Personal Financial and Retirement Planning for those who lost a loved one.
It all starts with a plan. Here's how we can help:
Download our Survivor Planning Brochure
THE 5 STEP SURVIVOR'S FINANCIAL PLAN
1. Understand where you are now: When you lose a loved, a good first step is to get organized. My Survivor's Organizer Checklist will help ensure you don't overlook any accounts, insurance policies, or legal documents. My job is to help you take a complete inventory of your financial assets, debts and insurance policies. We then organize these into a balance sheet.
2. Understanding your goals: Once we have a list of assets and liabilities or debt, it's time to start to plan. Through an intensely personalized approach, I want understand what are your short, intermediate, and long-term goals. A goal may be to retire and maintain the same amount of spending. Another goal may be to downsize the house and move closer to family. Either way, the first step is to prioritize your goals -- what's most important to you?
3. Develop the plan: The plan will help you answer the big questions on your mind. Here I'll help you answer questions like: Should you stay in the house or downsize? Do you have enough money to retire? Do you need to work? Where will the money come from? How should you invest the money?
My job is to create a retirement plan that addresses all of the money questions you may have. When we’re done, you’ll have a better idea of how to meet your expenses, where the money will come from, and should you downsize the house or not. In addition, you will not only know what you need (income) to fund your retirement lifestyle, and what your investments will generate; but you’ll also know how to bridge the shortfall – if any.
- An extremely important part of the Survivor's Plan is to help you analyze your options for the assets you inherited. Certain assets you may have inherited come with different payout options. Most have a certain timeframe to make this decision as well, within 60 days for example. If you inherited a pension, annuity, IRA/Roth IRA, 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan, employer stock or the beneficiary of a life insurance policy there may be various ways to take the asset. Certain distribution elections may help prolong the tax-deferral and possibly save you money on income taxes. The second step in the Survivor's Plan is to help you make the best distribution election on all the different assets you inherited.
- Probability of Success: Part of the Survivor's Plan is calculating the probability of success for each goal. For example, your children may want you to sell the house, but do you? The goal planner will help you see the financial impact of moving.
4. Implementing the plan: After we agree to the plan, I'll work closely with you to ensure the all of the facets are implemented in a phased and orderly manner. The goal of my 5 Step Survivor's Plan is to make transitioning into the next phase of your life as seamless and stress-free as possible.
5. Ongoing reviews: The 5 Step Survivor's Plan ensures that we maintain a long and enduring relationship with you. We’ll continue to monitor and review your retirement plans, and consult with you frequently about any changes or updates needed to address your evolving retirement lifestyle needs.
- Support for the big decisions you will make: Whether it's Social Security, Medicare, or some other workplace benefit, our retirement planning professionals will be right there when you need them, including: Whether to apply or not? When to apply? What to do with those funds…and much more.
- Looking out for you in retirement and beyond: Our service isn’t done yet. To live a long and fulfilling retirement, you’ll need help with many other facets of your life – Health Care, Insurance, Charitable Giving and Legacy Planning. When you need advice, my team and I will know exactly how to respond!
Resources for Survivors
Essential Information Worksheet
Please call 203.409.1270 or
EMAIL ME for your complimentary consultation.
We work with clients throughout the country.