As winter starts to come to a close and signs of spring begin to show, a spring refresh for the house, the closet and the yard are typical. Why not make it a practice to do the same with some of the basics in your financial life?
Here are some things to prioritize this spring that will help lead you into the rest of the year with less financial stress.
- Utilize your My Ancora client portal to help you create an up-to-date view of your net worth, track expenses and store critical documents. My Ancora, powered by eMoney, has a very powerful interface and we highly recommend that clients utilize it. Reach out to your Ancora team if you need assistance accessing the portal.
- All your Ancora accounts will populate in the portal, but you can also link in any external accounts as well. Keeping a detailed view of your personal net worth is easy with this tool.
- There is a spending tool within the portal that allows for detailed budgeting and cash flow planning.
- The Vault within the portal provides a protected online document storage location. It’s a great place to store past tax returns, insurance policies, estate documents or even a note to loved ones if something were to happen.
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Consider account consolidation where appropriate. Creating a view of your net worth, as described above, will help identify if there are duplicate types of accounts. Combining and rolling over accounts will lead to fewer line items to track and can make asset management more streamlined.
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Ensure that you have the proper estate documents in place and that they convey what you want them to. At a bare minimum, we strongly recommend all our clients have wills and power of attorney documents in place. In many cases, revocable trusts may also make sense. Our Estate & Wealth Planning team does not draft documents, but we are always happy to review them and discuss.
- Understand and confirm asset titling. Proper titling of your various assets is an important step to ensure that assets are directed and protected in the ways that the owner wishes. If mistakes are made or details overlooked, there can be costly issues down the road. By strategically titling assets, you are able to control assets into the future, avoid probate and manage any tax concerns.
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- Payable on Death (POD) or Transferrable on Death (TOD)- By adding these designations to investment accounts, the account transfers at death without being subject to probate. These can be added to both individually-owned or jointly-owned accounts.
- Joint with Rights of Survivorship- Both owners share the asset. At the death of one of the owners, their share automatically transfers to the surviving partner.
- Revocable Trust- There are many types of trusts, but a living revocable trust is what we see most commonly. Trusts allow for you to control the asset during your life and after your death as the trust document dictates what happens to the asset and who has subsequent access and control. Assets held in trust are not subject to probate and are creditor-protected after the grantor’s death.
- Named-Beneficiary Assets- These are assets such as IRAs, 401(k)s and life insurance policies. When a beneficiary and contingent beneficiary are named, the asset avoids probate and transfers directly to the named beneficiary at the owner’s death. It is very important to confirm these beneficiary selections are still accurate year-over-year as circumstances change in life.
Getting this spring cleaning done can help set you up for an organized and successful financial year!