By Dan Schulte, Senior Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance The idea of having a prolonged physical illness, disability, or a long-term cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s can be frightening. So much so that you might not want to...
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...
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies Today, October 19, marks the start of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC) National Estate Planning Awareness Week, the thirteenth year of the...
By Dan Schulte, Senior Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance All businesses, regardless of their size, have key employees who are invaluable to the success of the company. In a small business, each employee usually has a more direct effect...
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Addressing the Retirement Savings Gap Remains a Focus of National 401(k) Day The month of September is often connected with the celebration of Labor Day, a holiday to honor and...
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies We all look to create the best portfolio for our personal goals. Some of the important choices to help do that include whether you should invest in a stock as opposed to a...
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s that you never know what may be around the corner. Quarantines, closings, video meetings; no one saw that coming. In short, what this...
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...
By Debbie Placke, Vice President and Manager, Financial Planning Strategies and Marketing As we were ringing in 2020, who could have imagined what the following months could hold. In February, as news about the virus began, the economy started to spiral....
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies As we come to the climax of the Scary Financial Mistakes series, you know how it’s going to end. The young victim just escaped the monster, made it to the car, turns the...
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRAs, Retirement and Education Planning One of the biggest fears most people have about retirement is running out of money. Retirement decisions can be scary because your financial well-being depends on...
By Dan Schulte, Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance The idea of having a prolonged physical illness, disability, or a long-term cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s can be frightening. So much so that you might not want to think...
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Sometimes just the surprises and uncertainty in our daily lives can be scary! At times, things just don’t work out as planned and events can happen that we didn’t anticipate; like a...
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...
By Joanne M. Welker, CFA, Senior Vice President and Manager, Advisory Services Deciding if a brokerage (commission based) or an advisory (fee based) account is right for you may feel overwhelming or something you question in your mind even after the...
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...
Financial Advisor Libby Romack talks about what brought her to Edwards, and why it was a great choice for her. What attracted you to Benjamin F. Edwards? “I worked for AG Edwards for many years and the idea of going back to that same culture was...
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,...
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...
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRAs, Retirement and Education Planning When you retire, your savings and investments will likely become a primary source of income. Did you know that how your retirement income is taxed is impacted by...
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...
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...
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager, Financial Planning Tools and Marketing The Stock and Bond Markets fluctuate up and down daily. Some days the waves are bigger than others, and some investments shoot up and down further than others. Do you have a...
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....
By Jeffrey R. Wolfe, Senior Vice President, Manager of Wealth Planning Strategies There are lots of components to investment decisions: stock vs. bond, growth vs. value, industry trends . . . the list goes on and on. While taxes should not be a driving...