Lauren and I just returned from an Advanced Planning Symposium in New Orleans. The travel was grueling, but we got a lot of valuable information and New Orleans is not the worst place to spend a few days. Here are a few take-aways from the meeting.
- Legislation recently passed in the US House (SECURE) by a vote of 417-3 and a similar proposal in the Senate (RESA) will make significant changes to retirement planning rules.
- Monica Williams, an emergency room physician and author of It’s OK to Die, shared her personal journey with her dying father and offered the following advice, “Dying is one trip you are going on that you need to unpack before you leave.”
- Negative interest rates overseas drastically influence the domestic yield curve because sovereign countries with negative interest rates buy US bonds to match their assets to their liabilities. Therefore, the current $22.5 Trillion national US debt is currently being heavily financed by sovereign debt buyers. While this has some positive right now, it is a possible major disrupter of the future.
- The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 created some significant opportunities for business owners, but it also created a few real threats. If you own a business, you want to make sure that you are doing everything possible to get the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction. Good tax planning is key to keeping the most of your hard-earned dollars in your own pocket.
- The TCJA adjusts the advantages/disadvantages of taxable, tax deferred, and tax-free retirement money. Typically, the goal is to have a mix of each of these going into retirement, however, the most advantageous mix will be different depending on your situation.
- Life Insurance policies in which companies and key employees share in the costs and benefits of the polices have become more popular since the enactment of TCJA.
- Discussion session about the book, Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows by Kathleen Rehn, Ph.D, CFP. We have made this book available to recent widows for several years and many have told us it was helpful in navigating through all the issues surrounding the death of a spouse.
Scott & Lauren at the Advanced Planning Symposium, August 2019
Scott, Lauren, and Sharon at Copeland's of New Orleans, August 2019