Estate Planning

When a spouse passes away, managing retirement accounts can quickly become confusing. Associate Financial Advisor Joseph Browning explains the key differences between keeping an IRA as inherited or treating it as your own—and how that decision can affect taxes, withdrawals, and long-term financial planning.

Financial fraud is becoming more sophisticated with advances in artificial intelligence and digital technology. Learn five practical steps to protect your accounts, strengthen safeguards, and reduce your family’s risk of financial loss.

A revocable living trust helps avoid probate, ensures privacy, and provides continuity if you’re incapacitated. But it doesn’t protect assets from lawsuits or help with Medicaid eligibility. It also doesn’t reduce taxes. To fill those gaps, consider an umbrella liability policy for asset protection and long-term care insurance for nursing home costs. A trust is a great start—but a complete plan requires more.

Estate planning is key to a holistic financial plan. Trusts differ from wills by avoiding probate, offering privacy, and allowing ongoing asset management. Types include revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, testamentary trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts, and spendthrift trusts—each serving different purposes. Choose based on your goals. Whitaker-Myers partners with EncorEstate Planning to help clients navigate these options.

Major life changes like marriage, divorce, childbirth, or the death of a loved one make it essential to update your beneficiaries. Outdated designations can lead to legal disputes, delays, and unintended asset distribution. Keeping beneficiaries current ensures your estate plan remains effective, avoids probate, and protects your loved ones. Regular reviews align your wishes with your evolving life and financial goals.

Without a will, you die “intestate,” leaving state courts to decide how your estate is divided—often in unintended ways. Dave Ramsey emphasizes having a proper estate plan, preferably through a legally valid will. There are various types, including holographic, nuncupative, and statutory wills. While wills ensure your wishes are on paper, they also go through probate, which can be contested. For guidance, Whitaker-Myers Wealth Managers partners with Encore Estate Planning to help.

If you are anything like me, you have probably registered for hundreds, and what feels like maybe even thousands, of accounts online that...

Inevitable Estate Planning Certainties We All Do Not Want To Hear: We all will pass away. We cannot take any assets, money, or belongings with us beyond the grave. Death most likely will come at a time we least expect. Someone else will get to enjoy most of our savings and remaining things. The One Thing We Can Control: We can decide (through a good estate plan) the people who can benefit from our savings and remaining things. How we can control this? I have listed out the six choices to...

Dave Ramsey has a rule at his office. The rule is simple: No gossip! If you’re caught gossiping once, it’s your free warning and pass,...