Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus. Brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research incorporated, a broker dealer member, FINRA, SIPC, investment advisor representative. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors incorporated, a registered investment advisor, Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. Now here’s today’s Financial Focus program.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Good morning, and welcome to this week’s Financial Focus brought to you each and every Wednesday morning right here on KROS. This is Nate, got James joining me again this morning, another beautiful, pleasant day coming up there. I know we flip the calendar again the end of the week here on Friday, over to October, which is hard to believe that things are flying by already, but again, whether it’s playing nice and I think we can probably all agree that we can take this for a little bit longer before we know what’s coming on the back end of all of this.
James Nelson:
Yeah, no kidding. Wouldn’t you like to lock this weather for another couple of months? It’s been beautiful, really nice.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Although a little bit more rain every once in a while may help a few things, but I guess we can’t be too picky with things.
James Nelson:
That wouldn’t hurt.
Nate Kreinbrink:
So today’s program.,I know James and I go around and around as far as all these different topics out there and trying to decide exactly what it is we’re going to focus on for today. I wanted to bring it back to a topic that we’ve talked about maybe a few months back, but I think it’s coming back again to the forefront and that’s estate planning, and this is a topic that again, is a lot of uncomfortable conversations I think that we have with people to get this thing rolling. It’s not a conversation that people necessarily put to the forefront as far as the first thing they want to start talking about when it comes to this, but estate planning.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And they realize that there’s one of the most important things that they should be talking about as far as getting in line and estate planning seems to be one of those items, that it becomes more prevalent when there’s a big event coming up, you’re taking a trip out of the country. You’re going to be going on this big vacation. I need to get my things in line before I go, just in case something happens. So it usually has one of those triggering events that gets people to react finally on some of these items. And we’ve seen over the past few months, and obviously you can go back probably the past year or so, is that COVID has been kind of a triggering event to get people to think about this a little bit more, as far as if I’m in the hospital, if I’m gone, what do I want to happen? When do I want it to happen? Who do I want to be in charge of all this? And I think that’s a great thing as far as to discuss today with the program.
James Nelson:
And I think like you said, it’s not comfortable, nobody really likes thinking about it or talking about, but it is important in, like you said, COVID kind of brought that to the forefront. We talk estate plane and just in general terms, most people think wills, trusts. And again, that’s the majority of it, but also just simple documents like powers of attorney. Powers of attorney for health care. If I’m in the hospital, I’m on a ventilator, I’m this, I’m that. Who’s making these decisions? Who’s talking to the doctors? This is really, really crucial stuff. And it’s so much easier to get handled on the front end versus when somebody’s sick and you have to go to a guardianship and get people appointed. So we harp on it all the time in the office about getting estate planning documents put together, even if it’s just a simple will, simple powers of attorney, just having the right people in the right position can really go a long way if something bad were to happen.
James Nelson:
That’s really as simple as it gets. That’s what it comes down to is making sure those people are in position. You’re also maybe doing somebody a disservice by putting them down if they’re not able to handle it. If you know somebody isn’t good with money or very organized and they would be overwhelmed and couldn’t handle this when they’re losing a loved one at the same time. If we know somebody can not handle that position, that’s almost just as important too as to recognize that and make sure that person’s not down in a position that would make them very uncomfortable or unwilling to be able to act in that event.
James Nelson:
Just thinking about it, having the conversations, we’ve got an attorney or attorneys that are in our office on a regular basis and they’ve never done so many powers of attorney, never done so many estate plans and what they’ve done in the last two years. I think COVID is really pushed people to think about it and think about, if something were to happen, who’s in charge?What’s going to happen if I’m not here? That’s really important and something everybody should be considering,
Nate Kreinbrink:
We always talk about planning. And in the item that you just touched on is communication is a big part of that as well, as far as just communicating what your wishes are to the people, again. Making sure they’re able to do that. I was reading an article the other day and obviously it’s an extreme situation, but I think it happens more often than not was husband was in the hospital battling COVID. Was trying to text his wife from the hospital because she wasn’t able to be in the hospital trying to inform her of all the items that they have in place as far as accounts and this is where this is, this is where this is, this is where this is. Trying to communicate it through there again, he handled everything up until that point.
Nate Kreinbrink:
She didn’t want to have anything to do with it. She’s like you handle that, I’ll do this. But again, now we get to this phase in life where, I’m trying to fill them in or whatever to do this. It’s that planning and we say, we plan for the worst and hope for the best but you have to have these conversations sometimes. Just having them in place, but not telling anybody it doesn’t necessarily do any good. The communication part, I think, is very critical in situations when it becomes important.
James Nelson:
Absolutely. How heartbreaking to have him thinking about that kind of stuff.
Nate Kreinbrink:
When he should be focusing on his health to get better.
James Nelson:
Exactly. That’s the thought going through his head that, I got to inform the significant other. But it’s true, you’re right, Nate. Most people in a relationship, one person handles the finances and the other person handles a lot of other things. And it’s generally not two people equally engaged when we’re having these conversations and that’s okay. As long as both of them know what’s going on and have a general idea of what’s there and the plan that’s in place. That’s totally fine.
James Nelson:
I think a lot of this also comes back to making sure beneficiary forms, which are very simple, tie into the estate plan, making sure the 401ks, the IRAs, the Roth IRAs, even the bank accounts, if needed, have beneficiary forms on them, a POD, payable on death, if it’s a bank account. All of those little type things can go a long way. If somebody loses somebody that it’s just nice to have things pretty simple and not have them jump through a bunch of hoops to just get assets transferred from one person’s name to another. All of these things fit together, but it’s just a reminder that all of all of those beneficiary forms, tie into the estate plan and just as important as those other documents.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right? And I think a lot of this goes back to the planning. As far as avoiding probate and then making sure your assets and everything go to who you wish them to go to and you just mentioned beneficiaries and updating them, I think is a big issue that we see a lot of times with people where they started a 401k back years ago when they had their job, they maybe weren’t married at that time. Maybe they separated. They’ve gotten divorced, they’ve remarried, whatever the case may be, but they never go back and actually update that beneficiary. So we want to make sure that as your life changes as life events happen and change, and throughout your life, that your beneficiaries, your accounts, your wills, your trusts, and all this type of stuff is all coordinated to make sure what you think is going to happen is actually going to happen.
James Nelson:
Absolutely. Having the conversation with the people that are going to be in charge or the spouse that could be in charge or that the kids, whoever. Just having those conversations really goes a long way and helps a person feel comfortable putting them down. I’m going to put so-and-so down. Well, don’t blindside them. Have the conversations and really, really try to get the best fit.
James Nelson:
Oftentimes too, people may not have somebody that they can really rely on. We’re looking for an outside trustee or somebody in that capacity that follows the instructions of the will or trust and handles things. That’s not a bad option either. If we feel like family can’t make those decisions, or there’s going to be problems if one person’s down and the other one’s not. Sometimes going to an outside third party can make a lot of sense and Nate and I see that all the time where people will go with trust department or something like that, a separate trustee, and that can work really well too.
Nate Kreinbrink:
The biggest thing is just start having these discussions. A lot of times people think trust, wills, estate planning, whatever, well, I don’t have enough money to do that. And you’d be surprised as far as the planning that you can do and the benefits that it’ll have for you. Don’t continue to keep putting it off and people know they need to do this. They know that something needs probably put in place. It’s a one they’re, they’re too busy or just, everything’s always happening.
Nate Kreinbrink:
We want to make sure we do it before it’s too late. And, and starting that discussion is the first step to getting that done. I know we’ve got kind of a shorter program today with some people coming in after our program. I did want to mention real quick that every Friday NelsonCorp Wealth Management is wearing jeans for charity. Money raised in the month of September will be donated to the Gateway Area community center here in Clinton. As always, James, appreciate you joining me today. Nate and James, with NelsonCorp Wealth Management, bringing you this week’s Financial Focus. Thanks again for tuning in and have a great rest of your week.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research incorporated, a broker dealer member, FINRA, SIPC investment advisor representative. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors incorporated, a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. For more information, visit our website at www.NelsonCorp.com.