Many factors go into retirement decisions.Often, people are stressed over whether they’ll have enough money or other resources to retire. That’s certainly one factor in retirement. And, given the savings statistics, this might be a factor contributing to retirement stress. According to a survey done in 2013, the mean amount of retirement savings for a […]

At the Academy, Kathryn Adams is the Practice Building Coach who heads up a private group of Members in a Marketing, Management and Leadership coaching group we call “Point Peeps.” Every day, each of these Members and their teams submit a scorecard of points correlating to the marketing efforts they completed that day. Members are able to specifically track […]

In our role as HR consultants often providing hiring assistance services to our clients, the challenges of talent acquisition are a constant source of discussion. What we get to talk about less often is talent retention. There are many factors that an employer must take into consideration when looking to retain top talent. First and […]

Estate planning attorneys and others in the wealth management community have known since mid-December that the amount clients can pass without taxation is now, temporarily, doubled. The new tax law doubled the exclusion until the end of 2025. On January 1, 2026, the exclusion reverts to $5 million (adjusted for inflation from 2011). Each year […]

Every year, I ask myself…. Why do we have to move our clocks forward? Why can’t I live in Arizona or Hawaii – where they don’t deal with the nonsense of losing one hour of sleep? Does the extra hour of Daylight really matter? What am I going to do with that extra hour of […]

Have you ever looked forward to attending a meeting or conference in anticipation of everything you would get out of it? You meet new people, gain new insights, generate new ideas, and leave inspired and excited? Then fast forward a month or two and reality has slowly started to set in and you can barely […]

The odds are nearly even that you’ll need long-term care (LTC) after age 65, at least for a while. But, many people haven’t planned for that possibility in their retirement plan. LTC care costs about $86,000 per year nationally, according to a Genworth study. But, the costs vary dramatically from the least expensive state (Texas, […]

I spent an hour or so talking to an attorney who focuses on Pet Planning. She is quite successful in her efforts and I wanted to know more about how she attracted such a great flow of business. There were no huge secrets in what she had to say: Be passionate about the pet niche […]

While I was in college, my days were very structured. Every week, I either had 50-minute classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or 80-minute classes on Tuesday and Thursday. To stay organized, I used a planner and I put down everything I had to do for the week (i.e. when assignments were due when quizzes were […]

When considering different estate planning strategies and which direction to take, it’s important to consider the impact on basis. “Basis” is the benchmark used for income taxation. What does income tax basis have to do with estate planning? Property included in your taxable estate at your death gets a “step-up” in basis to its value […]