Having enough retirement income is a top concern for many Americans nearing or in retirement. Even though they may have saved consistently throughout the working years, they may be concerned that their retirement plans will succeed. A successful retirement plan provides the ability to maintain your lifestyle for the duration of your life. Having enough retirement income for what you need and want is essential and must be planned for, even in the best economic conditions. A way to provide income safety is by using annuities as an asset class in your retirement portfolio. Annuities Provide Safety and Income – Annuities help retirees address a specific retirement planning risk- Longevity Risk. Longevity Risk is the risk that a retiree outlives their financial assets. Here are other things to know about annuities: Annuities provide income for life. Due to their safety and growth potential, many portfolios use annuities in the financial services industry as an asset class. Annuities are contractual agreements with an insurance company that provide an investor with a guaranteed income stream during retirement in exchange for a premium. Insurance companies provide products such annuities to help individuals manage their long lives. Annuities offer tax-deferred growth of earnings, protection of principal, and a guaranteed lifetime income. The three types of annuities widely used in financial planning are fixed annuities, fixed-indexed annuities, and variable annuities. Like any financial product, there are pros and cons to each type, and due diligence in investigating any annuity should take precedence before purchasing one for your retirement portfolio. Variable Annuities – Tax-deferred growth opportunities, but with the risk of principal loss. Potentially Greater Growth. Provides a guaranteed income for life. No Principal Protection. Market-type

Estate planning helps disperse your assets according to your wishes. The effort may seem daunting at first, but estate planning does not have to be overly complicated. With the proper planning, you may find yourself resting a little easier knowing you have an estate plan in place. While an estate plan is personalized to the wants and needs of each person, here are a few tips to help anyone get started. 1. Create an Inventory of Physical Assets One of the first steps in creating an estate plan is knowing what you have, so you may list the items to include in the estate. For many people, working from the inside of the home is easiest. Start by assessing the items in your home that are valuable. These valuable items may include collectibles, jewelry, artwork, antiques, electronics, and power tools. This list may take some time to build, so creating it at a comfortable pace over multiple sessions might be appropriate.1 2. Take Stock of Your Non-Physical Assets You may also need to inventory your non-physical assets. These non-physical assets might include life insurance, long-term care, and health insurance policies. They also may include money sources, such as 401(k)s, IRAs, investments, and bank accounts. You want to include in your inventory the account numbers and documentation for these accounts.1 3. Document Your Obligations Your debts, such as loans and credit cards, should be itemized with account numbers, contact information, and where you keep your documentation on these debts. This strategy helps ensure that the estate pays off any required debt obligations, which the estate must pay from estate funds.1 4. Consider Transfer-on-Death Assignments With some assets, it is possible to

In 2021, 44.7 million Americans are facing the burden of student loan debt. They owe more than $1.53 trillion in student loans. These alarming statistics prove the importance of saving for higher education. In the past, many parents prioritized saving for their child’s college or trade school. However, today students are taking steps to cover the cost of their own higher education and keep their student loan debt to a minimum.   Benefits of Saving for College or Trade School When students make an effort to save for their education after high school, they get a head start on life with minimal debt. Instead of spending years trying to pay off their student loans, they can focus on other financial goals such as buying a house or saving for retirement. Saving for college or trade school may also motivate students to choose a major that provides job opportunities and encourages them to complete their degree.   How Students Can Save for Higher Education There are a number high school or college-aged students can save for higher education: Apply for Scholarships: Scholarships provide money for college that students don’t have to repay. If they’ve excelled in academics, athletics, or extracurricular activities, it may be in their best interest to apply for scholarships. Even small scholarships can help save hundreds or thousands of dollars on the overall cost of secondary education. Enroll in AP Classes: A high school student can earn college credits by taking Advanced Placement or AP classes in high school. The fewer credits they need to complete their degree while in college, the more money they’ll save. Work: While balancing classes, homework, and studying while working can be difficult,

For kids, teens, and college students, summer break often represents freedom from schedules, responsibilities, and all those other drains on your time. Retirement actually can provide a similar level of freedom, but only if you’ve adequately prepared, planned, and saved. Below, we discuss three ways that planning ahead for your retirement can be like scheduling your summer. Deciding What to Do After spending decades at a 9-to-5, you may struggle to find ways to fill your time after retirement. Just like summer break, a couple of weeks of well-deserved decompression may turn into boredom. It’s important to have a plan to transition into retirement. Whether this means having a list of vacation destinations, a hobby to turn to, or an organization to volunteer with, giving yourself some options can help you remain active and engaged instead of simply vegetating. Deciding Where to Go Many new retirees spend a lot of time traveling now that they no longer need to worry about coming back to a pile of work or rationing a limited number of vacation days. As you spend time traveling during your working years, take note of the destinations you’d like to return to. Planning for retirement in general can look a lot like planning a vacation: you’ll need a budget, a destination, a timeline, and a Plan B. More than just longer vacations, retirement may also mean traveling to a new home – whether downsizing, moving closer to family, or even heading to a senior living community. When considering next steps, especially if debating an interstate move, take into account factors like: The way your state treats and taxes retirement income Whether the setup of your home allows

What is it? Life insurance is not only about protecting your survivors in the event of your death. Depending upon the type of policy you purchase, it can also enable you to meet specific life goals: retiring comfortably, paying for your child’s education, accumulating wealth, and paying for estate costs. If you own a business, life insurance can even fund the purchase of your business interest when you die or decide to sell your business. In addition, life insurance can provide you with certain tax benefits. The following life insurance-related strategies may help you to achieve your various investment objectives. Buy term and invest the difference Individuals who buy cash value life insurance typically do so because it offers them a chance to accrue savings and protect loved ones simultaneously. On the downside, however, cash value life insurance involves higher premiums than term life insurance and may afford you little (or no) opportunity to manage and control your investment. Depending upon your financial situation and goals, it may be best to buy term life insurance and invest the difference between the term insurance premium and the cash value premium in an investment of your own choosing. Although a certain amount of risk will be involved, it may be possible for you to obtain higher returns on your own, as insurance companies tend to invest quite conservatively. In terms of risk, be aware that many investors who intend to invest the difference end up spending the difference. Also, term insurance does not last indefinitely. When your term is up, your premium to renew may skyrocket, or perhaps you may not even qualify to renew or replace the policy. Use cash value

Whether you are an employee in corporate America or a small business owner, retirement is a part of life. For many, the thought of retiring and whether or not you are ready to take those first steps might be overwhelming or intimidating. Ancient philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” [i] Here is a 6 question checklist for small business owners to ask themselves to determine if they are ready for retirement.   ☐  Have I decided on a retirement timeline? Most people don’t wake up one day and decide that they will retire tomorrow. It is a decision that requires years of preparation. Knowing when you want to retire is the first step toward pursuing this goal.   ☐  Do I have enough money set aside to maintain my quality of life after retirement? This might seem like a no-brainer when it comes to retirement, but many small business owners wonder if they will have enough to comfortably retire. Experts suggest that upon retirement, you want to have at least 10 times your annual salary in savings. Here are a few more questions to consider in preparation for retirement: [ii] Are your debts paid off? Will you be able to pay your retirement expenses (both entertainment and bills) long-term without having to eventually depend on social security? Will the 4 percent rule be an approach that is feasible for you? (The 4 percent rule refers to being able to live off of 4 percent of your invested money in the first year of retirement, then increase or decrease the amount to account for inflation in subsequent years). [iii]   ☐  Is

Once you are in your 60s, you are likely to focus less on growing your retirement funds than answering, “When do I retire?” And once you crack open your nest egg, how should you allocate its contents? The answer often lies in a substantial shift in your investment strategy. Here are some ideas for investing in your 60s and beyond.   Preliminary Questions Before you settle on a plan, you need to be able to answer a few questions. These include: How long do you need your savings to last, and how long are you likely to live? How many years might you be in retirement? What are your expected annual expenses in retirement? What is your non-invested income, such as pensions, Social Security, and annuity payments? By having an idea of how much you need in retirement and how much income you may expect to receive outside of your investments, you then calculate how much you need to withdraw from your retirement funds.   Allocating Your Retirement Assets Everyone’s safety threshold is different—but most people appreciate having a balanced portfolio of CDs and high-yield savings accounts with stock holdings. However, a too-conservative portfolio may not earn enough to outpace inflation, while a too-aggressive portfolio might leave you vulnerable to sudden market drops. There are a few different ways to approach this. One of the most popular ones is the “glide path” strategy.1 Subtract your age from 100, and that is the proportion of assets you should have in stocks. So, for example, a 40-year-old would want at least 60% of their portfolio in stocks; a 70-year-old would want no more than 30% of their portfolio in stocks. The remainder

529 plans can be powerful college savings tools, but you need to understand how your plan works before you can take full advantage of it. Among other things, this means becoming familiar with the finer points of contributions and withdrawals. How much can you contribute? To qualify as a 529 plan under federal rules, a state program must not accept contributions in excess of the anticipated cost of a beneficiary’s qualified education expenses. At one time, this meant five years of tuition, fees, and room and board at the costliest college under the plan, pursuant to the federal government’s “safe harbor” guideline. Now, however, states are interpreting this guideline more broadly, revising their limits to reflect the cost of attending the most expensive schools in the country and including the cost of graduate school. As a result, most states have contribution limits of $350,000 and up (and most states will raise their limits each year to keep up with rising college costs). A state’s limit will apply to either kind of 529 plan: savings plan or prepaid tuition plan. For a prepaid tuition plan, the state’s limit is a limit on the total contributions. For example, if the state’s limit is $300,000, you can’t contribute more than $300,000. On the other hand, a savings plan limits the value of the account for a beneficiary. When the value of the account (including contributions and investment earnings) reaches the state’s limit, no more contributions will be accepted. For example, if the state’s limit is $400,000 and you contribute $325,000 and the account has $75,000 of earnings, you won’t be able to contribute any more — the total value of the account has