? Maybe not. Family Financial Partners, we pride ourselves on planning for your specific objectives and goals, so please know, we want you to be 100 percent open and honest with us. It’s not wrong if sharing your wealth with future generations isn’t one of your goals.
While on the one hand I agree – it’s right there in our tagline that we focus on generational wealth – I do know that there are those folks who don’t necessarily want to leave a large sum for their progeny.
When it comes to the topic of gift giving, moms are always the best, am I right? If you’re a male reading this and thinking Dave, what are you talking about? I give great gifts! Turn to your closest female friend or family member and ask what birthdays, holidays or special occasions are coming up. You’ll be surprised that there’s a whole separate calendar of all of these dates, unbeknownst to men – that only women have the ability to keep track of, often only in their heads.
You may or may not know that November is Long-term Care Insurance Awareness Month. Now, this may not sound like a fun topic to spend a month talking about, but I can tell you from personal experience – three examples in my extended family in fact – that if you need this coverage and don’t have it, there will be regrets.
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