Independent Wealth Management
Who scrutinizes your investments, designs and tests your retirement and education plan, searches for new investment ideas, patrols insurance agents and mortgage brokers, shows you strategies designed to reduce your investment costs and income taxes, monitors your 401(k), promptly responds to your email, provides one monthly statement, day-to-day net performance across all of your accounts and does all of your paperwork...We do!
Buried Treasure in your 401(k)
More than one client has asked us; "Why am I stuck in my employer’s 401(k) plan? The plan only has only a few or poor investment choices!" In most cases, plan participants are stuck. But check the fine print of your plan, there may be a way out. To learn more, look at the "Summary Plan Description". This is a document you receive when you enroll in the plan and provides all of the details about how your plan works. If you do not have this document, you can request a copy from your human resources department or the plan administrator. It is likely to be available as a PDF file for immediate access.
The provision you are looking for contains the language about "in-service, non-hardship withdrawals." In other words, you want to access your money while you are still working for the company and not because of a hardship such as disability. The ability to make this kind of rollover...
Retirement Income Studies
You could spend as much time in retirement – 30 or even 40 years – as you have spent saving for it. That is why planning for your retirement savings to generate income is critical. Developing a solid plan and appropriate investments for years of income is well worth your efforts.
Hint: Build a Solid Core
Constructing portfolios around a core/satellite model is not as new a concept as you might think; large institutional investors have been doing it for years. At the core, you have the diversification, tax-efficiency and low costs of exchange-traded funds. And to potentially boost your returns, a handpicked selection of mutual funds, individual securities and/or separately managed accounts. The “core” index component seeks benchmark performance (a useful strategy to minimize the risk of lagging the market) while actively managed “satellites” seek outperformance.
Buy Life Insurance?
Life insurance can be critical in one person’s financial plan, and may not be needed by another. The difference is the financial and tax issues that would arise as a result of the dearth and the absence of the individual’s income that other family members may count on to meet their current and ongoing expenses. How much is enough and what type of insurance is best, can only be...
Rafael Velez
in Financial Planning
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