
My Ideal Annual Review
By John P. Napolitano CFP®, CPA, PFS, MST | Founder & Chairman I was recently asked, “John, what does your ideal annual review look like? What are you looking at for yourself?” Everyone’s financial situation evolves as life goes on. We go through various stages: accumulation, spending, preservation, and distribution. At this stage of my…

Adjusting to Life Post-Income
You might be surprised how often wealthy families experience anxiety when they exit their businesses or careers. It centers around a shift away from income to living off of assets. We have clients who have been earning an income since they were 14 working a paper route. Looking forward to the next paycheck is all…

How to Prepare Successful Inheritors
By: Thomas Schulte | Director of Financial Planning One of the most common concerns we hear affluent clients express: “I’m fearful that passing too much wealth to my inheritors will do more harm than good.” It’s a well-founded concern. Far too many examples of wealth are those passed carelessly between generations, bringing out the worst…

Every Day Is Saturday
By: John Napolitano | Founder and Chairman We have many clients who are starting to sell their businesses or retiring from companies and corporations. Many large changes occur, but the biggest are often in their routines. If you own a business or have a particularly high-performance job, you work your butt off Monday through Friday….

Making Cents: Stress Test Your Forecast
With an eye toward the dog days of summer vacation, this is a good time of year to think about how you would spend your time if every day was vacation. For many, the goal of not working some day is still alive. Retiring isn’t what it used to be, however. Today, retirees want a…

Making Cents: Beneficiary Planning for Senior Citizens
It is second nature for many senior citizens to save as much as possible. These same seniors are such savers, that they are equally reluctant to spend any of their savings. This natural aversion to spending also applies to their retirement accounts. Whether the retirement account is a pension, 401K or an IRA, holding on…

Making Cents: Is Retirement All It Is Cracked Up To Be?
According to a business owner who recently failed at retirement, ‘retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be’. For this individual, it wasn’t about the money, it was about the feeling of loss once he wasn’t the boss and in control. He felt as if his purpose in life had simply disappeared. This is more…

Making Cents: The Rule of 168
The rule of 168 isn’t some fancy way of seeing how fast your money doubles or a code section from the IRS, it is a law of life. The law is that there are only 168 hours in a week, and you need to use them wisely if you want to live the ideal life…

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: 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…