Archive for January 2026
Why Authority Planning Matters as Much as Asset Planning
For many advisors, estate and financial planning conversations naturally center on assets: how they are titled, how they will transfer, how they are protected, and how they are taxed. Asset planning is tangible, measurable, and familiar territory for financial, legal, and tax professionals. But there is another side of planning that is just as critical…
Read MoreWhen Growth, Liquidity, or NIL Income Requires Structural Change
As advisors, we often see clients evolve faster than their planning. A business takes off, a liquidity event changes the balance sheet overnight, or a young client begins earning significant Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) income. In each of these moments, the client’s existing structure may no longer match their reality. This article is designed…
Read MoreWhy Waiting Too Long to Plan Often Costs Families More
Many families assume estate planning is something to do later—after retirement, after the kids are grown, after the business stabilizes, or when life feels less busy. The reality is that waiting often creates more stress, more expense, and fewer options for the people you love. Planning early does not require perfection. It requires intention. And…
Read MoreYour Adult Child Has Income and Assets — But No Guardrails
Many parents breathe a sigh of relief when their child reaches adulthood, starts earning an income, and begins building assets. It feels like a milestone that signals independence, stability, and success. But from an estate planning perspective, adulthood without legal and financial guardrails can create significant risk—for your child and for your family. This is…
Read MoreWhat to Do When Adult Children Start Earning, Owning, or Managing Assets
There is a meaningful shift that happens when your child becomes an adult and starts earning income, buying property, investing, or managing assets. It is a milestone that often brings pride—and sometimes a sense of relief that they are becoming financially independent. But it is also a milestone that should trigger a planning conversation. Young…
Read MoreWhen Business Ownership Becomes a Family Legacy Issue
For many entrepreneurs, a business is more than a source of income. It represents years of hard work, personal sacrifice, and a vision for the future. For families, a business can become a shared identity and a cornerstone of wealth, values, and opportunity for generations to come. At some point, business ownership stops being just…
Read MoreYou Are Magic
There is something deeply human about coming around the corner. We spend so much of our lives in the stretch just before it—moving forward, doing the work, carrying the weight of what we know and what we cannot yet see. The corner is where the familiar ends and something new begins. It is where certainty…
Read MorePlanning for Long-Term Care Before It Becomes a Crisis
Why proactive conversations matter more than ever for the clients you serve For many families, long-term care planning is something that sits quietly on the “someday” list—until a health event turns it into an urgent, emotional, and expensive crisis. As trusted advisors, you are often the first to recognize when clients are entering that risk…
Read MoreAdvising Families in the Middle
Parents Aging, Children Growing, Assets Expanding By the time many clients reach their 40s, 50s, and early 60s, they find themselves in the middle of life’s most complex season. They are raising or launching children, supporting aging parents, building businesses, and accumulating meaningful assets. For advisors, this stage presents both an opportunity and a responsibility.…
Read MoreWhen Parents Need Help—and No One Is Prepared
Most families do not plan for a crisis. They plan for birthdays, graduations, and vacations. They plan for retirement. But they rarely plan for the moment when a parent suddenly needs help making decisions, managing finances, or receiving medical care. And yet, this is one of the most common turning points families face. When aging…
Read MorePlanning Isn’t About the Past. It’s About What Comes Next.
Many people think estate planning is about what happens when you are gone. It feels backward looking. A task for later. Something to check off once and never revisit. But the truth is, good planning is not about the past. It is about what comes next. It is about the life you are still living,…
Read MoreCaring for Aging Parents Without Putting Your Own Assets at Risk
Caring for aging parents is one of the most meaningful roles many adults will ever take on. It is an expression of love, responsibility, and gratitude. But it can also come with financial and legal risks that many families do not anticipate until it is too late. Adult children often step in to pay bills,…
Read MoreYour Family Changed. Your Plan Should Too.
Life moves quickly. Families grow, relationships evolve, and circumstances shift in ways we never expected. Yet many families set up an estate plan once and assume it will last forever. The reality is simple. When your family changes, your estate plan should change too. If your plan no longer reflects your family, your wishes, or…
Read MoreWho You Walk With Matters
You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. For a long time, I believed that success was primarily an individual pursuit. Work harder. Learn more. Push through. Be resilient. Those are important, and they are part of the story. But they are not the whole story. Over the years, I have…
Read MoreBefore the Next Chapter Takes Shape
Change rarely arrives gently.It doesn’t ask for permission, and it doesn’t wait until we feel ready. It unsettles the ground beneath our feet, even when we know—deep down—that staying where we are is no longer an option. Transition is especially hard because it lives in the in-between. The old version of life, identity, or certainty…
Read MoreWhen Trusts Become Litigation Risks Instead of Protection Tools
Trusts are designed to reduce risk — not create it. When properly structured and administered, they offer privacy, continuity, and clarity during incapacity and after death. Yet in practice, many trust disputes arise not from bad actors, but from ambiguity, outdated drafting, and unclear authority. For professional advisors, these issues often surface only once a…
Read MoreThe 5 Red Flags That Signal an Estate Plan Will Fail in Execution
As professional advisors, we often encounter estate plans that look sound on paper but break down in execution. These failures rarely stem from poor drafting alone. More often, they arise from misalignment between legal documents, asset structure, and real-world administration. Below are five red flags that frequently signal future execution issues — many of which…
Read MoreWhen Success Creates New Planning Risks No One Warned You About
Success is usually something we celebrate — and rightly so. Growing a business, increasing investments, or reaching financial milestones often feels like confirmation that the hard work paid off. But success can quietly introduce new planning risks that few people are warned about. Many families discover these risks not during growth, but later — when…
Read MoreWhy Long-Term Care Planning Can’t Be Ignored
Many estate plans are created with the best of intentions: protect assets, avoid probate, and make things easier for loved ones. On paper, everything looks solid. But there is one critical issue that is often overlooked — long-term care. When long-term care planning is missing, even a well-drafted estate plan can unravel at the exact…
Read MoreWhen Business or Investment Assets Outgrow Your Original Estate Plan
Most estate plans are created at a moment in time — when life feels relatively stable and predictable. You may have owned a home, some savings, retirement accounts, and perhaps a small business or rental property. Your plan made sense then. But growth has a way of changing everything. If you’ve built a business, expanded…
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