Long-Term Care Planning Starts with Financial Planning, Not Trusts
Often, folks want to protect hard earned assets from the costs of healthcare as they age. They fear expensive assisted living and nursing home care costs. Though the fears are…
Don’t Forget to Use QCDs for Your RMDs
The end of the year marks the time when many people are doing two things simultaneously. First, they are deciding how much (or how much more) they can afford to…
Asset Protection Strategy Overview
Managing and preserving hard-earned wealth is a priority for many individuals. However, the specter of potential creditors looms ominously, ready to lay claim to our assets at any moment. Whether…
How Much Estate Tax Will I Owe (Back-of-the-Napkin Calculation)
Washington state has published its estate tax threshold for 2024. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t changed from 2023. When learning about the estate tax, people generally want to understand how to…
Umbrella Insurance for Asset Protection
In the world of asset protection, one well-known concept to mitigate risk is to transfer the obligation for payment of a valid claim to another person. This risk mitigation is…
529 College Savings Conversion to Roth IRA
Transferring wealth to children will become a touch easier in 2024. Buried in the estimated 4000-page Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2023 that passed at the end of 2022, was the…
How to Avoid the Death Tax
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Taxes come in a wide variety of flavors (e.g., income taxes,…
Loans Against Investment Accounts
Though most Americans have at least a passing understanding of the ability to use the equity in a house to obtain a low-interest loan though a Home Equity Line of…
When should I take Social Security?
One of the most important and common questions that retirees face is when to take social security benefits. Regrettably, there is no “one-size fits all” solution to the question. The…
Reasons to Reconsider the Roth IRA
In the old days, the decision to fund a retirement account with pre-tax dollars (Traditional IRA) or fund it with after-tax dollars (Roth IRA) often hinged on when a person…
