How to Avoid a Financial Family Feud
All too often families fight about money. Commonly these feuds begin over real estate, family businesses or care decisions for aging parents. No parent’s dream for the future of his or her family includes disownment or troubles among the siblings, yet parents are most often the ones to blame for the problems. Preventing future feuds can…
Making Cents: There’s More to Risk than Losing Money
When most people think about financial risk, losing money is what they think about. Memories of the real estate investment or stock investment that didn’t work out as hoped may still be stuck in your mind. But risk is much broader than just losing money, and the more money you have, the more likely it…
Making Cents: Retirement Accounts Need Special Attention in Your Estate Plan
I frequently see people who think that their will directs who gets their retirement accounts after they pass away. This isn’t necessarily true. The only time your will matters in terms of your retirement accounts is if you haven’t selected beneficiaries or if all of your chosen beneficiaries are deceased. This last choice, however, is…
The Stupid Bowl
Is it my age or is the Super Bowl losing some of its luster? My friends who are Giants fans are thinking that I’m spoiled from all the Patriot’s Super Bowl appearances, and that I just can’t accept any other teams being in the big game. That is not true, I found that when my…
Making Cents: Planning for Children with Special Needs or Dependency Issues
Between what appears to be a larger percentage of children born with special needs and the recent epidemic of opioid addiction and dependency, many parents need specialized guidance in order to best assist these children and ultimately, protect their assets from the issues that can easily drain any estate. The core issue is the child’s…
Making Cents: Price Inflation may be Higher than you Think it is
Calculating the rate of inflation seems rather simple. If you pay $10 for something today and one year later that item costs $11, you would think that the item has inflated by $1 or 10% over the past year. But when it comes to the rate of inflation, there is yet another variable to factor…
Succession Plans for Privately Held Businesses – Part III
In the last two weeks, we’ve talked about the different parts of planning for business succession. In our first article, we talked about the operational preparations that must be made (read the article here). Then last week, we started discussing the financial implications of business succession, including valuations of the business and any real estate…
Succession Planning for Privately Held Businesses Part II
Last time, we wrote about the operational side of succession planning. In case you missed it, you can read it here. Continuing with our series, we’re moving on to the financial side of succession. There are a few key ingredients: who will become the new owners of the deceased shares, and what are the financial…
Making Cents : Game Changing Life Transitions that need Attention
Most people approach their financial planning on a piecemeal basis. They look at their portfolio every now and then. They talk to an estate planner every 10 or 20 years, even though it should be more frequent. They buy their life insurance in a vacuum and never look at it again. They buy and sell…
Avoiding Battles about Money
According to a 2012 Harris Interactive poll, about 36% of all couples aged 55 – 64 argue about money. That’s the highest percentage amongst any age group and significant because people in that age bracket are either retired early or thinking about the day that they may stop working. Most life and financial transitions are…