Annuities and How They Can Fit into Your Retirement Plan
{9 minutes to read} What seems to be top of mind for many people my age (I'm 61 years old), is retirement planning and the effect of inflation and market volatility. How are people going to navigate this difficult period that we're going through? There is a lot of fear on the street with inflation and recession and the market being down. I want to share some ideas about retirement planning, using products that were developed by actuaries — actuarial science products — annuities, and how they can [...]
The Permission Slip
{3 minutes to read} With all the volatility in the market and a lot of fear on the street with recession and inflation, some basic financial planning concepts may serve to help some of the readers today. There is a concept I learned about 20 years ago called The Permission Slip, built around the idea of being able to spend your money freely. I reflect on my father who was born in 1920 and lived through the Depression. When he decided to retire, his attitude was he could [...]
iCLAT Interview w/ Brad Gornt – Part 2
{12 minutes to read} Michael Fliegelman: We are back again for Part 2 of our discussion about Roth conversions and how to offset the income tax generated by that conversion. We are here with Mr. Brad Gornto, who can help in this kind of charitable planning. And Brad, in Part 1 of our discussion, you walked through the concept that you developed called the iCLAT, for our readers, which is the reversionary charitable lead annuity trust that is designed to offset income taxes in a year where a [...]
iCLAT Interview w/ Brad Gornto
{8 minutes to read} Michael Fliegelman: Previously, we discussed in detail, qualified plans — IRAs, 401(k)s, pension plans — and how these may be great tools to accumulate wealth, which is like the first chapter in financial planning. Chapter 2 is when we hit retirement age and take a distribution, and Chapter 3 is wealth preservation. And while a qualified plan gets an A+ rating in accumulation, it only gets maybe a C+ in distribution, and even a D- in wealth preservation. In wealth distribution, all of the [...]
Retirement Planning Risks
{1:00 minute to read} In mountain climbing, the goal for most people is to get to the top. The challenge, however, is that once you are at the top, you need to make it back down to the bottom. In the 2015 movie Everest, which documents an expedition by a group of climbers, getting down the mountain was truly the challenge. So it is with retirement planning. Once you have reached the retirement goal, will the planning you have done be enough to last? The risks to retirement planning [...]