Estate planning is crucial in securing your family’s future, but it can often feel daunting. This episode of Retire with Balance breaks down the complex process into manageable steps, covering everything from trusts to beneficiary designations. Get empowered to take control of your estate planning with practical tips from Balanced Wealth Management’s Rob Auclair.
- Estate planning essentials
- Revocable vs. irrevocable trusts
- Common estate planning mistakes
- Updating beneficiaries
Transcript:
Kristen Oakley:
Hello Rhode Island and welcome to this week’s edition of Retire With Balance, the show that helps take the complexity out of your retirement planning. I’m your host, Kristen Oakley, and joining me in the studio is Rob Auclair. He is a financial planner with Balanced Wealth Management. Rob, my friend, it’s great to be back with you. How are you this week?
Rob Auclair:
Thank you. I’m great. Yeah, ready to go. Good.
Kristen Oakley:
Well I know that you are the face that folks get to see on television representing Balanced Wealth Management.
Rob Auclair:
I’m so lucky,!
Kristen Oakley:
Yes. And we are blessed to get to share this time together, but there’s a whole team of people at Balanced Wealth Management that are behind you. So I would love for you to share with our viewers a little bit more about your team.
Rob Auclair:
So we have Susan, who is client services and Susan’s been with us about eight years, happens to also be my sister. So when we founded – I always say my older sister but – so she’s very, very helpful. So many times clients call in and need something, she’s the person that they turn to and then inevitably they can come to me too. So I think it does give it that great family feel and it’s very reflective and people do like that. Absolutely. And then Jess, who is also with us, she’s been with us now three years and she does a lot of our planning, our office operations and all the day-to-Day stuff that we need to make sure our systems are running correctly. And then we have Lou Wang. Lou is a CFA, Chartered Financial Analyst, and she’s also a professor at Providence College. So again, we’re tying my dad back into, I have my sister there, Lou also being there and she really helps with our portfolios.
So for me it can get really, really busy, but having a professional that is helpful. And then last Ted Denicola. Ted is in a sense a little bit of a sales guy, but we talk about retirement and it’s a perfect situation where I’d be like, Ted retired from Providence College as an alumni development and career services and he was looking for a purpose and he said, I don’t know what to do anymore. And I said, I would love to have you here because you worked at Providence. And that’s really a great connection that we could work with some people that have graduated from Providence I and bring it in. So people that we’ve known, family, friends, and just like when we bring in clients, we try to make them feel that atmosphere. And I think our team does that.
Kristen Oakley:
Absolutely. Well, I know you take this very seriously. It is a family affair, but you also treat your clients like family. And really the community of Rhode Island, as you’ve said, is quite the family. So it’s nice to –
Rob Auclair:
Yeah, and fortunately we all know each other, I think in some form or fashion, it’s less than one degree of separation.
Kristen Oakley:
Well, I know you’ve put together another fabulous show for our viewers at home. We’re going to be talking about something today. Speaking of family, that isn’t always the most fun thing to talk about, but it is by far one of the most loving things that you can do for yourself and for those that you love. We’re going to be talking about estate planning. And Rob, I know that a lot of folks want to avoid this subject. They don’t want to talk about it because the reality is it’s never fun to think about life when we’re not here. But you and I both know how critical and how crucial it is to make sure that estate planning is done and that it’s done correctly. So let’s just start with that. I think there’s some misconceptions out there. A lot of people think, oh, I don’t need an estate plan because I only have X amount of money. What do you say to that and who needs an estate plan?
Rob Auclair:
So here’s the thing, I think the words estate plan make it sound like it needs to be this elaborate thing for rich people and it doesn’t. Estate plan can mean your will can mean your powers of attorney, the very basic things that everybody needs regardless of their asset level. So I think it is for anyone and it can be more sophisticated as you have more needs and more money. But what I say estate planning is it’s about leaving direction when you can’t and it holding up
Kristen Oakley:
And having your wishes carried out.
Rob Auclair:
And really, I try to simplify it. And so for our clients, I try to keep it a simple process even though it is so heartfelt that it’s one of those things we never want to think about dying. And that’s one of the things we have to face. And what I say is I’ll try to make it as painless and short as possible when we get you to the estate planner that maybe we can do it in two meetings possibly and we keep it short and I try to help navigate that and make things as easy as possible. So one of the things that I would say that would be the main reason people would avoid is they’re talking about something they don’t want to talk to about, but let’s check the box, get it done, move on.
Kristen Oakley:
And then there’s such a peace of mind that happens with that because I think it’s even more tragic when something happens unexpectedly. And I have several friends who unfortunately in the average age of widowhood is young, it’s 59, and heaven forbid if those plans are not in place and something happens when you’re grieving, that’s not the time on top of everything else that you want to wade through in nightmare and a mess that’s been left in your lap. So there’s so much peace of mind that can come when you do this and get it done. Yeah.
Rob Auclair:
So let’s talk about estate planning. And I have a visual here just to kind of helpfully touch upon what is included and the most common one would be a will. And when someone says, I got a will, I’m all set. That is very untrue. A will is to catch the stuff that you didn’t label and it really doesn’t. It holds up, but everything else usually comes before it. But a will, what I say is all about where’s my jewelry go or who’s going to have something that’s very special and close to me, but maybe not an extreme value. Trusts – they’re for some people are not for others. But when you go through the process, I think an estate planner can really help describe what is a revocable, what is an irrevocable trust, and which one’s right for you? And you just need know that we always talk about understanding.
The third one would be probate. Those would be for assets that are not retirement assets. It is to avoid probate court, which would have anything that you leave to your beneficiaries being held up. And also at times it can be in a newspaper saying, Hey, this person’s passed away. If you want to claim any credit against it, let us know. And then you have to pay a lawyer for it. So we can avoid probate very, very easily. Power of attorney, there’s healthcare powers of attorney, and then there’s also financial powers of attorney. Very, very simple cookie cutter forms. If you don’t have them, you absolutely need them. And then the last one would be advanced healthcare directives. And then in those advanced healthcare directives, we would just want to make sure that if you’re incapacitated, that you have someone that you love and trust that can help make decisions for you when you can’t make your own decisions.
Kristen Oakley:
Absolutely. So important to have all these things. And to your point, I think a lot of people think it’s just one piece of it, but a well-crafted estate plan addresses all of these things. And we always say on the show how you make a decision in one area of your financial life does and will affect all the others. You have to look at estate planning from that comprehensive point of view. And I’ve heard it said, Rob, that if you love someone and you have something, then you need to engage in estate planning.
Rob Auclair:
Yeah, I mean a lot of stuff can sound canned, but it’s real. And we go about our life and we love people, we care about people, but there is a business side of it and that business side of it also kind of can hurt your beneficiaries if you don’t help take care of it now and easier said than done.
Kristen Oakley:
I know another thing that can often hold folks back from engaging in this process is the cost of it. A lot of people think it’s very expensive. I know for Rhode Island what are some of the costs people could expect to pay to make sure that all of their estate planning is properly done?
Rob Auclair:
So the costs are all over the place, but if you were to have something very basic where someone would explain all of this to you and at the very least be able to get a will done, your powers of attorney for healthcare and also for financial along with a healthcare derivative, I’ve seen it as low as 300. It can go to 750 somewhere in that range. And it’s all going to depend where you go. If you go to some of the bigger firms, it might just be, hey, we have a minimum and that’s what it costs. But I have kind of seen that range. So think 350 to 750 for that. Once you start adding the trust in, I’ve seen a trust package deal anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000. That’s pretty average. If you need a trust, and I know you probably don’t know whether you need a trust or not if you’re listening, but we will go through that. And if you do need a trust, we see the cost under 5,000 usually. But again, it can change. So if you go to the individual person that’s maybe a estate planner, it’s going to be possibly a little less expensive than the bigger firms.
Kristen Oakley:
Right? Well, I know that you offer your complimentary written financial plan to our viewers that call in today’s show, but if someone has questions about estate planning, explain how you help folks walk through that process, who you work with and how you help them navigate to make sure all these pieces are in place.
Rob Auclair:
So once they agree that they want to do this, I say I will very pleasantly be persistent and help you get it done. So if you have an estate planner, let us know. And what we’ll do is we will schedule the appointment for you, let us know three times in the next two months that actually work for you, and we’ll kind of coordinate that for you and for our clients, we offer to go with them. So we sit there very silently, but we’ve already got a list. Here are your assets, here’s who the owners are here, who the beneficiaries are. And that first meeting with an estate planner is usually complimentary to at the estate planner’s office. And then in between we can kind of answer some questions in there. So I think it is important we try to handhold a little bit and we try to just gently nudge to get the important things done that you need to have done.
And really, if this is something that’s important to you, finding out if we are the right fit or just a financial planner is a right fit, we offer a complimentary written financial plan. Where we do is as we always talk about, we take a look at your individual investments and then we take a look at your financial plan, the money coming in, what you need, how long your money lasts, hopefully forever. And then we do talk about a lot of these things that include estate planning. So we may not dig right into that first meeting, but we’ll give you things that you should be thinking about.
Kristen Oakley:
I love that folks can come to you and know that they’re going to get that one stop shop. I think that can be a lot of overwhelm. I don’t know who to go and who to talk to, but this is an excellent opportunity for you to take advantage. Call that number on the bottom of your screen, 888-398-2001 to get connected with Rob and the team of Balanced Wealth Management. They’re going to be able to help you walk through all this with you, answer your estate planning questions you have as part of a full comprehensive, complimentary written financial plan. If you want, you can also take out your smartphone. Simply point the camera app right there at that QR code down in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. That will take you over to a landing page, ask you a few short simple questions, and then a member of the team from Balanced Wealth will reach out and connect with you to schedule your time to come in that way as well. We have a lot more to get to into on today’s show about this important topic of estate planning. Stay with us.
Announcer:
The work never seems to end until the day it finally does. After nearly a lifetime on the job, you should be rewarded for all the time you spent working, whether that’s crossing off items on your bucket list, learning a new passion or rekindling the love of an old one. After all, life isn’t over when you stop working. It’s the start of an all new chapter, the one where you’re the writer and you get to choose how your story will go. A way to achieve that is by having a clear financial plan to sustain your golden years. The biggest fear most retirees have is if they’ll have enough money to maintain the lifestyle they’ve always enjoyed. Having a plan to help protect you against the curve balls life often throws will help to maintain your lifestyle. Call today to get your free written financial plan so you may live every day to the fullest and enjoy the retirement of your dreams.
Kristen Oakley:
Welcome back Rhode Island. You’re watching Retire With Balance. I’m your host, Kristin Oakley here with Rob Auclair, financial planner from Balanced Wealth Management. We are having a very important conversation today about all things estate planning and making sure that you have all the elements you need to have a proper estate plan in place. And Rob, you mentioned in the first segment trusts, and a lot of times people don’t know if they need a trust. They don’t need a trust. There’s different types of trust. So let’s have that conversation now.
Rob Auclair:
And sometimes it can go either way, but you really, as I always say, need to understand, weigh the positives and the negatives and make sure you’re comfortable and it’s doing the right job for you. So revocable trust is the pretty basic trust. So if we think about a revocable trust, it actually has your social security number on it. So if you have an account that’s a revocable trust, you’re using your social security number. So think about that. It is still taxable to you. You are not getting really any protection from it from Medicaid. It’s still your funds and you can do what you want. You can use the principle, you can use the interest, you can use whatever you want. If it is a revocable trust, it’s still a trust. So what it does very positively is if you were to pass away, it goes automatically to who you name as your beneficiary. So you do not have to go to probate. So that’s really in the end what I think a revocable trust is.
Kristen Oakley:
Can I just point out too, avoiding probate. I think a lot of folks don’t realize because if you die without a will, for example, you die. It’s called intestate and it’s amazing how many people still pass away without a will. But even if the reason you want to avoid probate threefold, right? It’s so expensive, it can take forever. It’s long drawn out and there’s all those lawyer fees and it’s public record at that point. So anyone can go down to the courthouse and see what you had and who gets what. So it gets really messy really quick.
Rob Auclair:
It does, and it can be very simply done revocable trust. I say that is kind of the easiest thing if you don’t want to do an irrevocable trust, which I’ll explain in a second. Revocable trust is really,
Kristen Oakley:
And then you avoid probate, which is the benefit, right? Yes.
Rob Auclair:
Yep. So now on the irrevocable side, basically a lot of people think about I need to get the assets out of my name, out of my social security number to protect it if I ever need to go in a nursing home. And that’s ultimately what irrevocable trust can do. It can protect you from creditors, protect you from nursing homes, attaching themselves to it, but it’s not your asset anymore. So it has its own social security number. It does avoid probate, but that asset itself, if you think about it, they call it the corpus, but really it’s the principle of what you initially put in general, you’ll never probably be able to take that and use it. You can use maybe what it produces. So think about irrevocable is kind of, I can’t go back anymore. Revocable,
Kristen Oakley:
You can’t change your mind, right?
Rob Auclair:
Right. Revocable, you could change your mind, irrevocable, you cannot change your mind. We have a slide to clear things up just a little bit here, and you can just see a side by side comparison here between the revocable and the irrevocable. As I said, on a revocable trust, very, very flexible. Number two, you still have control of it. Number three, we talk about estate tax. And estate tax really doesn’t come into play until you’re in excess of $5 million from the federal side. So for a lot of people here, that’s not always that important, but it can be important. So people should know that it doesn’t protect you from that, and it gives you protection from creditors on the revocable trust. On the irrevocable side, as we said, flexibility is really, really, it’s not there. So it’s really tight. Your control, it’s out of your hands.
The asset’s really no longer yours. You name a trustee and they’re really in charge of it for you, but you really can’t pull the strings on it. The estate tax, as I said, it’s not your asset anymore, it’s your trust asset, which is for the benefit of you, but the corpus or the principle of it now is no longer available to you. So I think the last one on there right there was protection. So you do get that protection if nursing homes were to come in. So very important to know the difference between the two. I would say every estate planner I’ve sat down with does a great job of explaining that, illustrating that so you can make the right decision. What I would say, and I always use examples, and I talked to you about, I went through early in my career a lot.
I talk about my dad, he and I were super close and I lost my dad, and my mom was 54 years old. So to me, I experienced a lot of that stuff in my late twenties with her trying to help her as a professional, but also a son. So I could see the emotional side of it. I don’t want to give up control, but then trying to wrestle with, but I need to do it, but I don’t want to give up control. Sure. And that is very, very common. Yes. So what my mom had done was she had some assets that she wanted to protect and she said, listen, I don’t have a great deal outside of IRAs, so you can’t make an IRA and put it into a trust or a retirement plan. You cannot move that into a trust. But anything outside of an IRA, you can.
So the big question for her was, alright, I want to put my house in the trust. And she said, but I’m not sure I want to stay here. Not sure I want to leave. I’m not sure if I sell it, I still want to be able to use that money. So she said at that point, at 54, she said, if it’s irrevocable and I can never change it, and I’m 54, I’m not ready to do that. Now we’re kind of addressing are you ready to do it and you don’t really need to do it or do I need to do it? And we go again, try to find that balancing act.
Kristen Oakley:
Absolutely. Well to that story, and thank you so much for sharing and I appreciate that you understand this not just from the professional perspective, but from the personal experience having gone through this and navigating it, I know that gives an extra added level of compassion and that you treat all the clients that you work with as if they were family. So for someone who, a very common thing in retirement is downsizing, a lot of times folks want to sell a home and move somewhere else where there’s less to take care of. So what happens if they’ve already placed a home in a trust? Are they able to move? How does that work?
Rob Auclair:
Yeah, so if you place your home in a trust and you decide to downsize, you can absolutely keep that trust together. So if it’s an irrevocable trust, so for instance, we had a client that had a $400,000 house and they wanted to downsize to a $250,000 condo. They went beyond the five years, meaning that had solidified that trust and it was now protected. And what ends up happening is they bought that house for two 50, which stayed in the trust, and now there were proceeds of $150,000. That $150,000 also needs to stay in the trust at that point. And what they can do from that 150 is let’s say they got a 5% rate of return on a CD they could get $7,500 a year out of that if it produced that or if they invested it inside. Well, using mutual funds or stocks, whatever it did, they can pull that out as long as they didn’t touch the principle. So your answer is yes, you can absolutely still keep your protection when you downsize and do that. You just got to make sure that extra money that you had, you can’t just go and spend that 150. You have to keep that in the trust.
Kristen Oakley:
Which means you got to do this correctly. And this is why I’m so glad that folks have a professional such as yourself here in the Rhode Island to help them because you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t want to make a mistake.
Rob Auclair:
Yeah. Yeah. So again, what I think we try to do is when you come in, we offer this free complimentary written financial plan, and I’ve talked about it over and over. We’re going to look at your investments, we’re going to look at your overall balance sheet, and then we’re going to look at your plan. Do you have enough money from what comes in to what’s going to go out and what you’ve saved? But more importantly, we can talk about these things right up front of, Hey, I see in your plan you didn’t do a trust and here’s some very high level, I think you should make sure you get your will done. Do you have someone? If you don’t, we’ve got three or four different people that we say choose from these people. We’ve got great experience and here’s what you can expect. So when we go through that planning with people just right up front, we are trying to lead them to say, you can do a lot of this stuff still on your own. Here’s some good resources.
Kristen Oakley:
Right. Wonderful. Well, Rob, thank you so much to our viewers at home. We are going to take a quick break, but this is a great opportunity to pick up the phone and call this number 888-398-2001 to be able to come in and get your complimentary written financial plan from Rob and the team at Balanced Wealth. Again, you’re also welcome to scan that QR code down in the bottom right hand corner, and that will get you connected as well. When we come back, we’re going to be talking about some of the common mistakes that folks make with their estate planning because we want you to be aware of them so that you don’t make the same ones. Stay with us.
Commercial:
Good morning, Ben.
Good morning, Ben.
Hey, birthday party for Carolyn five.
Happy birthday to you. Yay.
Good morning, Ben.
Happy Monday, Daryl’s birthday. Be there or be square.
Happy birthday to —
You can see from our quarterly report on slide number 62 we’re trending in the right direction. All signs point to a very positive outlook for the next several years.
If you peel back the onion —
Ben, Ben, do you have anything to add?
The work never seems to end until the day. It finally does. Call today to get your free written financial plan so you may live every day to the fullest and enjoy the retirement of your dreams.
Kristen Oakley:
Welcome back to Retire With Balance. I’m Kristen Oakley here with Rob Auclair, a very important conversation that we are having today about all things estate planning. And before the break, Rob, we teased that we are now going to dive into some of the common mistakes that we see folks making with estate planning because we don’t want those of you watching at home to make the same mistakes. So what are some of the most common errors you see people making?
Rob Auclair:
So not to be cute, but the first problem is just actually not doing it. Right? So that can be a problem. So get yourself there, however you do, it’s not as bad as you think it is. That’d be the first thing. The second thing is once you do get it done, they give you a list of what you need to do. So an estate planner, for the most part, some will do this, but very few, they tell you, change your title of your account at your bank, change your brokerage account to the trust name. And they call that funding the trust when it’s really just changing the name of it. And so what ends up happening is a lot of people have the plan and they don’t go to their bank and change the title. So
Kristen Oakley:
Just to clarify, they’ve set up the trust, but they have not put those assets into the trust. And that’s the problem.
Rob Auclair:
And a lot of times, especially on a revocable trust, we’re just renaming the trust, renaming the account to the trust. So there’s really not a lot of paperwork. You just have to bring it down and you show it to the banker or you bring it to your broker or your financial planner and they can change that for you. So you need to make sure you do that. The second thing we see a lot of, and this has to do with whether you go through the plan or not, but beneficiaries. So regardless if you’ve ever even done estate planning, make sure those beneficiaries are correct. A lot of times you’ll find someone who has a 401k from a long time ago, they put their brother or sister, then they got married, then they had kids, they go back and they’re like, oh, I still put my brother and sister.
Kristen Oakley:
So can I tell you a quick funny story? I was getting my teeth cleaned, and of course when people find out what I do, they have so many questions. So I’m in the chair with my dental hygienist and she told me the story and she’s like, you have to tell the story so no one else does this. It wasn’t until recently she discovered that her 401k back from her first job over 20 years ago, she had put her boyfriend’s name as the beneficiary who has been an ex for almost 20 years now, but she had never updated it. So heaven forbid if she had passed away, he was legally going to get that money. And it didn’t matter what the will said. If she had said on the will that she wanted her husband, her daughter to receive that money, that didn’t matter because the beneficiary designations always trump what the will says. So this is why you have to make sure those are up to date.
Rob Auclair:
That’s so important, what you just said there. People think that the will and everything is going to supersede something. If it’s in the contract and it says someone’s name and you had something in the will, it’s like you said, the beneficiary designation provide that contract, and that goes for anything. So make sure you take a look at any IRAs you have annuities that you have where you can name beneficiaries right there. And one thing I will say is there’s something called transfer on death, and it’s a provision that you can put or it’s a type of account, but really if you had a joint account or individual account, you can name beneficiaries to avoid that account from going to probate. And that’s an important piece where years ago, banks just didn’t even put that out there because they’re like, oh, another piece of work to do. But that could be an intermediary that if you said, I can’t get there and I can’t get that, I don’t want that account to go to probate, ask them for a transfer on death form. And you can name your beneficiaries in a non-retirement account. Make sure, like I said, IRA, go to all your 401ks, update your beneficiaries. Life insurance, update your beneficiaries. Anytime there’s a major life change, do that, update that beneficiary every 10 years, every five years, just haven’t done that in forever. It’s a pain, but it’s so, so important.
Kristen Oakley:
And especially with second marriages, spouses passing away. I mean, all of this stuff needs to be accounted for. Another situation, I didn’t share this with you before, but my husband’s brother passed away at the age of 36, and at the time his twin boys were seven years old. Well, my in-laws on their beneficiary designations didn’t do what’s called per stirpes. So per stirpes is Latin for of issue. So let’s say they wanted, say his parents, right? My in-laws passed away. They would want a share of what Larry would’ve gotten to go to the grandkids now. But you have to designate that as per stirpes, otherwise it’ll just get divided among the surviving kids.
Rob Auclair:
And I think you get into that, especially if you just say, I’m going to go in and name it. Sometimes they don’t allow the per stirpes or it’s not present there. Sure. Oh,
Kristen Oakley:
It’s not obvious. You have to actually hand write
Rob Auclair:
It on there. And that’s super important. I’m glad you brought that up.
Kristen Oakley:
So much goes into this.
Rob Auclair:
So I wanted to tell people just really quickly what the process looked like for our clients. Absolutely. And how we try to bring them there and how quick this can be. So again, it starts out when I’m working with someone that, okay, give me three times in the next month. I make that appointment, come back to them, Hey, does that time work? I get all the documents together. So I actually have one sheet of paper with their assets, liabilities, who the owners are, who the beneficiaries are. We then go sit with the estate planner together. I’m very quiet, but I’m there as a liaison to kind of help. And then they actually decide after that meeting whether they want to move forward, documents are drafted, they review them through email or mail, and then they go and sign the forms, and then we fund it by making sure everything’s going the right place. So I know I went through it real quick, but it can be done pretty quickly,
Kristen Oakley:
Which is amazing. I think it’s something that so many folks put off for so long, but trust us, there is such a peace of mind that comes when you just get it done. And so you’re closer than you think. All you have to do is start the process and be willing to make that phone call and say, Rob, help me out. And you’re going to really guide folks along every step of the way.
Rob Auclair:
And that is a piece of that process. Give us a call now, if this is something that’s on your mind, we will certainly address it in that first meeting. It’s a complimentary meeting for you to come to get to know us. We will actually be able to go through your investments, help you out on that end. We’re going to point out, this is not named correctly. Did you update this beneficiary? We’re going to put a checklist in there for you. And that is really an important piece of where I see that that can be an asset to someone even just coming in once. We’ll give you and you can kind of move forward and do it yourself.
Kristen Oakley:
Absolutely. And I know it’s the whole team behind you that are helping folks navigate this, right?
Rob Auclair:
Yeah, they’re great.
Kristen Oakley:
Wonderful. Well, Rob, thank you so much. Always a joy to be with you. To our viewers, thank you so much for watching. We hope you found this to be valuable and helpful. Don’t be scared. Now is the time. Making this phone call costs you nothing. Not making it could cost you everything. Don’t let that be you. 888-398-2001. Thanks for watching. We look forward to being back with you next week.
Balanced Wealth Management is a financial advisory firm that serves pre-retirees based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The firm creates and maintains wealth for its clients through long-term effective asset management. Their advisors aim to build client relationships based on trust, knowledgeable professional advice, continual communication, and swift personal service. They can be reached at (401) 398-2000, via email at info@balancedwealth.com, or on the web at www.balancedwealth.com.The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.Â
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. While our best intentions are to provide accurate and timely information, you should always consult with retirement, tax, and legal professionals prior to taking any action.