3 Tips for the “Unnerved” During Market Downturns
June 14, 2022
The words “unnerving” and “scary” have been uttered by individuals when describing how they feel about the current volatility in their portfolios. Inflation, supply chain challenges, rising interest rates, and geopolitical tension have made for a recipe of concern. Although the issues are different this time, we need to continue to take a disciplined approach […]
What’s in Your Contract?
March 15, 2022
The 4 Cs has proven to provide an effective framework for insurance agency owners to develop a strategy for themselves, their agency, and their families. The 4 Cs were initially developed to help agency owners evaluate offers they were receiving on the sale of their agency within the context of their financial plan. However, over […]
Finalizing The Insurance & Estate Ties That Bind, Post-Divorce
February 8, 2022
Picture this: your friend, at long last, finalized their divorce and is ready to ride off into the sunset. Time for a cocktail (or mocktail)! You can hardly blame them for their efforts to avoid any significant decision-making after the long process of negotiations, rulings, and compromises they just endured. While many things can be […]
7 Rules for 2022
January 11, 2022
Happy New Year! One of my favorite holiday traditions is to set goals for the new year and review my previous year’s goals to celebrate and recalibrate for goals that I didn’t accomplish. While working on my 2022 goals, I was struck by a gift my daughter recently received of a poster with the “7 […]
Tax Planning for the Build Back Better Act
November 30, 2021
Tax planning for 2021 has been like watching your favorite football team drive down the field to kick the game-winning field goal, and suddenly the coach calls a timeout because the goalpost keeps moving. When President Biden was elected, we expected an unfriendly tax overhaul geared toward taxing the wealthy. With that in mind, last […]
Reducing Year-End Taxes on Your Investments
November 24, 2021
Nobody wants additional taxes for the holidays, so throughout the year, we look for ways to minimize them. With year-end approaching, it’s a good time to review a few strategies that can potentially reduce your tax bill. Tax-Loss Harvesting The goal of tax loss harvesting is to stay in the market while capturing the current […]
Retiring Law Partner’s Checklist
October 26, 2021
Congratulations, Counselor, you’ve decided to retire! After a long and distinguished career, it’s time to ride off into the sunset and start enjoying life after the law. So, as a parting gift, we’ve put together this short checklist of things you should do as you prepare for your retirement and separation from your firm. I […]
Do I Really Spend That Much?
September 14, 2021
“My youngest of four children just graduated college. None of my kids desire to work in the family agency. Multiple competitors want to buy my agency, and my wife Mary and I are ready to travel the world.” These were the first words from Mark, a Wisconsin Insurance Agency Owner that I recently met for […]
Key Ingredients: Time, Health, and Money
June 8, 2021
What factors have made your retirement so successful? This is the very question I asked Doug and Debbie over dinner in their Florida condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I have been fortunate to know Doug and Debbie for over a decade, and they have truly mastered the art of retirement. Deb, as usual, cut […]
Do You Need Life Insurance for Life?
May 4, 2021
Not everyone needs life insurance. Some of those that do can be handled with simple solutions. Others may be best served by more complex planning. Determining Your Need for Life Insurance Insurance of any kind is simply a transfer of risk. Premiums are payments to shift the financial risk from you to the carrier. Life […]
Selling the Agency on Your Timeline
March 16, 2021
Last fall, I received a phone call from Mark, an owner of a successful multi-generational insurance agency. Mark is in his late 50s and has been running the family agency for the past two decades. Mark was stressed out over the thought of selling his agency. He had multiple offers from competing agencies that were […]
Rambo: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
January 12, 2021
As we say goodbye to 2020, it is easy to reflect on the year with a negative view. However, I think 2020 was a transformational year where we expanded our overall skill set, not because we wanted to but because we had to. As we look back at all the new talents we accumulated in […]