Estate Planning for Retirement: Prioritize Your Needs | Important Points for Estate Planning
The typical first meeting with an advisor usually begins with how many accounts do you have? and the value of those accounts, or what is your current income and expenses? Now, these are great questions, which should not be at the top of the list of important information to begin with.
Dave Duley here with Georgia Advisory Group, a 40-year veteran of the financial markets and Lead fiduciary. My job is to give you informative information to ask the right questions in retirement planning. Stay to the end to see why a great advisor is concerned about you and your family and not your money. Get a pen and paper. Write down these important questions your advisors should be asking early in your initial meeting. It won’t take but a few minutes. Having your house in order is where we begin.
I’m going to take a few minutes to walk you through a punch list of items to be concerned with prior to diving deep into investing dollars or generating income in retirement. In our initial meeting, three things we focus on is this- Where are you at today? Where do you want to be in retirement? and What changes do you need to help you get there?
First, we begin with the basics that have nothing to do with money. Do you have a will and has it been updated? If it is years old, are the children now grown and on their own, or are we still dealing with minors? or an age where you say they are still not old enough to be handling a million dollar Ira if it was to get inherited to them, the will sets the stage for all non-qualified assets, money, house, Cars, Land, business, qualified accounts such as IRAs 401ks 403 B’s and the exception life insurance. All have beneficiaries names directly at the account and usually bypass the will in most cases. Do each of you have a power of attorney on each other? Where if one of you were disabled or unable to communicate, the other could handle all financial matters on your behalf.
A durable power of attorney is better vehicle than a general power of attorney. It goes into more specific details of handling your business or real estate on appointing professionals. Do you both have health care directives that spell out basically your last wishes during a tragic accident or prolonged illness? Have you updated your beneficiaries on your 401k from when you first started with your company and weren’t married at the time? or is your mom or Worse, your previous wife still listed on that beneficiary? These are the type questions that you should be taking at the initial meeting with any Financial interview. These are the start points. If the focus is just primarily on how much money do you have and where is it currently, then run.
Don’t walk, Run !!
Tell me about your current health insurance. Is it provided through your employer or are you paying out of pocket? Will it end when you retire? Have you already logged into your Social Security Administration and set up your accounts and know what your retirement income will be at age 62 or 67 or 70? Look, as a planner, I already know where I’m going with all these questions I just covered. I know at some point you’re going to give me a retirement time frame or age. You’d like to hang it up, if possible. You’re going to give me your income and expenses, your savings and Investments by the dollar amounts, but that information will be one of my last concerns.
You see I’m already figuring out if your house is in order long before talking finances. Investing for the finance advisor, Generating lifetime income, picking stocks or ETFs, protecting those dollars from Market swings. Those should be the easy Parts. I know for you there are great questions and you want them answered and they will be, but setting the foundation and the frame of the house is the hard part and most critical understanding. I may have a great financial situation, but because I didn’t take the time to set up a simple will or power of attorney or get the beneficiaries changed properly, I may have not thought through many things.
I’ll have to buy my own health coverage prior to age 65, that I may not even qualify for, or it’s too expensive and therefore I won’t be able to retire early and for example, Medicare supplement insurance once I reach 65. What is the best? Should I have part A or Part B coverage of Medicare? and What about Part D prescription drugs? If I plan to wait on Social Security till I’m 65. Do I want Medicare coverage? What if I need long-term care uh coverage in the future? You know have I planned for that? Do I keep these old life insurance policies I’ve had forever? I didn’t think through that if I pass away prior to my spouse that she loses my income and hers will be reduced by 50%. I think you see my point. I’m driving home here, Estate Planning should be Priority One and the key to an early conversation when meeting with a true planner, you always see a pilot do a walk around first, long before any entertaining taking the plan off. He or she wants to know the plane is in good order before we even start the engines. Make sure your advisor has asked you the right questions before digging into actual dollars.
Now the next video I’ll dive deep into questions you should be asking your advisor before you even begin concerning the parts about the money aspect or investing, but the only way you’ll get to know when it’s posted is to subscribe below. If you enjoyed this information, Click the button and ring the bell. Make a comment or just visit us at our website. You can reach me directly with any questions you may have there are such great information and previous videos in our library, that it’s tremendous help for you. You can also get on our digital newsletter that cost you nothing and goes out each week.
