As we celebrate the winter holidays, I pray that you and your family have a wonderful season – celebrate and enjoy. Not to be a Debbie downer, but sometimes it is hard to feel like celebrating when you have a loved one who is no longer here, or your family has changed, and everyone is growing up doing their own thing. If your loved ones are still around, I do believe it is worth having the conversation, because family does matter. People matter- so as you buy or make those special gifts remember what really matters.
If you have not already heard the exciting news – RiskSOURCE is now part of a company called OneDigital (learn more here). This partnership gives us more resources and business longevity to help us do what really matters – take care of you, our clients.
As 2023 comes to a close, planning for the next year is on my mind. I am very intentional about planning – making sure I see my out-of-town kids and grand-kids, career goals, health and exercise goals, personal and spiritual growth initiatives, and financial security. I personally utilize a financial planner as that is one area that I feel I need guidance from an expert on. From my personal and professional experience working with a variety of financial planners, I can say that not all of them are created equal.
One of the things I love most about what I do is that I get to help people have peace of mind. I love working with good financial planners because that is also what they do. Over the years, I have learned a few tips about choosing a financial planner:
- You don’t always have to have money to invest. A good financial planner will help you come up with a plan to achieve financial security – starting with where you are.
- Always check your financial planner’s record and credentials. FINRA FINANCIAL INDUSTRY REGULATORY AUTHORITY is a government-authorized not-for-profit organization that oversees U.S. broker-dealers. FINRA offers BrokerCheck, a free tool to research the background and experience of financial brokers, advisers, and firms. Just go to FINRA’s home page and scroll down.
I personally believe that insurance plays a major role in securing your financial future. If you don’t have the coverage for a claim, it ends up being an out-of-pocket cost.
Every time I sit with people and look at their current insurance situation, I often find coverage gaps that could turn into unexpected out-of-pockets costs. One common gap I see is not having enough water back coverage. For example, someone may only have $5K of coverage but have a finished basement that cost $50K. This means that if water does back up, there will be a large out-of-pocket cost. Another example is, say you have an at-fault auto accident and get sued. Umbrella coverage will pay for an attorney, but if you don’t have that, your auto policy may not cover that cost. One day in a hospital ICU for a person you hit can easily see you running out of coverage.
Having an Umbrella policy is so important for covering your liability and protecting your current and future assets by preventing large, unexpected, out-of-pocket costs. We never know what situations life will bring, but solid insurance coverage will ensure you don’t have to use savings or worry about future earnings being garnished. You don’t want to have to take out a loan or money from your 401K, other investments, or retirement savings to cover a liability cost that insurance could have covered.
I wish you all an amazing 2024 – happy new year!
We’d love to hear from you – please reach out! We are here to help.
