This sketch hangs in our office, and it serves as a reminder that our behavior carries greater significance than our investment strategy. This brings up the question, “Why is our behavior so difficult to regulate when it comes to money?” While the response to this question varies from person to person, when we engage in conversations with our clients about their deeply rooted values, a recurring theme often emerges: money… Read More

Clients often approach us with a burning question, “Am I on track to have enough money to retire?” This inquiry surfaces most frequently among our pre-retiree clients, especially when we begin our partnership. The importance of this query is undeniable. Within the initial few weeks of our engagement, we can offer a comprehensive analysis of your retirement preparedness and outline the necessary steps to meet your retirement objectives. This process… Read More

  Welcome to the final installment of our third-quarter blog series covering various aspects of risk management. Today, we are exploring a fundamental element of financial planning that has significant implications for your daily life: the value of liquidity. What is Liquidity? To start, it will be helpful to define liquidity. In the realm of financial planning and wealth management, liquidity refers to how easily and quickly an asset can… Read More

  Many of our clients recognize the many blessings they have received and are motivated to be generous. This often takes the form of annual charitable contributions to their church and other worthy organizations. Additionally, some individuals wish to leave a portion of their estate to charity after their passing. When considering leaving estate assets to charity, the initial inclination is often to specify a percentage in your will for… Read More

  Trusts come in all shapes and sizes, and many professionals promote them for various reasons. In part 4 of our blog series on risk management, we are sorting through some of the common reasons to have or not to have a trust as part of your estate plan. To start off, we need to discuss the differences between a revocable and irrevocable trust arrangement: Revocable – A revocable trust… Read More

Today’s blogpost will focus on the importance of well-thought-out legal documents and the importance of the persons you will name to fill vital roles within your estate plan. Having current legal documents that accurately state your choices, preferences, and future estate distribution wishes is an essential component of your financial plan, which we review during our 3rd quarter focus on Risk Management. One of the initial estate planning choices that… Read More

As Garry noted in last week’s blog post, the third quarter of the year is when the Master’s team, through our Total Wealth Management planning process, performs a review of our clients’ risk management strategies. In part one of our series, we are exploring the age-old question: “Do I need life insurance?” In its simplest form, the main intent of life insurance is to provide a tax-free death benefit to… Read More

In our Total Wealth Management planning process at Master’s, the 3rd quarter is where we play some ‘defense’, with our focus on estate planning and insurance. More broadly, the theme for this quarter is Risk Management. Over the next 5 weeks, we will cover several different topics regarding risk management: Do you need life insurance? – Life insurance comes in many forms, but at its core, it is intended to… Read More

I recently finished a book about insider trading in hedge funds and the traders involved. Insider trading is taking non-public information about a publicly traded company and profiting from that information. It is illegal and has put several hedge fund managers and traders in jail. On the surface, the individuals in this book sound like the typical greedy and corrupt Wall Street professionals we have read about before. However, when… Read More

Over the past three years, I have had the privilege of personally assisting nine individuals in their transition from full-time employment to retirement. I believe it is essential to delve deeper into these transitions and extract valuable insights that can greatly benefit you in your own retirement journey. Let’s begin by exploring the motivations behind these retirement decisions. Among the nine individuals, four experienced employment disruptions that compelled them to… Read More