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It’s Never Too Late to Plan Your Future When it comes to your financial goals, a good advisor will help you reach them. Unfortunately, most people that come into our office do not have a Comprehensive Holistic Financial Plan. As many of you know, most people don’t plan to fail, they simply fail to plan, and this is one of the biggest mistakes I see retirees making today. The typical person is so busy running their day to day lives with their careers, families, and church time that they never seem to get around to doing effective comprehensive financial planning. I know some people think they have waited too long to start planning—however, it’s never too late to start planning for your future. The strategy that helps you accumulate your wealth is not necessarily the strategy that will help you keep your wealth in retirement. We know that more people die coming down Mount Everest than those going up. Equate going up to Wealth Accumulation Planning and coming back down to Retirement Distribution Planning. Our focus and passion at A4 Wealth Advisors is helping those who are retired or retiring soon. Thus, we want to ensure that our clients do not run out of money! Some big mistakes are not understanding how to mitigate Inflation, Taxes, Sequence Risk, Longevity Risk, Behavior Risk, and Long-Term Care Risk, to name a few. Additionally, life insurance in retirement is something we always analyze. Is it necessary or not in retirement? The answer is different for everyone. Life Insurance has really evolved over the past 15 years. Figuring out your primary objective to solve for is key—are you seeking pure death benefit, additional tax advantaged supplemental retirement income, long-term care benefits, college planning, or simply to maximize your estate and pass assets tax-free to your heirs? Unlike the old school whole life polices 30 years ago earning a paltry interest, new life insurance policies have much better upside potential, can protect downside market risk, and can solve for a variety of potential needs. A good advisor can assess and prioritize your needs and determine how to best solve for your objectives by designing a custom life insurance plan for you. If you’re reading this, a good action item for you to do NOW is some proactive tax planning. We believe that taxes are ON SALE currently, so it is a great time to do tax planning BEFORE they go up. There are many strategies to help reduce future Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s) and the taxes that go with it. The IRS forces you to take RMD’s at age 72. Getting an advisor to help find solutions for minimizing taxes will help prevent what I like to call a “tax time bomb” at age 72. Lastly, be sure you’re incorporating estate planning techniques into your financial plan. Deciding whether you could benefit from different types of trusts and wills is an essential part of your financial plan. Whoever you decided to work with, be sure you are getting the help you need in this area as well.
John Balcerzak, CFP® 16140 Northcross Dr, Huntersville 704.509.1141 a4wealth.com www.LNCurrents.com | DECEMBER 2021
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