Our Blog
5 Lessons Learned from the 10 Year US Bull Market
By Eve Kaplan, CFP® We’re celebrating 10 years of a remarkable bull market in US stocks. Here are 5 lessons reinforced during this time: Lesson 1: Stay the Course When Things Get Rough The 2008-09 crash seemed to be The End of the World because the entire banking...
Does It Pay Off To Invest In A Financial Plan?
By Eve Kaplan, CFP® Professional Does it pay off to have a financial plan in place? Thanks to a number of new studies, it’s possible to answer this question clearly and unambiguously: Yes. One such study by Morningstar* tracked households over 15 years and...
Women – Especially “Suddenly Single” Women – Are At Greater Risk of Outliving Their Money
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner™ Women run a higher risk of outliving their money in retirement than men. The risk is even greater for single women – especially women in the lowest pre-retirement wage earning quartile (meaning the lowest 25% of wage...
Four Simple Steps To Improve Your Financial Health
By Eve Kaplan, CFF® Professional Here are four simple steps to improve your financial health. If you’re working with a financial advisor, you should be in good hands because these potential pitfalls should have been addressed from the get-go. A Certified...
The Powerful Positive Financial Impact Of Delaying Retirement
By Eve Kaplan, CFP® Practitioner New data show the powerful positive financial impact of delaying retirement by even just a few months. Postponing retirement even by a month – for some – can equal or exceed the positive impact of saving more each year for 10 years...
Better Annuities Are Fixed Annuities
by Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner ™ In my prior article I explained the kinds of annuities that are “bad” or “ugly” for investors: virtually all variable annuities, including indexed annuities (that are misleadingly categorized at a type of fixed annuity). My...
Annuities Can Be Good, Bad or Ugly. Which Is Which? Part I
Annuities can be good, bad or downright ugly. How can you tell if your annuity is good, or if you should consider purchasing one? And what’s an annuity, anyway?. In this two-part series, I’ll begin with a review of the “bad and ugly” annuities (most variable...
Smart Charitable Giving That’s Easy and Cuts More of Your Taxes Than The “Write a Check” Route
By Eve Kaplan, CFP® Here’s a smart way to make charitable donations that’s easy and cuts more of your taxes than the regular “write a check, take a tax deduction” route. The tool I recommend is called a Charitable Trust (sometimes also called a Donor Advised Fund)....
Womens’ Special Financial Planning Needs That Advisors Overlook
by Eve Kaplan, CFP(R) Professional Womens' special financial planning needs that advisors may overlook in two ways: 1) advisors don’t always acknowledge the different planning needs women have and 2) advisors don’t always communicate well with female clients –...
How to Design Your Ideal Retirement
By Eve Kaplan, Certified Financial Planner ™ Would you like to design your ideal retirement? Where do you begin? First of all, what does retirement mean to you? If you’re in a relationship, does retirement mean the same to you as it does to your partner? Do you know...