My Comments: This comes courtesy of a local friend and attorney who includes me among those with whom he shares insights. I'm unsure who should get credit for writing the actual text. Over these many years I've had many clients with trusts of one kind or another and clients who needed trusts but didn't have …
Continue reading Seven Trust-Based Asset Protections Strategies for Clients
My Comments: With so many of us getting older, there is an increasing focus on what happens to our money when we die. If we don’t pay attention, large pieces of it may flow to the IRS and into the hands of others simply because we couldn’t be bothered to get it right the first …
Continue reading Common Mistakes When Designating a Beneficiary
My Comments: Ben Bernancke is no longer Chairman of the Federal Reserve. However, before he became chairman he was widely recognized as a world class economist and an expert of the Great Depression. It was that expertise that gave him so much credibility as he maneuvered the Fed through 2008-2009 until earlier this year. There …
Continue reading Bernanke Says 2008 Worse Than Great Depression
My Comments: I’ve talked in earlier blog posts about the rate used to withdraw money from your retirement accounts. There is a prevailing sentiment that it should be 4% or less. I think that’s too low. On the other hand if I’m wrong, and 30 years later you discover you have run out of money, …
Continue reading For Retirement Portfolios, a Smarter Glidepath
My Comments: By now you know that I provide financial advice about Social Security and about ways to maximize your SSA benefits. That all happens when you are alive. Inevitably, someone in a married relationship is going to leave the building, as Elvis did. Then what happens? by Paul Norr / AUG 18, 2014 …
Continue reading Social Security Survivor Benefits: What Advisors (and clients) Should Know
My Comments: We’ve been living in a low interest rate environment for some years now. The general consensus has been that they can’t get any lower and that the Fed will push them up if and when the US economy starts to see any inflationary pressure. I know that clients, who for years depended on …
My Comments: This is a self-serving blog post. While I should apologize for this, there are millions of Americans who will find themselves looking for financial freedom in the years to come and unless they have developed the necessary skill sets, they will find themselves behind the curve in a big way. Somebody has to …
Continue reading 9 Reasons Consumers Need Advisors More Than Ever
My Comments: If you have an IRA today, there is a chance there will still be money in it when the inevitable happens and you permanently leave the building. What then with this money? If you have a spouse, and they are the named beneficiary, that money now belongs to them and it becomes their …
Continue reading How to Protect Inherited IRAs After the Clark v. Rameker Decision
My Comments: Some of you are aware of my continued interest in the welfare of the magnet programs across Alachua County. I’ve been a member of the advisory board to the two programs at Buchholz High School since the mid 90’s. They are, respectively, the Academy of Finance and the Academy of Entrepreneurship. The original …
Continue reading Vocational Training Is No Substitute For High School
My Comments: One thing I’ve learned over the years is that people in my profession have a profound bias when it comes to trying to explain the dynamics of money. We include a lot of self promotion. I’ve also learned that I’m not immune to this bias. Some of this is justified since probably 95% …
Continue reading 3 Essentials Missing From Many Retirement Plans
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