Year-End Financial To-Do: Review 529 Plans and Education Expenses
By Eric Estelle, Manager, Financial Planning & Marketing With only a few weeks left in the year, it is important to check all the boxes on your financial planning to-do list. Not everyone has 529 plans near the top of their list, but if you...
Business Owners Have Unique Financial Planning Challenges
By Eric Estelle, Manager, Financial Planning & Marketing Everyone can benefit from having a financial plan in place, but for business owners it is especially important. Owning a business requires a huge time commitment and laser focus to be...
Summer Savings: Is This the Right Time to Start Investing?
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans The thought of participating in the market can be a very scary proposition for those just beginning their investment journey. Many people who are considering investing fixate on...
Summer Savings: Yes, Kids With Jobs Can Have an IRA
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President, Manager of IRA's, Retirement & Education Planning It is hard to be out and about these days without seeing help wanted signs. They are everywhere. Restaurants, grocery stores, and retailers small and large are...
Summer Savings: Where to Hold Which Investments
By Jack Kraft, CFA, Advisor Directed Portfolio Analyst As individuals build wealth, planning for retirement becomes more complicated with investors owning multiple account types in a single household. Many people make the mistake of choosing a...
Summer Savings: Strategies for Success
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager of IRA's, Retirement and Education Planning With Memorial Day weekend behind us and temperatures warming up, the unofficial kickoff to summer has begun. Thankfully, more and more states are lifting their...
The Importance of Health Care Planning During a Time of COVID
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies Times have changed. Masks, social distancing, quarantine – it’s a new world. One thing that remains, though, is making sure you plan for yourself in case of an emergency. ...
Year-End Financial To-Do: 2020 is Over, Get Ready for 2021
Now that we’re literally on the cusp of the dawn of a new year, here are a handful of reminders to put the wraps on our year-end blog series. We hope you have found these useful and encourage you to take note and take action on the items that are...
Year-End Financial To-Do: Review 529 Plans and Education Expenses
By Debbie Placke, Vice President and Manager, Financial Planning Strategies and Marketing As 2020 comes to an end, the coronavirus pandemic has proven devastating both in health and finances for many Americans. Countless individuals are looking...
Year-End Financial To-Do: Review and Rebalance Your Portfolio in this Post-Election Environment
By Bruce Buerkle, CFA, Senior Vice President, Manager Securities Research Support As we close in on the final weeks of 2020, we are faced with many challenges that will still be with us as we turn the calendar. We continue to navigate through the...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Failing to Update Your Beneficiary Designations
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRA's and Retirement Planning Having the details of your personal and financial life made public would be horrifying for most people. Yet, I see it all the time with IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Start with the Scattered Pieces of Your Financial Plan
By Debbie Placke, Vice President and Manager, Financial Planning Strategies and Marketing Most of us have been cooped up inside the walls of our home more than we would have liked since March. With cooler weather, there are boundless opportunities to...
Vaccinate Your Investment Portfolio Against Pandemic Volatility Using These Five Proven Strategies
Although the stock market is currently on an upward path, it’s likely that a rise in infections could lead the stock market to sink suddenly as the second wave of the virus begins winding its way through the population. We have very little we can do about the pandemic...
Year-End Financial To-Do: Create a Plan for the Future
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager Financial Planning Tools and Marketing Bring on the New Year! As you celebrate the end of 2019 and bring on the holiday cheer for 2020 hopefully you feel good in knowing that you have a financial plan for the...
Year-End Financial To-Do: Considering the Tax Loss Harvesting Strategy
By Chris Whiting, CFP®, Executive Vice President, Director of Sales and Marketing 2019 has been another strong year for many equity markets. So, while many investment portfolios likely have positions with unrealized gains – a well-diversified portfolio...
Year-End Financial To-Do: Strategies for Improving Employee Participation in Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans It has become increasingly clear that there is a growing retirement savings gap in the U.S., with most workers not saving enough for retirement. Additionally, plan sponsors are...
Scary Financial Mistakes: What Is Your Financial Plan?
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager Financial Planning Tools and Marketing Ghosts, goblins, monsters, spiders – What scares you? When it comes to your finances, mistakes and oversights can be very scary and costly! During October, we will review...
Summer Savings Strategies: Budgeting and Saving
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager Financial Planning Tools and Marketing Creating a budget is the simplest way to start working toward achieving your financial goals. As the end of summer approaches, it is a good time to start planning for the...
Summer Saving Strategies: Protect Your Savings
By Dan Schulte, Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance Does the recent stock market volatility have you a bit jittery? If so, maybe the purchase of a deferred annuity could help by providing downside protections for accumulation, income,...
Summer Savings Strategies: Get an Early Start on Investment Success
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans One of the more consistently quoted investment concepts is the ‘time value of money’ and the ‘power of compounded growth’. But what do these terms and concepts actually mean, and how...
Summer Savings Strategies: Fight Inflation
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager, Financial Planning Tools and Marketing Purchasing power has stayed fairly stable over the last decade, but for anyone who has lived and invested for 30 or 40 years, the effects of inflation on your savings are...
Summer Savings Strategies: Turn Summer Jobs Into Super Savings
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRAs, Retirement and Education Planning If you are like most parents with a household of kids at home for the summer, you are probably busy scheduling summer camps and other activities to keep them busy...
When to Consider a Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan?
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans As an employer, it’s important to have enthusiastic and engaged employees, and one way to impact that is by offering competitive employer-sponsored benefits (i.e. retirement plans,...
Summer Savings Strategies: Asset Location and Why It Matters
By Nick Frigerio, Planning and Research Associate, Associate Vice President Many are familiar with the concept of asset allocation, the ability to reduce portfolio risk through diversifying assets among equities, fixed income, and cash or equivalents....
Summer Savings Strategies: Be Disciplined and Systematic
By Bruce Buerkle, CFA, Senior Vice President, Manager Securities Research Support Have you reviewed how much you are saving annually and considered whether there are opportunities to increase your savings rate? Developing a “pay yourself first” plan can...