Retirement Planning with a Purpose Video from Savant Wealth Management

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Alright. Welcome everybody to today’s webinar. We’re very excited to have you with us today. I’m William Hocut here in our Birmingham, Alabama office, and we’re here today to talk to you about, retirement planning with a purpose, clarity getting clarity, care, and confidence for those that you love.

I feel like I have a little bit of unique perspective on the information we’ll be going through today. I’ve been a financial planner for the last twenty plus years, so I’ve dealt with a lot of these topics with with clients as well as I’ve had many family members go through a lot of the the the items we’ll talk about today. And then finally, my my wife currently is an RN, and she works for an at home, health agency. And so she kinda deals with a lot of the items we’re gonna be talking about today too. So a lot of these, items are very passionate to me.

And I know with with my my cohost today, Patty Black, it’s it’s a a lot of topics that are very passionate to you as well.

That’s right, William. This is a topic that I care deeply about. In addition to being a financial planner and certified senior adviser, I’ve been a member of the sandwich generation. I helped take care of my aging parents while I was raising my kids.

I learned some of the things we’re gonna talk about today the hard way, so I I really wanna help others save themselves from making some of the mistakes that I made.

And if there’s one thing I know after about twenty five years of working with clients, it’s that most people want confidence and clarity as they age. They’re just not really sure where to start.

So the goal for today is to give you an approachable, practical way to begin.

Absolutely. But with that, before before we do any of the, these webinars, we wanna go through the disclosure and just say, you know, Patty and I’s main goal today is for you to get value out of your time here. We want each of you to leave with something that you can implement or execute on and something you can kinda put into practice in your own situation.

That being said, everybody here today has got a different fact pattern. Everybody’s got a different situation, different scenario. And so we would love to talk specifically to your fact pattern, but that’s just not we’re not able to do that. So the information we’re gonna go over today is gonna be general in nature.

And and because everybody’s knowledge is different, it’s gonna be kinda basic as well. And so we’ll have the disclosure there of just saying, hey. This is general information we’re gonna go over. Knowing that, we do wanna provide you guys with something that that kinda pertains to your situation, though. So in the, in the webinar there, in the q and a, we’ve got kind of two things you can do. One, feel free to put in your questions in the q and a, and we’re gonna have a time here at the end of the webinar where we go through and answer some of those.

And then more specifically, for your situation, we offer a free complimentary, consultation with somebody on our team. So with that being said, let’s go ahead and kinda get into what we’re gonna cover today, on our agenda.

When we look at the topics we’re gonna talk about today and we try to frame it up, I know Patty and I were talking earlier, and I always think about when I think about financial planning or retirement planning, the number one thing that always comes to mind first is clients will come to us, prospects will come to us and say, do I have enough to retire?

Or if they’re already in retirement, they’ll say, put me on a plan so that I I don’t run out of money. And that’s usually the first thing people think about when they’re doing retirement planning. And in that, it gets involved their investments, their taxes, and all those situations. And that’s absolutely, things that Savant does for clients. But that being said, today, we’re gonna kinda cover all those other areas you need to talk about. So we’re not gonna talk about account values or investments or taxes. We’re gonna talk about all those other areas that I think, Patty, you would agree are equally as important.

Yes. Critical, in fact, William.

Absolutely. So today, we’ll go through and look at, as you see on the slide there, we’re gonna go through and look at creating a long term care plan, organizing your financial life, sharing your key contacts, refreshing and, sharing your estate plan, and then just starting the conversation with those who are gonna be involved in that. And as I said earlier, we’re gonna finish up with a q and a.

Yeah. And, William, I wanna just chime in and say to anybody who’s watching who who says, gosh, this feels a little uncomfortable or I feel like I’m behind. You’re not alone. I think of these conversations as pay me now or pay me later. A little discomfort today by having some of these awkward conversations can prevent a lot of stress later on.

Absolutely. So with that said, let’s go ahead and get started. Again, don’t be overwhelmed about all this. And as Patty just mentioned, just find a place where you can get started. But we’ll get started with our first topic, which is creating a long term care plan.

And so And, William, I don’t know about you, but but many of the clients that I’ve worked with over the years say, if I need some care later on in life, I wanna receive that care at home.

And to me, that makes a lot of sense. You know, when when you need just a few hours a week of care, that care right now in twenty twenty six costs about thirty dollars an hour, and that feels pretty reasonable.

Unless that care increases to twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, then that thirty dollars an hour has turned into two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.

So it is so important as you’re thinking about your long term care plan to talk to your family about the kind of care that you want if you need it and to reassure them that it’s okay to make changes in the future if costs become overwhelming.

You also wanna keep in mind that needs don’t always move in one direction, direction. And I I’ll just give a personal example here. My mom spent some time in skilled nursing, but she was able to regain her strength and eventually move back into assisted living. So that experience taught me how important flexibility is.

Plans need room to change as circumstances change.

Yeah. I think you’re so right. I mean, the phrase that comes to mind, Patty, and what you mentioned there to me is just long term care is a situation where the phrase one size does not fit all comes into play. I mean, everybody’s situation’s different.

You know, I think that as we think through this, you know, a lot of people are always asked the question why long term care is you know, before why is it so important? And I think the statistics show that there’s about a seventy percent chance of those sixty five and older are gonna have a long term care event at some time in their lifetime. And so we definitely wanna plan on this. The distinction we really wanna make here, though, is and we’re gonna show you on the screen there.

Only about one in ten people have a long term care policy. Please note that what we’re talking about here is a long term care plan. Make sure you have a plan in place. A policy could be part of your plan, but it’s not necessarily your plan. We’ve seen people come in before, and we’ve asked the question, do they have a long term care plan in place? And they’ll tell us yes. And inevitably, what they’re talking about is they’ve got some small policy that’s gonna cover about twenty percent of their expenses if they have a long term care event.

And and that’s really not a plan in place. A plan, doesn’t necessarily have to be a policy. As you mentioned, Patty, it could be, you could look at your situation and decide you’re gonna self fund. You’re going to, you’ve got enough assets and that you’re comfortable, doing that and you’re gonna self fund. Another plan in place could be, you know, a lot of times people have loved ones that still live close by, and and that could be part of the plan.

As well as an actual policy could obviously be part of the plan as well. So all of that goes into play. And, again, it’s really just about what is important to you and how you want this to play out in your situation to make sure it does.

Yeah. And and, William, what I would echo onto what you said is that the hardest situations I’ve seen over the years of working with with people isn’t about what choice was made, you know, whether that was, you know, bringing a family member in to provide help or moving to a community.

The hardest situations are when there wasn’t a plan or there wasn’t a conversation. And an adult child ends up having to guess what mom or dad would have wanted or really just as importantly what they wouldn’t have wanted to happen.

That’s why it’s so important to share what you want ahead of time.

And it’s not just the what, it’s also the how. William, you touched on this. You know, how do you expect the care to be paid for? Yeah.

Is it with that long term care insurance policy? And if so, where does that policy live and what are those benefits? Make sure somebody knows about that. Or is it using one of your investment accounts?

Let your family know that as well. A little clarity can make a really tough situation much easier.

Yeah. I think you’re so right there, Patty. And I think I think just the theme you just mentioned there, communicate, share, is gonna be seen in a lot of the items we go through today. A lot of this is just figure out what you wanna do, but make sure you talk to those loved ones that are involved with that. We’ll kinda get into that a little bit later. So, you know, first step here is long term care plan. Make sure you’ve looked at this and figured out what you wanna do in case you need to cover those expenses during your retirement and what your wishes are.

The second thing we’re gonna look at today is just getting your, financial life organized. And so, you know, you hear the the the phrase sometimes get your affairs in order. What we’re talking about here is just making sure you’ve got both your, financial and medical information kinda consolidated in one place and as much as possible so that somebody needed to use it.

Yeah. William, I I think of this, you know, getting your financial life organized, it’s a gift to yourself right now and a gift to your family if there’s a crisis in the future.

Absolutely. So you’ll see, you know, what the the the three steps we’re talking about here is kinda working with a financial planner, consolidating or cleaning up. I know, Patty, you’ve seen this a lot too. I have too as well as we have clients come to us, and they’ve got an old retirement account out there and a this out there and a that. And and a lot of it is just let’s just get things consolidated so it’s easier to deal with.

And then lastly is just kinda preparing for those unexpected events. Even if you are working with a financial planner, you still need to do step two and three here, which is, you know, consolidate down and still plan for those unexpected events.

Yeah. William, I I wanna encourage everybody who’s listening in today to think about if somebody had to step into their life for thirty days, could could that person who’s stepping in figure everything out? And if the answer is no, then that’s your signal to document things and to simplify.

So just think about the process of paying bills.

You know, are your bills automatically deducted from your bank account each month or maybe paid by your credit card? Or are you writing checks out of your bank account each month? It it’s not that there’s a right or wrong answer with how you pay those bills. It’s just making sure if someone had to step into your shoes because you’ve had a medical emergency, they would know how to help you get those bills paid. And while you’re at it, while you’re you’re looking at how the process of paying your bills, take a look at your balance sheet. So, William, you touched on this. You know, there there may be opportunities to simplify by reducing the number of accounts that you’ve got, whether that’s bank accounts or investment accounts.

Maybe you can do a little bit of cleanup, and that’s gonna make your life simpler because you’re gonna end up with fewer tax forms next year. And it’ll also make it easier for your family member who may have to come in and provide some assistance in the future.

Absolutely. And I think, you know, the exercise you just mentioned there, Patty, I think it seems like a small thing. But it’s really important because a lot of times people as as you mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, people get overwhelmed about all this, and rightfully so. There’s a lot lot going on, but I think that simple, that that simple exercise of going through the the the motion or going through the thought process of if if somebody had to pick up my stuff and kinda take care of me and I could they couldn’t communicate with me for thirty days, could they do it? I mean, that that’s the thing that usually gets folks in the right mindset of kinda the information they need and who they need to contact and everything. So I think that’s a very powerful tool.

Yes. It really is. And just another thing I’ll add to that is, you know, while you’re taking a a look around your financial life, you know, look for opportunities to shred old documents. I’ve seen over the years where beneficiaries have been so confused.

You know, they bring in account statements that are years, maybe even decades old, and are left wondering, gosh, does this account still exist? Was it rolled over somewhere else? Has it been spent down? You know?

So so looking through your financial papers, whether that’s actual printed papers or online, and trying to simplify and consolidate and shred the ones that don’t apply any longer. That that’s gonna go a long way toward providing, some clarity to your family in the future.

Absolutely. Well and as you said, you know, the thinking through this process of if somebody had to simplify everything, but if somebody had to pick up my information with it and kinda run with it for thirty days, The main part in there is is who are they dealing with? You know, who are they dealing with? So the next step we’re gonna look at is making sure that you’re sharing those key contacts with folks.

Yeah. I mean, William, I just think the benefit of having just that one list that’s clear can do a lot to reduce some stress for your family.

Yeah. And so we’ll we’ll look here on the next couple slides. You know, I’ll we think of this and, again, just to kinda categorize things, we’re gonna break it down into kinda your your kind of financial life and then your medical life. And if you think on the financial side, this is not meant to be an all encompassing list. Everybody’s situation is gonna be different. But, you know, the folks you would wanna make sure that your loved ones have contact for would definitely be your financial planner, any accountants or CPAs you’re dealing with, any attorneys you’ve dealt with, if you’ve got a banker that is involved in your situation, or an insurance agent on the financial side.

Yeah. But write it down. Write the name down. Write the phone number down, the email down.

You know? And one thing I encourage my clients to do is let’s have a family meeting. And don’t be intimidated by the idea of having a family meeting with your financial planner. You can really share as much financial information or as little financial information as you want.

So, you know, there’s no one size fits all here either. The the main point is to make that connection while things are going well, and so your family member knows who to reach out to if there’s an emergency in the future.

Absolutely. And then so going from the financial side more to the medical side, and again, this doesn’t really necessarily deal with your financial instruments. I mean, this is just that case where if there was a medical situation that needed to be taken care of and you were incapacitated, you know, could your loved one pick up and and know who your primary doctor is, know what medications you’re on? And so I think we would say just like on the financial side of having these key contacts, we need to have the key contacts on the medical side as well so that the loved ones know who to go to or ask questions from.

Yeah. So, William, you know, this is another mistake that I made and just wanna prevent others from from having the experience I did. My mom ended up in the emergency room, and and we did not have all of her medical information. So my dad and my sisters and I were scrambling.

You know, we knew some of the information, some of the doctors, some of the medications, but not all of it. And so I I literally remember sitting in the emergency room. My mom couldn’t, was not in a place where she could fill out any of the information or answer any questions. And we are, you know, texting each other, calling, trying to figure it all out.

As if it’s not overwhelming enough to have, you know, your mama in the emergency room, let me tell you, it’s even more overwhelming when you realize you don’t have all the medical information that they need. And so what that experience showed me is when there’s no plan, your kids are left guessing, and that is really the last thing you want is somebody guessing about what medications you take or what diagnoses you may have.

Yeah. And I think you you did a good job of bringing it up earlier too, Patty. I mean, to state the obvious, the person who who’s needing the care, who wants everybody to have the important information, but I would imagine you as the daughter, you would want that information for your own peace of mind in that situation.

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I I I don’t know a lot about medical stuff, William, but what I know is the doctors and the nurses need to know what prescriptions you take and what your medical history is to be able to treat you well. So, I mean, that’s just such important information for your family to have.

Absolutely. Okay. So moving on, we’ve gone through the long term care and kind of simplifying your financial life, sharing those key contacts. The next next step we’re gonna look at is refreshing your estate plan.

And so, we’ll kinda look at this and and go through the the three main documents that we’re gonna go through, that everybody kinda needs to have and revisit from time to time.

Yeah. Yeah. William, I bet you’ve heard the expression, the days are long, but the years fly by. You know?

So I just wanna encourage everybody to go pull your estate documents. Pull the will, the power of attorney, the health care power of attorney, and see how old those documents are. Because what you might think is, you know, that was only done a couple of years ago. You might find was done more than a decade ago and needs to be refreshed.

And and doing a small review today can prevent some big problems down the road.

Absolutely.

And and let’s this is an area we’ll go into a little bit more detail here. Kinda walk you through. And, again, we’re gonna keep it very basic. But, the the main three estate planning documents that we normally see folks have are gonna be a will, a power of attorney, and then a health care proxy. So those are gonna be the three main ones we see, and we’ll kinda go through each of those in very, very little detail here here so you make sure you’ve got a good overview on it. But let’s just start with the will.

The will is the document that essentially says I mean, everybody’s pretty much familiar with it, but it’s essentially the document that says, what happens to the stuff I have if I’m no longer here?

And and that’s mainly what it does. And so we would wanna point out here, though, it it’s it’s definitely important to have a will. Absolutely. But don’t forget that your will is really kinda more of a catchall that is back up to the beneficiaries listed on your actual financial documents.

And what we mean by that is if you’ve got any kind of retirement accounts or insurance accounts or anything like that, the primary determinant of where your asset goes is what beneficiary is gonna be listed on that document. And so the beneficiaries on those documents supersede anything that says in your will. So whatever the beneficiary says is where it goes. Now, obviously, you really want those two things to to say the same thing.

But in general, just remember that the beneficiary on on those documents is gonna trump anything else. And then the will, theoretically, is just a catchall for anything that doesn’t have a beneficiary listed on it to decide where those assets go.

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal. This is not gonna be a big, rockets you know, rocket science moment here or anything, Patty, but I would say that the number one thing people could do in this area is just the maintenance of every year, go back and check your beneficiaries. I mean, I know we’ve had some war stories we’ve seen over the years to where that hasn’t been done, and it it seems like it’s so easy. And when it hadn’t been done, you know, there’s real ramifications for that if they’re not careful.

William, I I’ll give another real life example here of, having, worked with a woman earlier this year who was widowed unexpectedly. Husband died of a heart attack in his fifties and going through his documents and his estate found out that his ex wife was still listed as beneficiary of his retirement account.

An ex wife did not wanna share with new wife. So, you know, just a real life example of the importance of checking those beneficiaries.

Yeah. And that’s the case where it doesn’t and we’re not making a judgment call here, but it doesn’t matter what should be done right. It’s whatever names on that document is where the assets are going. So, again, it seems like a very simple thing, but just make sure your beneficiaries are updated and that they’re always what you wanna wanna see on there. The other little tidbit before we move to the other those other two documents is, traditionally speaking, I know when Patty and I were first kinda getting in the industry, really, the only thing you could put beneficiaries on was retirement accounts and insurance products.

Over the years and especially over the last ten or fifteen years, they’ve expanded those laws such that now you can put beneficiaries on nonretirement accounts. So a lot of these are known as, either POD or TOD, transfer of death or payable death, and you can add those to everything from savings accounts to checking accounts. So if if you’ve got accounts at at banks or somewhere that don’t have beneficiaries listed on it, consider adding those to those accounts on there.

Yeah. Well, William, I will just give a shout out to our estate attorney friends. Like, check with the estate attorney who drafted your documents. You know, make sure that you’re doing what they recommend because all of these legal documents, beneficiary designations, it all needs to work together hand in hand.

So make sure you’re checking with your estate attorney to get those recommendations. And and think about too about how accounts are titled, how they’re owned. You know, sometimes people wanna add adult children as co owner of a bank account to make it easier, you know, for that adult child to come in and pay bills if the need arises. Just know if you’ve done that, if you’ve added your adult child as co owner, that adult child is gonna inherit that account automatically at your death.

Maybe that’s what you want or maybe it’s not. So that that’s why it’s so important to think through all of these issues.

No. You’re absolutely right. And and kinda again, I know we’re kinda in a in a big topic here, but just to bring it back up, you know, what what we’re talking about here are your state papers. And, we mentioned there are three main documents.

So, really, up to this point, we’ve just talked about the will. So the will is the first document we’ve talked about. The next two documents we’re gonna talk about are the power of attorney and the health care proxy or the health care and advance directive. And where these come into play is really back to that situation to where somebody has not passed, but they’re incapacitated.

So if I was in a situation to where I had an event and, I’m still alive, but I cannot make decisions for myself or I’m incapacitated, the power of attorney or whoever I’ve written down as my power of attorney is gonna be who has the authority to act on my behalf from a legal standpoint. So if just my name is on a bank account, then, nobody else could get in that bank account except whoever my power of attorney is. So you wanna make sure you get that power of attorney in place so somebody could, back to your example earlier, Patty, act on your behalf for those thirty days if they had to or longer.

And then very similarly, the health care directive is the same thing except in dealing instead of dealing with financial and legal matters, it’s really who is my person to make my health care decisions? Who is the go to person, in those situations?

Yeah. And and, William, I would just encourage everybody, you know, not only to have these documents, but to talk about your wishes with the person that you’ve named as your health care agent because everybody’s got a different view on on these type of decisions.

You know, are are you someone who says, gosh, I want care that can extend my life, and that’s really needs to be the focus? Are you someone who says, you know what? I’m more interested in quality of life rather than quantity of days. There there’s not a right or wrong answer there. It’s what is important to you, and and make sure you have that conversation with the person that you’re asking to make those those decisions.

Absolutely. So to kinda just put a bow on this little part of it, we’re just gonna go back and say, remember, there’s the the will, power of attorney, health care proxy. Those are the main three you always wanna have. You do have to go see an attorney to get those drafted.

I will say for us at Savant, we have a internal team that will will review those documents. They can’t draft those documents, but they can go in and review those documents. And as you just said, Patty kinda alluded to, a lot of times, you know, legal speak is not the easiest thing to read. So they can look over those documents and kinda make sure what you were wanting to happen is what was actually drafted up in those in the the will and power of attorney and everything. So that there is that that out there.

Yeah. That can be so very helpful to put it into plain English and so you understand what those documents are doing.

William, moving on from talking about the will and the power of attorney and the medical power of attorney, let let’s talk about ethical So a legal will passes on your money, but an ethical will passes on your values. So this could be a way that you share what values are most important to you and and what values you hope your family carries on into the future.

It could be an opportunity to share lessons that you’ve learned, that you hope that your family take with them. This ethical will doesn’t have to be formal. It’s not a legal document. It could be a letter. It could be a note, even a short video.

But for a lot of families, it ends up being one of the most meaningful parts because it explains why decisions are made.

Absolutely.

You wanna talk about trustees while we’re while we’re here?

Yeah. So sometimes, with a lot of this situation in estate planning, a trustee will end up being named to carry out your benefits. And, this goes back to kind of that central theme we’ve been discussing today. You really just want that trustee to be somebody you know and trust and knows your wishes so that you’ve communicated those to you such that if and when you’re not here anymore, they can carry them out to the best of your ability. And so, you know, this is you know, we’re saying here and we’re gonna get into we’re talking about refreshing your estate documents. Choosing a trustee day one doesn’t have to be the one you will still want five and ten years down the road. You need to be kinda constantly looking back and making sure that person listed is the person you would still want to play that role should it be needed.

Yeah. William, and it’s not just looking at the legal documents that you have, whether it’s the will or the trust. It’s also looking at your phone because in today’s world, our phone carries so much information. Right?

You know, think about all that’s on there, the the contacts, the photos, the apps, the two factor authentication codes that get sent. And oftentimes when someone dies, their family gets locked out of the phone. So there’s a a couple of different ways you can address this. If you’ve got an iPhone, Apple allows you to name a legacy contact.

That’s Apple’s way of giving someone access to your phone after your death.

You can add a legacy contact under your settings.

If you have an Android phone, you can do something similar. You can set up an inactive account manager to allow that inactive account manager to access your data. So this is just another way that you can reduce stress for your family later on.

Exactly, Patty. And so, you know, a lot of the things we’ve talked about today are more in the financial or medical realm, but there’s tons of other things. Like you just mentioned, your phone, your maybe your alarm system at your house. I mean, there’s tons of other things to kind of think through just making sure should somebody need access that they know kind of how to operate those things and and from a practical standpoint, you know, where the where the codes are and what the passwords are.

So Yes. The the usernames, the passwords, I mean, I goodness gracious. I don’t even I think I literally have hundreds of usernames and passwords at this point, that I have to make sure my family has a way to access if something happens. Yes. It’s also very important.

That’s right. So, again, you you’ve you’ve got your estate plan in place. You’ve got all these things. Ultimately, as we’ve just discussed, somebody’s gonna have to be, you know, acting on your behalf when that time or if that time comes.

And so, we’re just going back to this word refresh. You just wanna periodically look back and make sure it is the person you want doing that. Life events happen. You know, marriages, births, deaths, you name it.

Other life events happen. And so what you know, at one time where somebody could have been the appropriate choice, they may not be the appropriate choice anymore. So you just want to, like like we would say, always revisit your overall state documents. Definitely revisit those who are kinda making the decisions for you if you’re not around anymore.

Yeah. And, William, I’ll chime in with another personal story. So as my parents got older, they decided, you know what? We don’t wanna have to serve as each other’s executor or attorney, in fact, under the financial documents or medical power of attorney.

So my sisters and I got put into those roles. I was named the executor and the power of attorney for financial decisions. I’ve I’ve got another sister who’s a nurse. She was the medical power of attorney.

You know, and it was simply because my parents had reached a point in life where they’re like, we we don’t wanna take on this extra work. You y’all can handle this now. And that’s not uncommon.

I don’t know about you, William, but as I talk to people, very few people say that they enjoy the job of being an executor or someone’s agent, to make these kind of decisions. It’s a lot of work. It’s a big ask, so you’re really not doing people favors by putting them in these roles. So it’s critical to make sure you’ve made the right choice and that that person is still the right choice today.

No. Absolutely. I think that, you know, like everything, as we said in the meeting, communication. Just make sure you’ve made your decision that you’re communicating with those people as well.

We can’t we talked about a little bit earlier, again, some of these more nonfinancial things, but but what how do you advise folks, Patty, with the things that are more just kinda like personal items around their house.

Yeah. Goodness, William. Like, that’s a whole other. You know, this topic is so big. Right?

You know, I I I think back to a box of photos I’ve got sitting in my den that I got from my dad. And, you know, I recognize some of the people in the photos, but, but gosh, I wish I had asked my dad to label all of the people in the photos when he could. You know? So personal property isn’t about money.

It’s about memory. And taking the time to label photos and share stories, it’s just a love letter to your family.

I used to think that money that legacy meant money, but now I think the most beneficial inheritance you can give to your family isn’t so much money. It’s really a plan for the future.

William, I think you mentioned you you’ve got an example of how your family handled personal property that that might be of interest to some people listening today.

Yeah. I know this was this was the way my family had done it on my mom’s side. And I I know I’ve heard, and I’m sure you have too, Patty, many stories of class we’ve dealt with over the years of how you know, there’s no one way to do this, but I know I was fairly young. I think I was in maybe high school or whatnot, and I can remember one Christmas at my grandmother’s.

My mom has two sisters, and she called the three, her daughters, three daughters into the room and essentially said, hey. We are going to, go through the house and essentially have a draft of my personal item. So it was kinda like a, I don’t know that it was like a NFL draft, but there was a first round pick, second, third. And so my grandmother had, you know, a few antiques in there, and so she I think she wanted to make sure that people, you know, knew the importance of them.

But then there were also some objects, like you said, that really didn’t have any material or or or monetary value, but a lot of sentimental value. And so was the process perfect? Absolutely not. You know, between then and when my grandmother eventually passed, she acquired more assets.

I’m sure some of those things may have not been there anymore. There may have been a little discrepancy over this. But you know what? It really solved about eighty or ninety percent of dividing that stuff up.

And so at the end of the day, what seemed like a little slightly awkward situation turned out to be a great thing for my mom and her sisters, I know.

I love that you shared that because it’s just a great reminder of rarely are we gonna get to perfect. Right? Even when it comes to to something like passing out personal property. But to think, you know, she got eighty to ninety percent of the way is really encouraging.

I’ve heard over the years how some families end up fighting not not so much about the financial assets, but about those kind of pieces of personal property. So I love that you’ve given that idea to share that people can take and share with their own families.

Moving on to another, you know, awkward topic, and and that’s funeral planning. I just wanna encourage everyone who’s listening in today to take the time to write down your funeral wishes your funeral wishes because that’s another way to give your family some confidence and save them money during a really difficult time.

This is an area that I was just didn’t wanna raise with my mom and dad. So when my mom passed away, we we planned her service as best we could.

And then a few years later, my dad died, and we were quoted a much higher price for his service, which was essentially the same as what we had done for for our mom. I remember what we paid for our mom and began asking some questions, the funeral director came back and lowered the price, which felt pretty yucky. Felt a little bit like buying a used car, and it just reminded me of how easily you can be taken advantage of while you’re grieving. So taking the time to write down what kind of funeral you want, what kind of service you want can can do a lot to protect your family while they’re grieving and make things just a little bit easier for them.

Absolutely. I think that, you know, it’s a lot of times, it’s it’s back to that thought process of these things not only should comfort the one requesting them, but it it’s such a blessing for those that have to follow your wishes to know what those wishes were and not be sitting there wondering would they have wanted it this way or that way. And so talking about them beforehand is is definitely the way to go, and that’s kind of the last point we’re gonna bring up here is just starting the conversation.

Look. Let’s be honest. A lot of this stuff we’re talking about today is not the most fun stuff to talk about. I mean, medical events, the passing, you know, these aren’t things that you’re just normally gonna wake up in the morning and go, I really wanna talk to somebody about that today.

And so you when you when you tailor that with family dynamics in general, there is always an excuse not to have a conversation. Always an excuse. And, you know, just I think we would come back and say, remember, not having a plan is a plan. It’s not may not be a good plan, but it’s still a plan.

And so it’s still even if you don’t get perfection and you’re not gonna get there, start somewhere and start with the conversation and start with those loved ones around you so that they know your wishes and y’all can work together to try to get those accomplished.

Yep. William, I would just say silence creates stress.

So having a conversation, even if it’s just one conversation, can really spare confusion and chaos down the road. You know? And you think about the adage, how do you eat an elephant? It’s one bite at a time. So all the things we’ve talked about today, you know, reviewing and refreshing estate documents, listing medical information for yourself, you know, letting your family know who to contact in the event of an emergency, where you keep your usernames and passwords. I realize it’s a lot of work, and you probably have other things that you would rather do. But just taking a little bit and working on it bit by bit is gonna do so much for your family down the road.

Yeah. And so if you can’t I guess I guess another way to say it is if you can’t get motivated to do it for yourself, get motivated to do it for those around you that you love so that they’re not having to make those decisions when you’re when you can’t. And, you know, I think we’d just kinda before we get to our question and answer session here toward the end, I think we would just leave you with the encouragement and bringing back up the point today again of there’s a lot of stuff here.

It can get very overwhelming. Don’t. Just get started somewhere. Everybody’s gonna have a different fact pattern.

Everybody’s gonna have a different starting point. Get started somewhere and working on it. Anything is better than nothing. Even if you only get fifty percent of the way there, at least fifty percent of it’s covered.

And so get started somewhere.

Yes. And and I would just encourage you to think about this process as writing love letters to your family. It’s just small moments that say, I cared enough to make this easier for you. So maybe having that mindset will encourage somebody to take the next right step today.

Yes. And as we said at the beginning, again, today’s material was really more general in nature. We really wanna be able to answer most of y’all’s questions, which we’re about to go through some of the top questions we got and kinda answer those. But for each of you, we wanna provide on your screen, you should see the ability to sign up for a free, complimentary, discussion with a team member where you can go through and and ask them your specific questions. So I encourage you to do that as well.

Yeah. It it that’s an easy way to start if you’re not if you don’t know where to begin.

Exactly. So finally, we’ll come back to our disclosures. Again, everything today was of general in nature.

Please don’t don’t don’t go off and act on it based on anything you you you you heard us say here today, in nature, but do make that phone call, reach out to your local attorneys, and kinda go from there.

You wanna shift to some questions and answers?

Yeah. Let’s see what we got from the q and the q and a box here.

Yeah. I I let me I’ll take a look over here. It looks like some of the questions are along the lines of, you know what? This feels like a lot.

Where do I even begin if I’m behind? And I don’t know if anybody else can relate. At least a few of you were feeling that way. And, again, I just wanna acknowledge that’s a completely normal feeling.

It is overwhelming. You’re you’re not behind. I’m sure you’re just busy living life.

But but, no, there’s no penalty for starting late. Just pick one thing that you’ve heard us talk about today and start there.

And keep in mind what we’ve already mentioned that it’s about progress and not perfection.

Absolutely.

William, you wanna take the next one?

Yeah. I will. And and I’ll just follow-up on yours too. I would say, just as you just said, start somewhere.

Get started somewhere. And the other thing there is if you feel overwhelmed, start working with a trusted professional Yeah. Financial planner, accountant, whoever. Just start working with somebody that can kinda hold you accountable and make sure you stay on task.

That’ll make sure you’re kinda moving in the right direction as well.

Yep.

Okay. So next question is around the topic of let’s see. What does it say? How do I know what information my loved ones would need?

So this is one of those we kind of mentioned, I guess, during the presentation, and it and it really goes back to to your specific fact pattern and circumstances. But I think the best thing to do here, Patty, is what you mentioned of just going through that exercise, that very fun exercise, I’m sure, of imagining if you, could not act on your behalf for thirty days, what would folks need to know? Everything from the financial to the medical to the practical side, what would they need to know and write that down. And, again, we’re gonna keep saying this. Don’t get overwhelmed by that. If you get majority of that stuff down, it’s better than nothing.

Yes. Progress, not perfection. I I know I’ve said that just a minute ago, but it just bears repeating.

Alright, William. I I’ll look and take the I think we’ve got time for just one more question.

And it looks like the question was along the lines of, you know, what if my adult kids don’t wanna talk about this?

Again, pretty common. And and what I would just, know, tell the people who were listening, it’s probably that your adult kids don’t care. It’s more likely that they are busy. They’re probably juggling their own careers, their own kids, their own stress.

And and we’ve already acknowledged these are not necessarily fun and light conversations to have. So likely your kids aren’t avoiding the conversations. It’s just their life is busy and stressful. So what do you do?

Yeah. And I I would say too, Patty, I think that’s one of those things. You gotta meet folks where they are. We would encourage you to have those conversations. That’s ideal. But let’s just say you’ve got an adult child that just they don’t wanna talk about this.

That doesn’t mean this is a a black or white issue of it’s a nonstarter. You know, you could always practically go through and say, hey. Look. I realize you don’t wanna talk about this.

I have written everything down that I think about this. I put it in this envelope, and it is in the top drawer in the kitchen or something. So there there’s kind of ways to work around that as well. So you gotta kinda just work with whatever your situation is.

Yes. I I I and that’s exactly what I was gonna say. Well, yeah, doc document. Let them know where to find it.

Let them know the, you know, name and phone number or the financial adviser who’s gonna be a great resource. Yeah. Just meet them where they are. Start with the most practical, the least emotional piece of information, and meet your kids right there.

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, look. We we really appreciate everybody being with us today. Thank you for taking the time. We genuinely, genuinely, genuinely hope you found value out of the information today.

If nothing else, we hope that it encourage you to start and take action in some form or fashion. Just know that by being on the call today, you will get an email follow-up that has a recording of the of of the material we went over. And so please, review that. You know, wherever you are along your path here, get started, move to the next step. And if nothing else, take advantage of that that complimentary phone call. And thanks again for being with us today.

Yes. Thank you. And and, again, you don’t have to do everything today. Just take the next right step. Thanks, y’all.

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