A living trust is a popular consideration in many estate strategy conversations, but its appropriateness will depend upon your individual needs and objectives.
Blog Posts
Keeping a Strong Cash Flow: Evaluate Your Retirement in 3 Steps
Whether your retirement is just around the corner or years away, ensuring your preparations are in order can be the centerpiece of an effective retirement strategy. This is especially critical when you consider that approximately 4 out of 10 households are predicted to run short of money in retirement.
Book Review: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
By Jessica Searcy Kmetty
I heard about this book from a group member in a book club I joined last year on Facebook called “The Peanut Blossom Book Club for Recovering Readers.” I figured that since it is January, and she had highly recommended it, I’d give it a try.
Don’t Be Your Own Worst Enemy
One of the most well-known investors of the 20th Century, Benjamin Graham, said, “the investor’s chief problem – and even his worst enemy – is likely to be himself.”
What Graham understood – and modern research is catching up to – is the idea that we all have emotions and biases that affect our decision-making. The innate wiring built to survive premodern times can be counterproductive in our modern world, especially when it comes to investing.
Let’s take a quick look at a few of the human emotions and biases that can adversely impact sound investment decision-making.
Rules Tighten on Stretch IRAs
Washington was busy this holiday season. As many of us were looking forward to some well-earned time off, new legislation was passed, and it affects some of the old rules for traditional Individual Retirement Accounts. These changes went into effect on January 1, 2020.
One of the biggest changes will affect the required minimum distribution (RMD) timeline for IRAs granted to a beneficiary at the time of your death.
When Family Dynamics Derail Financial Planning
By John C. Fales
If you give $1,000 to every member of a family, there’s a high likelihood that no two members will spend it the same way.
Money is a tool that is used to accomplish goals, and it often takes some patience and understanding to uncover the motivation behind how each family member chooses to use their money. However, patience and understanding are not always the first reactions when family members discuss, or perhaps judge, their family members’ behavior.
Are family dynamics getting in the way of your multi-generational financial planning?
Book Review: Refire! Don’t Retire, Part IV, Refiring Physically
By Brenda Carrico
For some people, taking care of their physical wellbeing is a part of life, and for others, it’s one of the biggest challenges. If you’re the type of person who can balance the healthy versus unhealthy food you put in your body – hats off! You’re probably also that person we see riding your bike down the street, going for a walk, lifting weights, or taking a yoga class. Not everyone enjoys exercise, can motivate themselves to keep moving, or finds it easy to control a balanced diet.
Taking the Team Approach
By Michael J. Searcy
We often talk to people about how utilizing multiple financial advisors can lessen their chance for success. For example, one advisor could decide to trade out of an investment to take losses at the same time the other decides to buy into that same investment, creating a wash sale, and adverse tax consequences. Neither professional is at fault, they just didn’t realize what had occurred because they weren’t aware their client was working with multiple advisors. I started thinking about that concept differently and now want to tell you that you should work with multiple advisors, but, it’s not what you think!
Planning for 2020 with Updated Amounts and Adjustments from the IRS
We cannot stress enough the value that tax deferred savings brings to your retirement planning. It is one of the more powerful tools at your disposal.
To help prepare those of you who are still working, a summary of the 2020 Annual Benefit Plan Amounts, showing adjustments to dollar limitations on benefits from and contributions to qualified retirement plans, can be found at the end of this communication.
Why I Volunteer: Growing Futures Early Education Center
By Marc Shaffer
My involvement in the Centurions Leadership Program gave a broad overview of the KC metro and how everything connects; businesses, charities, education, etc. It led me to want to volunteer in my own backyard, where I live and work, in Overland Park.
I was first introduced to Growing Futures Early Education Center (then known as Head Start of Shawnee Mission) in 2014 when they applied as a beneficiary of the Overland Park South Rotary Club’s annual Jazz in the Woods event. Like many others in our community, I was surprised by the poverty in Johnson County. Did you know that based on 2017 census data, more than 30,000 residents are living in households with income at 100% of the federal poverty level? In 2019, for a family of four, that is an annual income of $25,750. Fortunately, in Johnson County, we have Growing Futures Early Education Center to assist vulnerable families with their mission of nurturing children and strengthening families to enrich the community.
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