View from the Lake
Where Financial Planning meets the Real World
Open Enrollment – Questions to ask about your employer group benefits and Medicare
By Kevin Reardon, CFP® Open Enrollment – So Many Questions! It’s that time of year again, when we either review group benefits at work OR our Medicare options (for those over age 65). We have written several great articles about these topics in the past and list those links at the bottom of the article […] Read More
Guest Blog – ‘How To’ Estate Planning for Digital Assets
Password Problems A woman, whose husband had recently passed away, did not have their password for their investment accounts. She had always paid the bills, and he had managed their investments during their marriage. He had not written down the password where she could find it. She had mounting bills to pay and […] Read More
How to Handle ‘Leftover’ 529 Balances
By Ryan Rink CFP®, ChFC®, CLTC® How to Handle ‘Leftover’ 529 Balances 529 plans are one of the best savings vehicles for college. However, deciding on the right amount to save to a 529 plan can be challenging. The actual cost of college can depend on a variety of factors, such as if the child […] Read More
Will Social Security Be Around When I Need It?
By Brian Ellenbecker CFP®, EA®, CPWA®, CIMA®, CLTC® You’ve probably heard media reports about the worrisome financial condition of Social Security, but how heavily should you weigh this information when deciding when to begin receiving benefits? While some changes will need to be made to Social Security (e.g., payroll taxes may increase or benefits may be reduced […] Read More
Donating Appreciated Stock vs. Using a Qualified Charitable Distribution
By Brian Ellenbecker CFP®, EA®, CPWA®, CIMA®, CLTC® Donating Appreciated Stock vs. Using a Qualified Charitable Distribution – which option is right for you? For charitably inclined individuals, there are an abundance of options available to donate money to charity while also maximizing the tax benefit. Two of the most popular options are donating appreciated stock and […] Read More
Estate Planning at Different Stages of Life
By Kevin Reardon CFP® Different Life Stages Require Different Types of Estate Planning When I started my career, there was an overriding belief that Estate Planning was just for ‘rich people.’ As the years progressed, the industry recognized that ‘old people’ are prime candidates for planning too. I could write a satirically funny article on how […] Read More
Digital Currency Versus Bitcoin and the Future of Money
By Daniel Burrus – one of the World’s Leading Futurists on Global Trends and Disruptive Innovation. When Bitcoin debuted in 2009, I published an article making a few predictions using my Hard Trend Methodology that have proven to be highly accurate. While I stated that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology represented a Hard Trend that would grow exponentially, […] Read More
Family Love Letters
By Kevin Reardon CFP® Family Love Letters What are family love letters? We have all heard stories of someone on their death bed who said, “there are some things that I have always wanted to tell you,” or the survivor who lamented “I wonder what Mom or Dad thought.” Imagine if each of us, in the […] Read More
Planning Strategies Under a Lower Estate Tax Exemption
By Brian Ellenbecker CFP®, EA®, CPWA®, CIMA®, CLTC® Estate tax planning has seen dramatic changes over the past 20 years. In 2000, the estate tax exemption was just $675,000 with a top estate tax rate of 55%. Today, the exemption is at an all-time high of $11,700,000 with a top tax rate of 40%. Considering the exemption […] Read More
