Thought Leadership By Our Team

A guide to key planning actions to complete before year-end to help optimize your financial, tax, and estate outcomes.

If you’ve changed jobs over the years, you may have a 401(k) account or even a pension plan still held with a former employer. It’s more common than you might think.

The good news is that each new tax bill continues to bring greater flexibility and enhancements to 529 plans. Recent legislative changes have expanded the definition of qualified education expenses. Offering families more options for how they use these tax-advantages accounts. For elementary and secondary education, eligible expenses now include not only tuition, but also curriculum and instructional materials (such as books or online courses), tutoring by licensed or expert instructors, dual‑enrollment fees, standardized test (e.g. SAT/ACT) fees, and educational therapies for students with disabilities. These changes make 529 plans more versatile than ever for meeting a wide range of educational needs.

You may be considering downsizing your home for a variety of reasons. Maybe you're now an "empty nester" and the space feels too large. Perhaps a significant portion of your equity is tied up in your home, and you'd like to access it to support your retirement lifestyle.

2025 Important Numbers

Choosing when to claim Social Security benefits is one of the most important financial decisions you’ll make in retirement. The timing of your claim can significantly impact your overall benefits, potentially affecting your long-term financial security.

The allure of living abroad can promise a better climate, a lower cost of living, and a higher quality of life if you find the right country to move to in your golden years. A retirement visa is one document that can help you turn that retirement goal into a reality.

Social Security payments have been coming out of your paycheck for your entire career, and many workers feel strongly that they want to begin taking their Social Security retirement benefit as soon as they’re eligible at age 62.

The 2023 fiscal year-end government funding bill contained legislation that makes the most significant changes to the U.S. retirement savings system in decades. The SECURE 2.0 Act builds on retirement savings changes passed in 2019 and contains new provisions that further raise the required minimum distribution (RMD) age, shift to automatic plan enrollment and provide for new matching/emergency withdrawal opportunities.

With January being designated as “Financial Wellness Month,” we encourage you to start the new year embracing new possibilities and setting financial goals as a first step in working toward a more secure financial future. It’s a great time to work on improving your financial health and to take a hard look at our financial habits. We have put together our checklist of Top 10 areas to focus on to identify your priorities, along with tips to help you kick-start your Financial Wellness program for 2024.

Do these relaxing summer days have you contemplating early retirement before age 65? The Pandemic and Working from Home (WFH) has more people contemplating retiring early. By planning and being realistic, you can move toward an early retirement with a greater level of confidence.

By far the most difficult part of a financial plan is determining how much you spend. Few people can quantify their annual spend rate, so you are not alone. Here is a worksheet to help you get started

Congress passed a long-awaited retirement bill, dubbed “SECURE Act 2.0,” in late December as part of a broader omnibus spending bill.

Getting control of your financial life is one of the top New Year’s resolutions. We’ve compiled a checklist of suggestions to help you get started on this goal.