Latest / Money In Motion with Klaas Financial / A Plan Isn’t a Plan Until it’s Implemented

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A Plan Isn’t a Plan Until it’s Implemented · Money In Motion with Klaas Financial

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Speaker 1: Right now.
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Speaker 2: If you've got questions for our retirement planning professionals from
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Speaker 2: Class Financial, tellful, I'm gonna get on the air six
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Speaker 2: soh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh
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Speaker 2: eight three two one thirteen ten. You can learn more
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Speaker 2: about COSS Financial on their website coss financial dot com.
0:15
Speaker 2: That's coss k l Aasfinancial dot com. Great website again
0:20
Speaker 2: to learn about COSS Financial. You can also learn about
0:23
Speaker 2: the team there. You can also great feature as well,
0:25
Speaker 2: schedule complementary chat right online at cossfinancial dot com. Speaking
0:30
Speaker 2: up that complementary chat. You can always give them a
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Speaker 2: call as well. Office right here in Madison six oh
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Speaker 2: eight four four two five six three seven. No charge
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Speaker 2: for that initial get to know your appoinment tech Loss Financial.
0:40
Speaker 2: It will be complementary to you. Again their number six
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Speaker 2: oh eight four four two five six three seven number
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Speaker 2: to get on the other this morning six so eight
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Speaker 2: three two one thirteen ten. That's six soh eight three
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Speaker 2: two one thirteen ten. And joined this morning by CJ.
0:52
Speaker 2: Closs and Eric Schwartz.
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Speaker 1: CJ.
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Speaker 2: One, how you doing this morning? And two how's how
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Speaker 2: is Team USA gonna do? When it when it comes
0:59
Speaker 2: to world up or I know they.
1:00
Speaker 3: Got draw.
1:03
Speaker 2: You got you got big aspirations for him.
1:06
Speaker 3: Well, good morning. And answer to your second question is
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Speaker 3: I have I have high hopes okay, although I've been
1:13
Speaker 3: disappointed up till now, but i have high hopes.
1:16
Speaker 1: Okay.
1:16
Speaker 2: Well, well, and the one way to uh to do
1:18
Speaker 2: it is watching and listen and hopefully they have a
1:22
Speaker 2: home home field advantage. So fingers crossed on there.
1:25
Speaker 1: Eric Schwartz, how you Betman, Welcome to the program. Good
1:28
Speaker 1: to talk to you again.
1:30
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Sean, and I am. I am hopeful
1:32
Speaker 4: that expanding that tournament field by fifty percent is gonna
1:36
Speaker 4: make it a little easier to get to the knockout
1:37
Speaker 4: round for us.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, are you a soccer guy, Eric, I am yes.
1:42
Speaker 2: Man t i Elis the kids would say.
1:47
Speaker 1: That's as the kids would say, thank you for that.
1:51
Speaker 2: You know you're old when you started saying that. We've
1:54
Speaker 2: got a really important conversation ahead. And anybody that's listened
1:58
Speaker 2: to this program for a while, no os planning comes
2:01
Speaker 2: up regularly for very important reasons. We're actually going to
2:04
Speaker 2: talk about the importance of not just having a plan,
2:08
Speaker 2: but actually implementing that plan and we'll talk with c
2:10
Speaker 2: jan Eric this morning about that. A couple of things
2:12
Speaker 2: to keep in mind, of course, the phone lines. They
2:14
Speaker 2: are always open to you whether you've got a question
2:16
Speaker 2: about our current topic or anything retirement planning related. Our
2:19
Speaker 2: friends from Class Financial would love to chat with you.
2:21
Speaker 2: I can just pick up phone get you right on
2:23
Speaker 2: the air at six eight three two one thirteen ten.
2:25
Speaker 2: That's six h eight three two one thirteen ten. Another
2:28
Speaker 2: really cool feature of the show is the Class Quiz
2:30
Speaker 2: question the week your chance to win a fantastic prize
2:32
Speaker 2: from our friends at Class Financial, and they have provided
2:34
Speaker 2: a twenty five dollars gift card to Amazon for that.
2:37
Speaker 2: We'll tell you a little bit later on in the
2:38
Speaker 2: program how you can win with the class Quiz question.
2:41
Speaker 2: Leak just a little tip listen closely to the show
2:43
Speaker 2: because oftentimes the question and answer come up during the program,
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Speaker 2: and before we start talking about planning and the importance
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Speaker 2: of implementing said plan, let's actually look back at last
2:52
Speaker 2: week's show and get the question an answer there as well.
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Speaker 4: Yes, last week, Forrest and I talked about maximizing your
2:59
Speaker 4: retire benefits through your employer, and the question was true
3:03
Speaker 4: or false? Roth four oh one K contributions are made
3:07
Speaker 4: pre tax, which means you will pay taxes in retirement
3:10
Speaker 4: when you withdraw the funds for income. The answer to
3:14
Speaker 4: that one, Sean is false.
3:17
Speaker 1: Congratulations to the winner from last week.
3:19
Speaker 2: And if you missed any part of that show, Yeah,
3:21
Speaker 2: Eric and Forrest put on a clinic last week, that
3:23
Speaker 2: is for sure. You can always listen back at cossfinancial
3:25
Speaker 2: dot com. Now only you can listen back to the
3:27
Speaker 2: previous shows podcasts. If you miss any part to today's
3:29
Speaker 2: program or you want to share it, head on over
3:31
Speaker 2: to class financial dot com. That's COSS k l a
3:34
Speaker 2: a s Financial dot Com talking this week about a
3:36
Speaker 2: plan and the importance of having it implemented and how
3:39
Speaker 2: a plan isn't a plan until you do that and CJ.
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Speaker 2: When someone tells you, you know, I've got my estate
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Speaker 2: plan completed or I've done my will, what does that
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Speaker 2: usually usually mean to you?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? Unfortunately, it can mean a lot of things. Sometimes
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Speaker 3: it means they downloaded a template and signed it. Sometimes
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Speaker 3: it means they worked with an attorney years ago but
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Speaker 3: don't remember what the documents say. And sometimes it means
4:03
Speaker 3: they recently signed documents and assume they're set for life. Unfortunately,
4:08
Speaker 3: when someone says I've completed my estate plans, it rarely
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Speaker 3: means what we hope it would mean. So here at
4:15
Speaker 3: Class Financial we will often say a plan isn't a
4:18
Speaker 3: plan until it's implemented. So our hope is that people
4:22
Speaker 3: will work with a good estate planning attorney to draft
4:25
Speaker 3: all the necessary documents to create what we would call
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Speaker 3: a comprehensive estate plan, and then take all the necessary
4:32
Speaker 3: next steps to implement that plan, which can include one
4:36
Speaker 3: updating the titling on certain accounts or assets, and then
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Speaker 3: number two updating beneficiaries. Now, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying, everybody.
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Speaker 3: We think it's great whenever someone engages in the estate
4:49
Speaker 3: planning process, no matter how simple or comprehensive that process.
4:53
Speaker 3: Having anything in place is better than having nothing in place.
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Speaker 3: And as we've discussed on this the show previously, according
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Speaker 3: to Pew Research, roughly sixty five percent of Americans die
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Speaker 3: without a will at all. So yes, something is better
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Speaker 3: than nothing, But having documents alone isn't the goal. Having
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Speaker 3: a plan that actually works that's the goal. Also, before
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Speaker 3: we go any further, I should just give everybody a
5:21
Speaker 3: quick reminder, we are not attorneys. We do not draft
5:24
Speaker 3: to state planning documents. Those documents should be prepared and
5:27
Speaker 3: reviewed by a qualified a state planning attorney. Our role,
5:31
Speaker 3: on the other hand, at Class Financial is to help
5:33
Speaker 3: clients activate and maintain the plans so it actually functions
5:37
Speaker 3: in the real world.
5:39
Speaker 2: Talking this morning with CJ Closs and Eric Schwartz, our
5:42
Speaker 2: retirement planning professionals from Class Financial love to have you
5:44
Speaker 2: join us this more than sixto't eight three two one
5:46
Speaker 2: thirteen ten. That's six po't eight three two one thirteen ten.
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Speaker 2: So Eric will bring you in on this conversation. I
5:52
Speaker 2: of course CJ just mentioned that those comprehensive estate plans,
5:56
Speaker 2: what are the core documents that that kind of make
5:58
Speaker 2: up that that comprehension of a state plan.
6:02
Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. We actually talked about this a little.
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Speaker 4: Bit in detail earlier this year on our February nineteenth
6:08
Speaker 4: show during Money in Motion. We called that episode the
6:11
Speaker 4: Blueprint Beyond the Will, So if listeners want to go
6:14
Speaker 4: back and listen to that show, you can find a
6:16
Speaker 4: recording on our website. But during that show we discussed
6:20
Speaker 4: similar topics along with kind of performing a deep dive
6:23
Speaker 4: on all the typical documents included in the core of
6:26
Speaker 4: state planning process. But with that being said, to answer
6:29
Speaker 4: your question, Sean, when we reference a comprehensive estate plan,
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Speaker 4: the most common documents that we're looking for in that
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Speaker 4: case is a will, a revocable living trust, powers of attorney,
6:42
Speaker 4: healthcare directives, and very importantly and probably the simplest part,
6:48
Speaker 4: beneficiary designations and or titling instructions. So beyond that, if
6:53
Speaker 4: we want to define the term estate planning, since there
6:56
Speaker 4: can be a lot of confusion around that, at its core,
7:00
Speaker 4: estate planning is going to help us determine three things.
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Speaker 4: Who makes decisions for you if you can't. Number two,
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Speaker 4: where your assets go when you are no longer here,
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Speaker 4: and number three how smoothly that transition actually happens for
7:14
Speaker 4: your family.
7:16
Speaker 2: As we talked this morning with Eric Schwartz and CJ. Closs,
7:18
Speaker 2: our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, what's interesting about
7:21
Speaker 2: this stuff is, and we're going to get into this
7:23
Speaker 2: a little bit more about kind of that implementation kind
7:26
Speaker 2: of that paper to reality, and we'll get those details
7:28
Speaker 2: in just a moment, but this is really really important stuff.
7:31
Speaker 2: I mentioned the website earlier Cossfinancial dot com. That's Coss
7:34
Speaker 2: Klaas Financial dot com. You can always listen back to
7:37
Speaker 2: this in previous shows podcasts right there. Also, get to
7:40
Speaker 2: know the team at cost Financial learn a little bit
7:42
Speaker 2: more about them as well as separate divisions at cost Financial.
7:45
Speaker 2: All at cossfinancial dot com. They're telp for number six
7:47
Speaker 2: so eight four four two five six three seven. No
7:50
Speaker 2: charge for that initial get to know your appointment at
7:52
Speaker 2: Loss Financial. It will be complimentary to you again their
7:55
Speaker 2: number six so eight four four two five six three
7:57
Speaker 2: seven will continue. Our conversation with CJ and Eric will
7:59
Speaker 2: take your next as well as Money in Motion with
8:01
Speaker 2: Coss Financial continues right here on thirteen ten wuib aking
8:05
Speaker 2: with our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, CJ Closs
8:08
Speaker 2: and Eric Schwartz talking this week about the importance of
8:11
Speaker 2: you know, the fact that a plan isn't a plan
8:13
Speaker 2: unless it's implemented, and really important conversation and actually quite
8:19
Speaker 2: eye opening if you if you haven't learned some of
8:21
Speaker 2: this stuff or are unaware of some of this stuff,
8:23
Speaker 2: there are some very important nuances as well. We'll get
8:26
Speaker 2: into some of the some of the plans from when
8:29
Speaker 2: it comes to implementation in just a moment. I hope
8:31
Speaker 2: you've had a chance to stop by the website Class
8:33
Speaker 2: Financial dot com. That's COSS k l A A S
8:36
Speaker 2: Financial dot com and they're telephone number six so eight
8:39
Speaker 2: four four two five six three seven. No charge for
8:41
Speaker 2: that initial get to know your appointment at Loss Financial.
8:44
Speaker 2: It will be complementary to you again their number six
8:46
Speaker 2: O eight four four two five six three seven. So, Eric,
8:49
Speaker 2: you and CJ did a really good job that last
8:51
Speaker 2: segment kind of laying the groundwork. Let's talk then about
8:54
Speaker 2: about implementation, and it's I've got a guess that when
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Speaker 2: it comes to that implementation, what does that actually mean
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Speaker 2: in the context of a state planning.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the big differentiator when it comes to
9:09
Speaker 4: having an effective estate plan. I think as advisors, CJ
9:13
Speaker 4: and I spend a long time with clients, generally just
9:16
Speaker 4: trying to get them to go see the attorney. And
9:19
Speaker 4: that's only the first step, right getting the documents in place.
9:22
Speaker 4: The next part of it is actually, you know, retitling
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Speaker 4: assets and putting updating beneficiary designations. It's kind of all
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Speaker 4: the work that comes after the initial meeting with the attorney.
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Speaker 4: So in our experience is that in our experience, there's
9:39
Speaker 4: about three major areas where things either come together or
9:42
Speaker 4: or they don't. So the first would be the actual
9:47
Speaker 4: action of funding trusts. Okay, So if someone creates a
9:51
Speaker 4: trust but never transfers assets into it, the trust really
9:55
Speaker 4: doesn't control anything.
9:57
Speaker 3: Okay.
9:57
Speaker 4: So we see this often when a trust is created
10:01
Speaker 4: years ago, but brokerage accounts are still individually owned without
10:05
Speaker 4: any beneficiaries or transfer on death instructions. Bank accounts have
10:09
Speaker 4: never been retitled into the name of the trust or
10:12
Speaker 4: listed as the transfer on death beneficiary. Real estate is
10:17
Speaker 4: never transferred into the trust, and in that situation, the
10:23
Speaker 4: trust exists, but it's largely ineffective. It's just a piece
10:26
Speaker 4: of paper because we haven't actually taken the action needed
10:30
Speaker 4: to make it effective. Asset titling is the second area
10:34
Speaker 4: that we see this either come together or go or
10:36
Speaker 4: come up short. So how your assets are titled matters
10:40
Speaker 4: just as much, if not more, than what the documents
10:43
Speaker 4: actually say, because ownership is going to drive the outcome
10:46
Speaker 4: in this situation. For example, if an account can be
10:50
Speaker 4: owned jointly, or it can be owned individually, it can
10:54
Speaker 4: be owned by a trust, or it can be owned
10:56
Speaker 4: by an individual. Business entities can can be owners of accounts,
11:01
Speaker 4: or they can be held in your personal name. So
11:03
Speaker 4: these decisions can completely override whatever someone thinks their estate
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Speaker 4: plan actually says. And then finally, beneficiary designations. This is
11:11
Speaker 4: one of the most overlooked and probably most powerful areas.
11:16
Speaker 4: So think of things like your retirement accounts, your life
11:20
Speaker 4: insurance policies, maybe some annuities that you own. All of
11:24
Speaker 4: these passed by beneficiary designation, not by will. Okay, so
11:29
Speaker 4: you can have the most beautiful trust or will drawn up,
11:34
Speaker 4: But if your beneficiary designation on your retirement accounts says
11:38
Speaker 4: something different than that will, that will is useless or
11:41
Speaker 4: that trust is useless because it does not control the
11:46
Speaker 4: actual distribution. So if you have a beneficiary form that's
11:50
Speaker 4: outdated or not really aligned with your estate plan, you
11:53
Speaker 4: can have assets going to unintended individuals, you can have
11:58
Speaker 4: trust strategies that you put together are just completely bypassed,
12:01
Speaker 4: and you can also have significant inefficiencies when it comes
12:05
Speaker 4: to taxation. And we say this all the time to clients.
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Speaker 4: The beneficiary form is the probably the most important estate
12:14
Speaker 4: planning document that you own, and it's the one people
12:17
Speaker 4: often forget about the most and it's really easy to say, well,
12:23
Speaker 4: you know, why why didn't the attorney help me do
12:26
Speaker 4: all of this, and why didn't they why didn't they
12:29
Speaker 4: actually change the title or update the beneficiary? And it
12:33
Speaker 4: can be really easy to use the layer as a
12:34
Speaker 4: scapegoat to say this, right, But what we often find
12:39
Speaker 4: is that people don't want to pay the estate planning
12:41
Speaker 4: attorney to perform the extra work of actually funding funding
12:46
Speaker 4: the trusts and making the beneficiary changes. And individuals say, well, no,
12:51
Speaker 4: I already paid for this estate plan, which you know
12:53
Speaker 4: certainly probably isn't cheap. I'll handle this part of it.
12:57
Speaker 4: I'll take care of it. And I think we can
12:59
Speaker 4: all we can all agree we have a pile of
13:02
Speaker 4: things that we're going to get to eventually that just
13:04
Speaker 4: never really comes to the top. So we can't just
13:09
Speaker 4: blame the attorneys in this in this space, as much
13:11
Speaker 4: as some folks might like to. And beyond that, even
13:14
Speaker 4: if the lawyer's office initially does perform all the funding
13:17
Speaker 4: work and beneficiary adjustments and I do it perfectly, you
13:21
Speaker 4: know what happens if you purchase real estate or you
13:23
Speaker 4: open a new account or transfer your accounts anytime after
13:27
Speaker 4: actually working with the attorney's office. So, as you can see,
13:30
Speaker 4: it can be easy for things to fall apart after
13:32
Speaker 4: paying really really good money to initially draft estate plans.
13:37
Speaker 2: Talks about as we talked this week, and kind of
13:39
Speaker 2: case in point with that part there, as well as
13:41
Speaker 2: the plan and the importance of implementing and of course
13:44
Speaker 2: funding trusts and updating your accounts and all that stuff.
13:46
Speaker 2: Why it matters as much as as the paperwork and CJ.
13:49
Speaker 2: It's pretty pretty that's a lot there. And as we
13:53
Speaker 2: think about, you know, the importance of implementation after you
13:56
Speaker 2: create that estate plan, I think a lot of people assume,
14:00
Speaker 2: you know, once your attorney does.
14:01
Speaker 1: The work, the job is, you know done.
14:03
Speaker 2: And it sounds like a lot of these plans just
14:05
Speaker 2: kind of quietly break down, don't they.
14:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, they do, and usually without anyone realizing it.
14:12
Speaker 3: And the simple reason or that the reason for this
14:15
Speaker 3: is simple. Estate planning doesn't fail because of bad intentions.
14:18
Speaker 3: It typically fails because of a lack of follow through
14:21
Speaker 3: and coordination. So let me give you a few like
14:24
Speaker 3: real world examples that we've seen. We've seen a trust
14:29
Speaker 3: that was created but never funded. Eric kind of talked
14:31
Speaker 3: about this before. Therefore, upon death, most of the non
14:35
Speaker 3: retirement assets had to pass through probate, which could have
14:39
Speaker 3: been avoided by simply retitling accounts and assets. So we
14:43
Speaker 3: have seen that, Eric and I can attest I don't
14:45
Speaker 3: know a dozen times in my career where a trust
14:49
Speaker 3: was created they didn't want to pay the lawyer to
14:51
Speaker 3: fund it, or maybe the lawyer didn't offer that service,
14:53
Speaker 3: whatever it might be, or maybe they bought new property
14:55
Speaker 3: and never put it into the trust. Doesn't matter. One
14:58
Speaker 3: of the primary points of having a trust is to
15:01
Speaker 3: avoid probate, just to be really clear to everybody. And
15:04
Speaker 3: so we've seen situations where trusts are created, it looks beautiful,
15:07
Speaker 3: clients say I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I did
15:09
Speaker 3: it all, and then they pass away and the estate
15:13
Speaker 3: goes right through probate because things didn't get retitled. We've
15:17
Speaker 3: seen a situation where there was a former spouse still
15:19
Speaker 3: listed as a primary beneficiary of an IRA and that
15:22
Speaker 3: former spouse was not in the giving mood. We've seen
15:26
Speaker 3: situations where accounts were consolidated, but beneficiaries weren't updated at all,
15:30
Speaker 3: so it's like, hey, I consolidated all of my old
15:33
Speaker 3: retirement accounts into this one account and then we go.
15:36
Speaker 3: But you got remarried, and so there's like other children involved.
15:41
Speaker 3: Have you reviewed beneficiaries, Like, no, I'm going to get
15:43
Speaker 3: around to that. I mean, think about that, everybody. It's like,
15:46
Speaker 3: you do the hard work of this consolidation, rollovers, you know, strategies, selection,
15:51
Speaker 3: all of that, but you don't update beneficiaries. And then
15:54
Speaker 3: finally we've seen new real estate that was purchased after
15:58
Speaker 3: the creation of the estate plan, but it never got
16:01
Speaker 3: aligned with the estate planning by retitling that into the
16:04
Speaker 3: name of the trust or listing the trust as TOD.
16:07
Speaker 3: So I do want to just pause on that. You're
16:10
Speaker 3: hearing us say this. Often either retitling or listing as
16:15
Speaker 3: transfer on death both can be effective, but your lawyer
16:19
Speaker 3: will tell you which one you should do. That's not
16:22
Speaker 3: our job. But just remember you don't always have to
16:26
Speaker 3: retitle every asset into the name of the trust. And
16:29
Speaker 3: beyond that, retirement accounts can't be retitled into the name
16:31
Speaker 3: of the trust. They can maybe have the trust as beneficiary,
16:34
Speaker 3: but that's a separate issue. So the lawyer will tell
16:36
Speaker 3: you if you need to retitle things to be owned
16:40
Speaker 3: by the trust or if the trust can just be
16:43
Speaker 3: transferred on death. Either one of those two items still
16:47
Speaker 3: avoids probate. It can be very effective, but need to
16:50
Speaker 3: talk to your lawyer about which one is best.
16:52
Speaker 2: Important to conversations to be had for sure. As we
16:55
Speaker 2: talk this morning with CJ. Class and Eric Schwartz. They
16:57
Speaker 2: are our retirement planning professionals. Come to us from COSS
17:01
Speaker 2: Financial the website Coss financial dot com. That's Coss k
17:04
Speaker 2: l a A s Financial dot com. Learn all about
17:07
Speaker 2: Class Financial on the website. You can also listen back
17:09
Speaker 2: to the podcast as well as schedule a complementary chat
17:12
Speaker 2: right from class financial dot com or pickuphone. Give me
17:15
Speaker 2: call six so eight four four two five six three
17:18
Speaker 2: seven No charge for that initial get to know your
17:20
Speaker 2: appointment at Loss Financial. It will be complementary to you again.
17:23
Speaker 2: Their number six oh eight four four two five six
17:25
Speaker 2: three seven looks into our conversation with c J.
17:28
Speaker 1: Eric.
17:28
Speaker 2: We will do that next as well as the Coss
17:31
Speaker 2: Quiz question the week as Money and Motion continues here
17:33
Speaker 2: on thirteen ten, WYB I talking with our retirement planning
17:37
Speaker 2: professionals from Class Financial, CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz even
17:40
Speaker 2: been to the website yet, I definitely would implore it
17:43
Speaker 2: a stop later. Today it's a great website Coss financial
17:46
Speaker 2: dot com. That's Coss k l a a s Financial
17:49
Speaker 2: dot com at a great information online. Also, you can
17:51
Speaker 2: listen back to this in previous shows podcasts right at
17:54
Speaker 2: colossfinancial dot com. There TEP number six oh eight four
17:57
Speaker 2: four two, five, six three seven talking this week about
18:00
Speaker 2: the importance of not only having a plan, but the
18:02
Speaker 2: other part, which is implementing that plan and CJS. As
18:06
Speaker 2: we talk about this, I think oftentimes the last thing
18:10
Speaker 2: on any document is the signature. Is that kind of
18:12
Speaker 2: the finish line here or or no not the case?
18:18
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know the answer, Sean. Yeah. So
18:22
Speaker 3: the right way to think about estate planning is this,
18:25
Speaker 3: It's not a one time event. It's an ongoing process.
18:29
Speaker 3: Listen everybody that the reality is that our job is
18:32
Speaker 3: to work with our clients to execute on a successful
18:36
Speaker 3: financial plan through her, during and after life. This includes
18:41
Speaker 3: even working with beneficiaries and children in the next generation
18:44
Speaker 3: and make sure that they receive this in an appropriate way.
18:47
Speaker 3: And we can just tell you if your goal is
18:49
Speaker 3: to actually have your plan work out then you better
18:53
Speaker 3: be reviewing that pretty consistently, so you know, Eric can atess.
18:57
Speaker 3: We meet at a minimum once per year our clients proactively.
19:01
Speaker 3: Often it's more to like two to three to even
19:04
Speaker 3: four times in a year that will meet depending upon
19:07
Speaker 3: what's happening in any given year. And there's really three
19:10
Speaker 3: phases that we would talk about when it comes to
19:12
Speaker 3: a state planning. Phase Number one is the design process,
19:15
Speaker 3: so that's where you're working with an attorney to create
19:17
Speaker 3: your will, your trust, your powers of attorney, the legal framework,
19:21
Speaker 3: all that fun stuff. Phase two is the implementation phase,
19:25
Speaker 3: which is really what we've been talking all about. A
19:27
Speaker 3: plan isn't a plan until it's until it's funded, So
19:31
Speaker 3: this is where you align account titling, trust, funding, beneficiary designations,
19:36
Speaker 3: and this is where the plan becomes functional. And then
19:39
Speaker 3: phase three would be the ongoing review process. So because
19:43
Speaker 3: over time, families change, assets change, laws change, and if
19:48
Speaker 3: the plan doesn't evolve, it could gradually becomes outdated. So
19:52
Speaker 3: from an ongoing review standpoint, at a minimum, we would
19:55
Speaker 3: suggest that you do a light review of your plan
19:58
Speaker 3: every one to two years, and then a major review
20:01
Speaker 3: after any significant life change such as a marriage or
20:05
Speaker 3: divorce or birth of a child or grandchildren, or a
20:08
Speaker 3: death in the family or retirement, or there's a large
20:11
Speaker 3: change in your assets. And honestly, even outside of those events,
20:15
Speaker 3: we often find small things just drift over time, like
20:19
Speaker 3: beneficiary designation. So again, our job as the financial planner,
20:25
Speaker 3: I should say, the beauty of our job as a
20:27
Speaker 3: financial planner is that we have these consistent connections. So
20:31
Speaker 3: for us, this is just part of our normal process.
20:33
Speaker 3: Right It's like, hey, let's review those estate planning documents
20:37
Speaker 3: and let's make sure everything is coordinated again. And then
20:39
Speaker 3: people go, oh, CJ, didn't we just do that three
20:41
Speaker 3: years ago? Yep, and we're going to do it again,
20:45
Speaker 3: And so it's just it's in working with a good
20:47
Speaker 3: financial planner, it should be part of the normal routine
20:50
Speaker 3: to make sure that you're reviewing things. And then Eric
20:53
Speaker 3: and I will quite often say, hey, your spouse passed away,
20:58
Speaker 3: I need you to go meet with a lawyer again,
21:00
Speaker 3: or hey, you adopted a child, I need you to
21:04
Speaker 3: go meet with the lawyer again. So we're often pushing
21:06
Speaker 3: people back to their estate planning attorneys to get things updated.
21:09
Speaker 1: Great stuff this morning, as we talked with CJ.
21:11
Speaker 2: Class and Eric Swartz, our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial,
21:14
Speaker 2: the website class financial dot com that's Closs Klaas Financial
21:18
Speaker 2: dot com and their telephone number six So eight four
21:21
Speaker 2: four two five six three seven no charge for that
21:24
Speaker 2: initial gets no you appoyment at Class Financial. It will
21:26
Speaker 2: be complimentary to you and so Eric. For folks that
21:29
Speaker 2: are listening this morning and probably thinking to themselves, silly people,
21:33
Speaker 2: I already did mine. I did my estate planning years ago,
21:36
Speaker 2: what's the first step they should be taking this morning.
21:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, believe it or not, I've I've answered this question
21:43
Speaker 4: of time or two before, and I think the best
21:46
Speaker 4: way to think about it is just as a simple checklist.
21:49
Speaker 4: So the first one. The first step would be to
21:51
Speaker 4: confirm that all of your documents are actually up to date.
21:55
Speaker 3: Step two.
21:55
Speaker 4: Review how your accounts are titled. Make sure that you
21:59
Speaker 4: haven't opened any accounts that didn't get titled correctly, or
22:03
Speaker 4: you know, you haven't had one of those major life
22:04
Speaker 4: events that referenced.
22:06
Speaker 1: Step three.
22:07
Speaker 4: Verify all of your beneficiary designations. Step four, make sure
22:12
Speaker 4: your trusts are actually properly funded. And then step five
22:16
Speaker 4: coordinate across your advisor, your attorney and your accountant, So
22:20
Speaker 4: that's big. We want you to bring together all of
22:23
Speaker 4: the professionals in your life to make sure everyone understands
22:27
Speaker 4: the plan that you have and everyone is on the
22:30
Speaker 4: same page in terms of setting things up correctly. So
22:33
Speaker 4: if those five areas are aligned, you are in a
22:35
Speaker 4: really really strong position. If not, you may want to
22:39
Speaker 4: address some of those gaps. And at the end of
22:42
Speaker 4: the day, estate planning it's just not about having like
22:45
Speaker 4: a binder on a shelf. And believe me, attorneys love
22:48
Speaker 4: to put together a really pretty binder when you get
22:50
Speaker 4: your state planning done, you know, and you put that
22:53
Speaker 4: on the shelf and feel really good about it. But
22:55
Speaker 4: the real estate plan is having a system that works
22:58
Speaker 4: when your family really needs it the most right and
23:01
Speaker 4: when everything is actually implemented and aligned. That's when estate
23:05
Speaker 4: planning really is not going to be adding complexity to
23:09
Speaker 4: your life. It's going to be removing it.
23:11
Speaker 2: That is great stuff and really good, really good insight
23:14
Speaker 2: this morning. Definitely want to make sure if you miss
23:16
Speaker 2: any part today's program, you want to listen back. You
23:18
Speaker 2: got other folks in your life you want to share
23:20
Speaker 2: the podcast. You can always head on over to Class
23:22
Speaker 2: Financial Dot com that's coss k l aa s financial
23:25
Speaker 2: dot com. You can subscribe as well as listen back
23:27
Speaker 2: to this in previous shows podcasts right from the website
23:30
Speaker 2: class financial dot com. You can also schedule, by the way,
23:33
Speaker 2: that complementary chat right from the website class financial dot com.
23:35
Speaker 2: Or give them a call six oh eight four four
23:37
Speaker 2: two five six three seven. No charge for the initial
23:40
Speaker 2: get to know you appoyment tech Class Financial. It will
23:42
Speaker 2: be complementary to you again their number six oh eight
23:45
Speaker 2: four four two five six three seven. Go on to
23:47
Speaker 2: hold onto that telephone number now as well, because it's
23:49
Speaker 2: time for the Class Quiz Question the Week.
23:51
Speaker 1: It works like this.
23:51
Speaker 2: In just a moment, I'll ask you the class quiz
23:53
Speaker 2: question the Week. You will then have thirty minutes from
23:55
Speaker 2: the end today's program to call the Class Financial office
23:57
Speaker 2: right here in Madison at six oh eight four two
24:00
Speaker 2: five six three seven. If you are the first car
24:02
Speaker 2: correct answer, win this week's prize, which is a twenty
24:05
Speaker 2: five dollars gift card to Amazon. This week's closs quiz
24:09
Speaker 2: question the week is this true or false? Retirement account
24:13
Speaker 2: beneficiaries are automatically updated any time you update your will
24:18
Speaker 2: or trust is that true or is that false? Telephone
24:20
Speaker 2: number six so eights four four two, five, six, three seven.
24:23
Speaker 2: First call with correct answer win this week's prize that
24:25
Speaker 2: twenty five dollars gift cards to Amazon.
24:27
Speaker 1: Don't forget.
24:28
Speaker 2: That's Cost Financials telephone number as well at six oh
24:30
Speaker 2: eights four four two, five, six three seven CJ.
24:34
Speaker 1: Eric. It's always great chatting with you. We'll talk real
24:36
Speaker 1: soon and enjoy this beautiful day. Thanks Sean, Sean, see guys,
24:39
Speaker 1: see you guys. News comes your way next.
24:41
Speaker 2: Actually, uh, we've got doctor Marty Greer next here at
24:43
Speaker 2: thirteen ten WIBA. This is Money in Motion with Cost
24:47
Speaker 2: Financial Asset Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor registered with
24:52
Speaker 2: the SEC. The contents of this show are for informational
24:56
Speaker 2: purposes only and should not be considered individual investment advice.
25:00
Speaker 2: US Financial does not offer tax or legal advice. Any
25:03
Speaker 2: opinion offered during the course of this show is the
25:06
Speaker 2: opinion of that particular investment advisor representative, and not necessarily
25:10
Speaker 2: the opinion of colass Financial