Employee Financial Wellness
Preparing for Retirement
Planning financially for retirement is anything but easy. You have to determine how much you need to retire, your budget for healthcare costs, the best Social Security filing strategy, and how the tax impact of taking distributions from various retirement sources will effect your planning. In this presentation we will be covering:
Medicare
How much you need to retire
Tax considerations in retirement
Social security filing strategies
Medicare and healthcare costs
Pension decisions
Preparing your investment portfolio for retirement
The most common mistakes that we see retirees make
Managing the risk of a long-term care event
Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning
Most people realize that they should have a will, health proxy, power of attorney, and in some cases, a trust. Unfortunately, most people don’t get around to creating those documents when a tragedy occurs, causing them to realize that it is too late. If you have parents or grandparents over the age of 70 and think you may be serving as executor or trustee to their estate plan, it’s vital to know how these documents work and what your responsibilities entail. In this presentation we will review:
How to establish a will
Items that should be included in your will
What a health proxy does
Power of attorney documents
What is a trust and how do they work
Estate planning when you have minor children
Using trusts to protect assets from long-term events
Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance
Most common mistakes we see people make with their estate planning
Investing 101
Understanding investments is often revered as an intimidating topic. They often seem complex, difficult to understand, and investment terminology can seem like a foreign language. When you understand the basics, however, it allows you to feel more confident about the investment decisions that you’re making as you develop a better understanding of what you’re invested in, thus helping you avoid future investment mistakes. In this presentation we cover:
What is a stock?
What is a bond?
What is a mutual fund?
What is an annuity?
How does the stock market work?
Understanding risk
Active management versus passive investing
How investing has changed over the past 10 years
Lessons from history
The most common mistakes investors make
Selecting the Right Investment Advisor
Selecting the right investment advisor can be a difficult task. What quetions should you be asking? How do you compare one investment advisor versus another? Since investment firms vary greatly in the services they offer and their approach to investing, you must find what type of firm is in the best position to meet your needs. In this presentation we will cover:
Questions that you should be asking when you interview an investment advisor
What the different ways are that investment professionals are compensated
How many investment advisors you should interview
Using an investment advisor versus self directing your investments
What common designations are and what do they mean (CFP, CPA, etc.)
The difference between an advisor and a broker
How to know when it’s time to fire your advisor
How the advisor industry has changed within the last 5 years
Avoiding the Ponzi Scheme
The most common mistakes that people make when selecting an advisor
The Best Strategies for Paying Down Debt
Debt comes in all shapes and sizes and it’s not uncommon for someone to have student loans, a mortgage, a car loan, home equity loan, credit card debt, and/or a business line of credit. It is important to have the right plan to payoff your debt as soon as possible. Some of our debt payoff strategies may surprise you, but they work. Paying off your debt does not have a uniform solution. The strategy that you use should take into account your age, level of debt vs income, the type of debt that you have, debt relief programs that are available, and your other personal financial goals. In this presentation we will cover:
Strategies for paying down debt
How much debt is healthy
Should you make extra payments toward your mortgage?
How do you balance paying back debt vs your other financial goals?
Negotiating down your debt balance
Student loan relief programs
Interest rate considerations
Debt in retirement
Discussing debt with your spouse
The most common mistakes peole make when paying for debt
Employee Stock Options, Restricted Stock , Employee Stock Purchase Programs, and Taxes and Exercise Strategies
Employee stock options and restricted stock are great benefits for employees. However, employees often have difficulty understanding how these benefits work, how the benefit will be taxed, and advanced strategies that financial planners and accountants use to reduce the tax liability when it comes time to invest or exercise options. This presentation will cover the following:
Understanding restricted stock
Incentive stock options
Non-qualified stock options
Tax impact of options and restricted stock
Strategies for reducing the tax liability
The impact on college financial aid
Knowing when it’s time to sell
Managing a concentrated holding
Employee Stock Purchase programs
The most common mistakes employees make when exercising options and restricted stock
College Savings Strategies & The FAFSA Process
The cost of college continues to rise, creating a real financial challenge for parents as they try to piece together a plan that will allow their children to obtain a college degree without graduating with the mind numbing levels of student loan debt that everyone keeps hearing about in the news. Couple this with the new FAFSA rule changes that now look back two years at income and assets, an environment has been created that requires parents to develop a solid proactive plan to help their children pay for college. Parents that wait to develop a plan in their child’s junior or senior year of high school are realizing that they are too late, and sometimes very little can be done to alter the financial aid picture going into the first two years of college. During this presentation we will review:
College cost trends
Strategies for savings for college
529 college savings plans
Tax benefits associated with certain college savings accounts
How FAFSA works
Strategies for increasing financial aid
The New York State Free Tuition Program
Student loan forgiveness programs
How divorce can impact the FAFSA process and college savings
The most common mistakes people make as the college years approach
Other Speaking Engagement Categories
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