Financial Situation and Future Planning

[KimT]

I'm writing this for the benefit of all CALS and PALS.

I've been a CPA for nearly 40 years. Part of this has involved personal financial planning and teaching personal financial planning at the college and university level.

PLEASE make sure you have a financial plan and your spouse AND children (if age appropriate) understand this plan and your wishes concerning your finances. It's a disservice to your spouse to not involved him or her in your financial plan and decisions. This is not directed to PALS and CALS but EVERY family. Children need to know if you plan on paying for their college, plan on helping them, or if they are responsible for funding their own education. If you are in debt, your spouse needs to know exactly what type of debt you have, how it will be covered in the event of a job loss, disability, or death.

I've helped so many clients and students navigate their way out of a disaster that their spouse knew nothing about. On the other hand, one student had over two million in an IRA and her husband thought they were destitute.

If you are single, you need to have all your financial information accessible to your lawyer or someone you trust to execute your wishes.

Transparency is vital when assets are combined in a marriage or other close relationship.

 

[Atsugi]

BIG THUMBS UP.

I was so worried about my mom going broke in old age. She refused to answer the simplest money question.
So I put my family through very big sacrifices, uprooted our home, put us into welfare status, to be physically there for my mom if she needed us.
When she died, we found over a million dollars in her accounts. (Which she willed to someone else, by the way.)

I have put all my accounts with instructions into a single red book and told my kids what to do in case I'm incapacitated or dead.

When I worked at VA, I discovered that there is a whole industry of unscrupulous people who look for obituaries and then pressure the survivors for debts that don't really exist.

 

[KimT]

Mike is right about the number of unscrupulous people just waiting to take advantage of anyone who is vulnerable. Some are lawyers, doctors, and religious leaders. I've seen it up close. I'm sure some are CPAs as well.

Be very cautious of financial planners who have no credentials other than salesperson. When I first got diagnosed someone from my church recommended a "financial planner" and I did some investigation. He was offering me a 10% return for a one-year investment of anything over $100,000. He had a list of clients a mile long. The list contained the occupations of the investors with their written endorsement. None of them worked in the area of finance, law, or medicine. None were officers in corporations. That was the first red flag. If the investment was so good, why wouldn't bankers, CPAs, corporate executives, etc. be on the bandwagon. I set up a meeting with this guy and he deflected question after question. He got angry. I can't prove it but I have a suspicion it might be a Ponzi scheme. I hope not because I have friends who put their life savings in it. From all I can gather, their portfolio consists of life insurance buyouts and lottery buyouts. No stocks and bonds involved. So, unless they can keep getting people to put money in at a rate faster than they're paying out, it will eventually fail. Moreover, there was a case that investors had to pay back their interest in one Ponzi venture in order to pay back the principal to other investors when it went down. So those now getting 10% might have to give it back if the thing collapses. My nephew is a certified financial planner and I sent him all the info. He came to the same conclusion as I did. I later found out that at least a dozen elderly women from my church invested with this guy. I pray their investments outlive them.

 

[Labinma]

So ideal if a PALS is willing to talk, address and plan. So upsetting, confusing and bewildering when they wont offer a thing. I am in the latter and have tried to make gentle suggestions only to be told, "you already have me in the grave". Truly offended he was. I have since backed off and continue my flapping in the wind with two little girls attached to my coat tails. Wish it was easier.