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When it comes to your financial planning, doing it right is very important. 

After 40+ years in the business of helping people protect what they love…families, their businesses, important charities, etc., what I see is people not planning properly. The results often include: family infighting, businesses being shut down or sold for less than true value or taxes being paid unnecessarily. None of this has to take place if only people cared enough to do things the right way. 

I recently had a couple visits from old friends and it was certainly nice to see these folks again. We are all getting older and we are looking at the future in different ways.

One of these people, in his mid-70’s, is still enjoying running his small business. He is happy and looking forward to the future. The second man is retired and has led a major not-for-profit organization and is also enjoying life. It was nice seeing these folks and how great their attitudes remain.

Sometime in the late 1970’s we developed a concept that allowed people who had certain types of pension benefits to take the maximum payout option instead of the “Survivor Options”. It worked very well for the client if the client purchased an adequate amount of life insurance.

The benefits of this were…

I noticed that I have not written a blog for a while. Actually, I have been dealing with quite a bit of soul searching lately. I’ve also been in and out of WNY a couple times working on several projects.

The business is growing, but truthfully, 95% of what is happening has little to do with my contributions. I guess I have discovered that the complexity of modern technology is hard for me to keep up with. If your anywhere over age 50 you must see and feel this as well.

I try not to think about this, but another friend and Vietnam Vet just passed away. He was one of the lucky ones. He had a nice family and a successful career as an attorney.

Most of our ancestors came to America for freedom of one kind or another. Our Bill of Rights guarantees many of these Freedoms and the Constitution expanded and enumerated these Rights and Freedoms.

Where our parents and many of our generation fought to preserve those Freedoms, there seems to be a proliferation of unhappy people and complainers in our country.

As I write this article I am at Duke Medical for my semi-annual evaluation and tune-up. As most clients and friends know, 3 years ago I had a double lung transplant. That was difficult but the first 18 months of recovery and rehabilitation were extremely difficult.

I wasn’t sure anyone was really reading the newsletters, but over the last few weeks dozens of clients and friends have mentioned that they have been following my writing. Thank you. I will attempt to improve both the quantity and quality of what I am writing. Please let us know if our messages are of value.

As you know, I write about several things, including the business and its progress, my health and the steps I take to set an example for people dealing with serious medical issues and recovery. A few other topics near and dear to me also find their way to my Blog.

I am not writing this about what has been one of the warmer summers I have seen, but a summer when many sad events have occurred in our world. The changes have created a very unstable economic environment.

The events in Europe have been shocking and have caused the stock market to go through a volatile month. What will be the long term result of the Brexit breakup? Only time will tell.

I often address the topic of Financial Messes and Procrastination. The subject is deep and wide. It seems that almost every day I meet a client who is dealing with one or both issues.

I recently met a successful business owner who asked: “Where were you 20 years ago?” He is in his mid 60’s and has yet to develop a succession plan or a retirement plan. He is definitely in trouble.