Year: 2025
Five behavioral finance resolutions for a better financial new year
December 16, 2025
It’s common for New Year’s resolutions to center on health and wealth. This piece focuses on client resolutions that tackle the common behavioral biases that shape—and sometimes sabotage—financial decisions.
Categories: Article, Behavioral finance, General audience
College payment strategies: Where should the money come from?
December 4, 2025
Use this piece to help guide families through the complex question of how to pay college bills once tuition is finalized. It outlines the major funding sources—529 plans, brokerage and savings accounts, income, family gifts and loans—and explains the tax implications, financial-aid impact and strategic order for tapping each.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning
Your 2025 year-end planning guide
November 21, 2025
As the year wraps up, it’s a good time to remind clients that a few strategic moves now can strengthen their financial footing heading into 2026. This piece touches on evergreen moves—including funding retirement accounts, giving to charity and making the most of capital losses—as well as steps clients may take as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning
A season for connection
November 13, 2025
As 2025 draws to a close, use this short message to connect with clients for the U.S. Thanksgiving and holiday season. This message reflects on the ever-growing importance of connection with the people around us.
Categories: General audience, Holiday greetings
Claiming social security: What’s a break-even?
October 27, 2025
Timing Social Security benefits can be one of the most important—and confusing—retirement decisions clients face. This piece helps clients understand the trade-offs between claiming early and delaying their benefits. It explains the concept of the break-even age in practical terms so they can make more confident decisions about when to start collecting.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning
Quarterly client letter: 2025 Q3
October 2, 2025
Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently raised eyebrows with comments that equity prices are fairly highly valued. Is Powell—a renowned economist with more and better information than just about anybody—saying stocks are too highly valued? Are prices about to drop? Should you sell before it’s too late? This article helps readers understand the full story about valuations in today’s stock market and what that means for investors.
Categories: Quarterly client letter
Educating the next generation about family wealth management
September 19, 2025
An estimated $124 trillion is set to change hands by 2048 in what’s being called the “Great Wealth Transfer.” For many families, that means facing tough questions: Is the next generation ready to manage, grow and use wealth responsibly? This article explores practical ways to prepare heirs—such as early financial education and giving them real-world responsibility—while grounding wealth in family values and purpose.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience, Wealth management
Business exit strategies on your terms
September 9, 2025
Many business owners will eventually face the challenge of stepping away from their company, yet most don’t have a clear exit plan. This piece is designed to introduce clients to the critical steps of planning their transition from understanding valuation and clarifying goals to preparing for a sale or succession. Starting this conversation early can help clients maximize business value, avoid rushed decisions and protect the legacy they’ve built.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning
Client question: What should I do with an inherited IRA?
August 25, 2025
Receiving an inheritance can be an important windfall for clients. But when it comes to inheriting an IRA, there are many rules you need to follow. This guide outlines clients’ basic options when they inherit an IRA and reinforces that as their advisor, you can help ensure the process goes smoothly.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Estate planning, Wealth management
The power of purpose in retirement
August 5, 2025
For many clients, the dream of retirement may be endless relaxation free from work. But the reality is often more complicated. This article introduces clients to the idea that it can be as important to plan for a purpose-driven retirement—with connection to self, community and meaningful activity—as it is to focus on the financial aspects of retiring.
Categories: Article, General audience, Retirement planning
Quick take: A note on the new tax and policy bill
July 15, 2025
Congress passed a new, 900-page tax and policy bill in early July. This piece notes some of the important implications of the bill, including tax provisions that have been made permanent, and some set to expire that clients may want to take advantage of soon.
Categories: Article, Breaking news, General audience, Tax planning
Quarterly client letter: 2025 Q2 (UPDATED 07-08-2025)
July 8, 2025
The second quarter saw more aggressive trade policy, yo-yoing markets and strength in international markets. This newsletter examines how a diversified portfolio can help clients prepare for any outcome when the economic landscape looks uncertain.
Categories: Client-focused, General audience, Quarterly client letter, Updated content
Homeowners insurance rates are rising. What does that mean for you?
June 30, 2025
Across the country, homeowners insurance rates have jumped 24% on average over the past three years. Keeping up with rising premiums has become a necessary factor in clients’ financial plans. This article examines ways clients can address rising rates for primary residences and in their portfolios.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience, Retirement planning, Risk management
Timeless wisdom from Warren Buffett
June 17, 2025
Warren Buffett has announced he will retire by the end of the year at age 95. Over his decades-long career he turned Berkshire Hathaway from a struggling textile company into a behemoth, operating everything from insurance companies to household brands. This piece looks at some of the success secrets he’s shared over the years that still provide guidance to shareholders of all kinds.
Categories: Article, Breaking news, Client-focused, General audience
Quick take: What to do with a 529 balance
May 30, 2025
May is graduation month for most college students. It’s also a good time for clients to consider what to do with leftover funds in 529 plans. This piece runs down their options, including paying for graduate degrees, naming new beneficiaries, paying off student loans and rolling funds into a Roth IRA.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience
Client question: Should I be using a health savings account?
May 19, 2025
Health savings accounts (HSAs) offer tax-deductible contributions, tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals when used for qualified medical expenses. They offer another huge benefit: They can be used like a traditional retirement account when account holders turn 65. This piece helps clients understand high-deductible health plans (the prerequisites for HSAs) and how HSAs may fit into their financial plans.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience, Wealth management
The age of the finfluencer: Who should you listen to when everyone’s talking?
April 29, 2025
With the rise of social media “finfluencers,” more people are seeking financial advice online. Yet this advice can be hard to parse. Some may be quite helpful, while some may be flat-out wrong. This article helps readers understand the risks online advice may pose, how it can lead down a path toward confirmation bias and what they can do to protect their money.
Categories: Article, Behavioral finance, Client-focused, General audience
Quarterly client letter: 2025 Q1
April 2, 2025
The first quarter saw periods of increased volatility and a downturn in the market. Both events can be worrying. Putting them in perspective can help clients see they are a natural—and common—part of the market cycle.
Categories: Client-focused, General audience, Quarterly client letter
Credit freeze quick take
March 27, 2025
We spend so much of our lives online that it’s easy to forget that our interactions may leave us vulnerable to fraud. This quick take offers clients a primer on credit freezes, a powerful tool they can use to protect themselves.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, General audience, Security
Disruptive forces: Thriving in a world that won’t sit still
March 14, 2025
The market and the economy are frequently buffeted by forces great and small, including the latest round of tariffs. This article looks at what history can tell us about these events, and how a diversified portfolio is already designed to address them.
Categories: Article, Breaking news, Client-focused, General audience
Client question: How can I give my kids a head start on investing?
February 28, 2025
This piece explores what clients may do to help give the kids in their lives a leg up for their financial future. It touches on 529 plans, custodial accounts and custodial Roth IRAs. It closes with a suggestion that clients may use opening an account as an opportunity to teach kids about financial responsibility. Consider personalizing this article by mentioning how and why you’ve opened accounts for the kids in your life. Or perhaps touch on experiences you’ve had teaching kids about investing.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience
Tax considerations for 2024: What you need to know before filing
February 14, 2025
With tax time upon us, this piece reminds readers what they need to know to maximize their returns and avoid penalties when they file their 2024 taxes. It also looks ahead to the tax laws set to sunset at the end of 2025.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, General audience, Tax planning
Counterintuitive money advice: Investing against the grain
February 3, 2025
When it comes to money, making smart decisions isn’t always easy. In fact, there are a lot of times where the intuitive move isn’t always the best one. This piece explores counterintuitive strategies that can help clients make sound financial choices.
Categories: Article, Client-focused, Financial planning, General audience
Quarterly client letter: 2024 Q4
January 3, 2025
Commentary on strong market performance in back-to-back years and a reminder to focus on goals—not market movements—when building a financial plan.
Categories: Client-focused, Quarterly client letter