The Importance of Planning – aftermath of the earthquake
The morning of November 30, 2018 started out like every other morning of the year. I woke up, completed my morning routine, got the kids ready for school, kissed my wife goodbye on her way to work and began leaving the house to drop my son off at school. In one moment (what felt like […]
The Private College 529 Plan
College students like me are painfully aware of tuition prices. What’s more, the cost of attending college is constantly rising. Even still, many families want to help their children pay for college. To accomplish this, many people use tax advantaged college savings vehicles called 529s. Recently, alternatives to the traditional state-sponsored 529 plans have emerged. […]
Signing up for Medicare soon? Here are some resources.
One of the important components of retirement planning is health insurance. In fact, we see many individuals waiting until age 65 to retire to avoid paying large private health insurance premiums prior to Medicare. But once you are turning age 65, how do you navigate the many options surrounding Medicare? We hope this brief summary […]
Why the Time is Now for Roth Conversions
We have all heard and agree that the Roth IRA can be a valuable strategy for retirement, considering the future tax-free withdrawals. The tax-free withdrawals require you to have reached the age of 59 ½ and held the account for five years or more. In the past, we talked about one strategy of converting money […]
HSA Opportunities When Cash Flows Are Tight
Do you have HSA high deductible health insurance that you are not using to its fullest benefit? In 2018, if you have HSA eligible insurance, meaning you have a plan with the initials “HSA” in the title, it comes with the opportunity to fund a separate voluntary Health Savings Account. Ideally, you fully fund the […]
Empowered Kids
One of our mission stated goals is to empower our clients on a path to secure their own financially confident future. For that reason, we regularly host educational events that provide a variety of life and financial tools to help our clients and guests relieve the anxiety around financial planning. The event feedback has been […]
Guest Author – Aaron Sperbeck
Legal and Ethical Challenges Associated with Mental Health in the Last Frontier: A Primer for Alaskan Families Alaska is home to over 739,000 people from many different and unique walks of life.[1] Mental health continues to be a matter of public concern in Alaska’s ever-growing and aging population. In 2014 alone, more than 33,000 Alaskans […]
A QCD for your RMD
With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, we thought it timely to remind our readers of the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) option available to those individuals that are 70½ or older. If you have charitable intentions, this option may be even more favorable under the tax reform bill. As always, […]
What’s Your Relationship with Money?
Money makes people funny…. Our relationship with money tends to be deep seeded and start at an early age. It doesn’t take too many trips to the store for children to figure out that in order to get something you have to pay for it. My relationship with money formed in the days of 18 […]