Proactive Financial Steps for Women in Their 50s To Protect Their Future

by with No Comment Estate PlanningFinancesFinancial Planning

Once you’ve reached the decade of your 50s, it’s time to tap into your accumulated life experience and wealth by investing with purpose and confidence. You also need to take steps for risk management such as ensuring that you have the right estate planning documents in place for your needs. As you enter your 50s, you may already be thinking about your intended retirement date and whether you have enough saved. It’s also natural to think about documenting your medical wishes should you be unable to share them on your own, too.

A sudden disability, injury or illness may render you unable to make decisions for yourself, and these important estate planning documents can make things easier for the loved ones appointed in those critical decision-making roles. You having these documents in advance makes it easier for them to take action quickly and make decisions that are aligned with your personal wishes. For many women, the stage of being in their 50s brings the experience of empty nest.

The average woman in the United States, however, becomes widowed at around age 55. Factoring in the unexpected is extremely important. You and your partner’s finances and estate plan may be combined together, but it’s worth another look with the help of a qualified estate planning attorney to consider issues you may have neglected previously. A lawyer’s guidance can help you adapt your estate plan for every decade of life and season. Call our New Hampshire or Maine estate planning attorneys for a deep dive into your planning future.

 

 

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Hiring an Estate Planning Attorney After Losing a Spouse

by with No Comment AssetsEstate PlanningFinances

Losing a spouse represents a major change in your life. You might need to work with your estate planning lawyer to update all your documents and ensure that your plan aligns with your needs after losing a spouse.attorney, estate planning, estate

If you have not previously worked with an estate planning attorney, it is strongly recommended that you identify one as soon as possible if your spouse has recently passed away. There are many different reasons that an estate planning attorney can give you peace of mind and help you to accomplish your individual estate planning goals.

You need to find an attorney who has experience in handling some of the complex situations that may now need adjustment because your partner has passed away. If the majority of your estate plan was to be passed on to your partner, you will need to adjust this to include different loved ones, friends or charitable organizations.

Likewise, you may now be dealing with different financial assets if your spouse passed away and left the majority of everything they owned to you.

There are several different circumstances when it is extremely important to work directly with an estate planning attorney, including:

  • Your estate has many different complicated assets inside.
  • Your spouse was the one who primarily handled the finances and estate planning in the past.
  • You believe that your estate may owe either state or federal estate taxes at the time that you pass away.
  • You are concerned about your loved ones, especially adult children arguing over assets in your estate plan.

All of these reasons should prompt you to communicate with a knowledgeable estate planning attorney in NH about the best way to accomplish your individual goals.

 

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Preparing For the Third Phase of Your Financial Life

by with No Comment Estate PlanningFinances

Most people go through three major phases with finances in their life. The first financial phase is build and grow when you’re first starting your career and are focused on maximizing contributions to your 401(k). This can be a good time to accumulate as much as you can taking into account all the different financial concerns that can pop up in future retirement, like the cost of long-term care.financial, financial life

The second financial phase is transition, which involves answering important questions about how you want to live your life after you exit full time employment. The third financial phase is most important for those people who are nearing retirement and are contemplating what the rest of their years will look like. Knowing where you’re going to pull assets from in this distribute-and-deploy phase is crucial.

There are tax consequences to consider and important estate planning strategies that must be evaluated too. If you have extra assets because you have worked significantly over the other financial phases of your life, you may also wish to leave a legacy by giving to others and supporting foundations and charities.

As long as you have a good plan, it is possible to accomplish many of your most important financial goals, but you should always engage the services of experienced and knowledgeable estate planning lawyers to help you get to that point in your life. There are so many different things to consider and all of them should be aligned with your personal goals and intentions. Having an experienced professional to guide you through this process greatly increases your chances of success and can give you tremendous peace of mind.

A New Hampshire estate planning lawyer can help you with your financial planning when you approach this process.

 

 

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Women Must Plan Ahead for Their Financial Future and Life Insurance May Be the Option

by with No Comment Estate PlanningFinancesLife Insurance

A 2021 Insurance Barometer survey found that 43% of women felt they would leave their families with a difficult financial situation if they passed away unexpectedly. This number was five full percentage points more than the answers given by men in the same survey.financial future

Women face earning power challenges that make it more important for them to look ahead into their future to plan for retirement and also need to generate additional liquidity in the event that they pass away. Women only earn 82.3% compared to their male counterparts despite the fact that they make up the majority of the workforce.

Women are also often responsible for elderly caregiving and a woman may be responsible for supporting herself, a spouse, aging parents and her own children. Women also have longer life spans to plan for because the difference between life expectancy in men and women in 2020 is 5.7 years. Women are caring for more people, living longer and earning less.

Planning ahead for a future as part of a couple or even as a widow is crucial for giving you peace of mind that you’ve done everything possible to cover your financial bases. With so many different questions to answer in the process of deciding your next steps, it can be helpful to work with an outside professional to determine what is most appropriate for you and your needs.

Appropriate risk mitigation strategies and estate planning tools are necessary to help cover some of these challenges. Set aside a time to meet with an experienced estate planning lawyer if you are concerned about planning for your own financial future and providing for your heirs.

 

 

New Study Shows That Those With Higher Wealth Also Live Longer

by with No Comment Estate PlanningFinances

A recent study published in the JAMA Health Forum found that out of 5,000 participants, those who had a much higher net worth at midlife had a much lower risk of dying in the 24 years that followed. The study also was particularly interesting in that it included siblings and twins and identified the same results. The purpose of the study was to evaluate midlife in the United States.

Although it was determined that wealth impact on longevity was a modest one at a 1% absolute difference in the probability of survival after nearly 24 years, it is possible that the gap could get bigger if the difference between high income and low-income earners in the United States continues to grow.

According to research from the Urban Institute, residents of the United States in the lowest 10% of net worth had a zero net worth compared with over $600,000 for those in the top 90%. In these circumstances, it is important to reflect on the benefits available to you by consulting with a knowledgeable estate planning lawyer about your estate planning opportunities.

Scheduling a consultation with an estate planning lawyer is the best way to approach your individual goals and align them with your future. Schedule a time to speak with an estate planning attorney in NH today to learn more.

 

 

 

Are You One of the Many Americans Not Financially Prepared for Retirement?

by Estate PlanningFinancesRetirementRetirement Planning

When it comes to your finances and your future, you’ve got to be the one who takes the reins and protects your nest egg. In addition to funding your retirement, those accounts might also become the payment source for long-term care health needs. You and your spouse should both be on the same page about saving for these possible issues.

A recent study of US adults between the ages of 50 and 64 revealed that plenty of Americans do not feel confident about being able to afford health care costs in retirement. Nearly 45% of the survey respondents had low confidence in their ability to afford appropriate health insurance coverage for their potential needs during retirement.

The average 65-year-old couple in 2020 will require nearly $300,000 in today’s terms during their retirement to cover health care expenses outside of long-term care. That number could also fluctuate dramatically based on location, income, health and Medicare eligibility.

The expenses for health care can increase considerably when you consider the possibilities with long term care, given that the national average median cost is $8,821 for a private room in a nursing facility.

Leveraging tools such as long-term care insurance policies and health savings accounts can help to empower retirement savers today with a better understanding of what’s required to protect their own future.

The support of an experienced NH elder law lawyer can help guide you through this process and ensure that you have considered all different aspects of appropriate planning.

What Do Opportunity Costs Have to Do with Your Financial Plan?

by Estate PlanningFinancesFinancial Planning

Every time you make a decision in life, you’re choosing to say “yes” to one thing and “no” to all the other options available to you. That’s known as opportunity cost. There’s an opportunity cost with how you structure your financial and estate plan, too! With limited resources, you have to make judgment calls about what you do and who gets what.

A comprehensive financial and estate plan includes many different components, including cash flow management, insurance, long term care considerations, retirement and investments. Unfortunately, there are many different concepts in this process that can get overlooked.

Recognizing the value of opportunity costs and understanding how these factor into making your various decisions is extremely important. Every dollar that is not being effectively used in your individual financial plan could have been used in another way to advance progress in that respect. For example, a dollar that is not being put to effective use could have assisted with debt reduction.

These lost opportunities represent the opportunity cost of failing to maximize the impact of each individual component of your estate plan. There are areas within your estate and financial life that could be showing inefficiencies and this opportunity cost could end up making things more difficult for you in the future or for the beneficiaries that you wish to pass on your assets to. 

Scheduling a consultation with a trusted estate planning lawyer is often the first step in recognizing these opportunity costs and doing everything possible to redirect funds to the right place. For more information about aligning this with your individual estate plan, set up a time today to speak with a trusted attorney.     

 

 

Yes, You Still Need a Financial Plan Even After a Pandemic

by Estate PlanningFinances

There is no doubt that the year 2020 has been unpredictable across the board, including financially. This makes many people hesitant to update their plans or to establish a new planning strategy altogether. However, a financial plan and an estate plan are some of the most important things you can work on even if you only develop a framework that needs to be amended later.

Despite all of the uncertainty around you, planning could be a good way to address any of the anxieties or nerves you have around the situation. This is a perfect opportunity to step back and reassess where you are right now. Do you already have some documents in place but they might be outdated? Perfect. That’s the first step, but you’ll likely need to make sure they still reflect what’s most important to you and what you currently own. That could require some outside support.

Now is the time to speak with an experienced estate planning attorney to revise those and ensure they are in line with your needs. Some of the initial questions might even prompt you to think about new ways to develop your financial plan.

Did someone take a salary cut, lose their job or is worried about losing their job as a result of the pandemic? Go back to revisiting your emergency fund and thinking about how much you contribute to your retirement.

If you haven’t reevaluated your budget recently, now is also a good time to re-strategize and reevaluate that. For more information about how you can be successful with your financial plan and your estate planning goals, schedule a consultation with a trusted estate planning lawyer today.