Blog

Why You Need a Will (and You Need One Today)

by Sarah Duey, JD, CFTA, CAP®, Vice President, Trust Services

Who wants to spend an afternoon thinking about their mortality? No one, which is why more than half of Americans don’t even have a will.

The foundation of your estate plan is a Last Will and Testament. Read more

5 Reasons to Think About Long-Term Care Planning Today

By Jamie Hopkins, Director of Retirement Research at Carson Group

I once received an email from a family friend about long-term care insurance. He was frustrated over a premium increase – which wasn’t the first rate hike – yet, he was still thankful for the policy. Read more

Retirement Planning: What Are You Waiting For?

By Jake Bleicher, Equity Analyst, CFA®

Almost half of households near retirement have nothing saved, and that’s a big problem. I believe the biggest headwind is merely getting started: saving money is hard to do. Read more

Future Funding of Social Security Is A Pivotal Piece To Retirement Security

By Jamie Hopkins

You’ve probably heard of the three-legged retirement savings “stool.” The idea is that a quality savings plan for retirement starts with having three aspects of saving: personal savings, employer retirement savings and government-provided benefits. Read more

Took Their Ball and Went Home: Staying in Play with Job-Creators

Valentine’s Day was tough on New Yorkers who hoped to benefit from the more than 20,000 new jobs from Amazon’s move there (not to mention all the additional jobs from construction and supporting the new employees). Read more

4 Ways to Repay Student Loans Effectively

Written by  Connor Engbers, Wealth Advisor

If you have paid attention to the news recently, you probably heard about the current “crisis” involving student loan debt. With constant talks of student loan repayment and forgiveness and the rising cost of education, debt is piling on the younger generation. And here comes another set of graduates entering the workplace with an outrageous amount of debt in May. Read more

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Changed Things More Than You Realize

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made a lot of changes. It was the single largest tax reform bill in nearly 30 years. However, the impact of the TCJA might be a lot broader than most realize. Almost every small business owner in the country is impacted by a new tax deduction called 199A. Read more

Digital Assets – You Already Own Some, Whether You Know What They Are Or Not

By Jamie Hopkins

Recently I gave a presentation to a large group, over 300 in attendance. I asked the group, “How many of you own a digital currency?” Only about three or four hands went up. I was shocked. Read more

Yo-Yo Vertigo: Understanding Market Volatility

By Kevin Engbers, CFP®, Wealth Advisor

In 31 years as a financial advisor, I’ve witnessed several seasons of heightened market volatility. Real estate mogul Tom Lewis offered the best metaphor I’ve seen for this market behavior: walking up a staircase with a yo-yo. Your eye is immediately drawn to the yo-yo’s small fluctuations when the real movement is the person going up the staircase. Read more

Risk Tolerance vs. Risk Capacity: A Key Difference

By Kevin Engbers, CFP®, Wealth Advisor

On the surface, the terms “risk tolerance” and “risk capacity” appear to be interchangeable. Yet, the difference between the two is crucial and best handled by an advisor who knows their craft well and understands the different shades of meaning. Although risk tolerance and capacity are concerned with risk, the difference will have real impact on how your financial plan comes together. Read more