Estate Planning Opportunities Courtesy of the Coronavirus

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First and foremost, I want to encourage everyone to do their best to stay healthy and be safe practicing social distancing. As I say to everybody, stay home, stay safe, and stay sane during this difficult period that we’re going through. 

Whenever we go through difficult periods, we often find opportunities. I’m going to go over opportunities for three different types of people:

Pre-Retirees

Pre-retirees are those who are working and accumulating money, with retirement potentially 5-10 years or more down the road. These people are interested in positioning themselves to protect their wealth and create a guaranteed income for life.

This is a big part of what we do for our clients. I’m going to ask you to watch the attached video called The Retirement Income Dilemma. 

I’m also attaching an article called Life Insurance: An Asset Class for Troubled Times. 

I wrote this article back in 2009 when we were going through a similar market downturn. I think most of you know what has happened since then and how the market has recovered well beyond where it was in 2008. It’s also an important time for people to take stock of their financial situation when it comes to their life, disability, and long-term care insurance that you can’t always buy. 

And now it is easier than ever to get policies issued without medical exams. Based on this Coronavirus situation, a lot of the insurance companies are making it easier to get fluidless underwriting without an exam.

Retirees

For the people that are right around the retirement age or already into retirement, the advice that we have is don’t react emotionally. Most people invest like a clock: when the hour hand goes to the 12, they invest at the top of the market when the securities cost the most and when the hour hand goes down to the bottom of the clock, the six, that’s when most people sell. The key is to try and avoid doing that. Buying high and selling low is not a good strategy. 

But our emotions play tricks on us and that’s what we have to guard against. I’ve attached a video that talks about emotionality and why it is better to react in a more logical versus emotional way.

Wealth Preservation

And lastly, people that are at the last financial chapter, estate planning — the wealth preservation phase. For wealthy people, there are some tremendous opportunities out there today because a lot of things are at a discount. 

Your stock portfolio that was worth maybe $10 million, may only be worth $7 or $8 million today. So, if you gave away securities you bought, you are giving them away or making gifts to your children or trusts at a discount, and that discount may actually bounce back up. So there is some great leveraging that you can do by making gifts. Also lending money to trusts, which we’ve done in numerous situations. Right now, the interest rate market allows for these opportunities to lend money to trusts. There are also opportunities to create liquidity through purchasing life insurance with potentially discounted dollars. And even financing these life insurance policies with loans at around 3% or so, depending upon the type of loan that you do. 

So, loans, gifts, are tremendous, tremendous opportunities for wealthy people who are trying to take advantage of the current market situations.

I want to conclude by saying, if there is anything we can do to be of help, our team is working and is available to serve you. If you have any questions or need anything at all, give us a call or send us an email. 

Wishing everybody health, wealth, prosperity, and peace in this very difficult time. 

Registered Representative offering Securities through American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc. (APFS) Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisory Services are offered through G&G Planning Concepts, Inc. which is not affiliated with APFS.  Strategic Wealth Advisors Network and Gassman Financial Group are not affiliated with APFS.

Any opinions expressed in this forum are not the opinion or view of American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc. (APFS) or American Portfolios Advisors, Inc.(APA) and have not been reviewed by the firm for completeness or accuracy. These opinions are subject to change at any time without notice. Any comments or postings are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell securities or other financial instruments. Readers should conduct their own review and exercise judgment prior to investing. Investments are not guaranteed, involve risk, and may result in a loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investments are not suitable for all types of investors.

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