3 Tips to Safeguard Your Family’s Finances
March 4, 2021
My good friend’s dad was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and is going downhill fast. It’s a stressful time for the family, especially sorting through all of their personal and business financial affairs. In my 19 years advising clients, I’ve seen many issues come up with families dealing with health challenges or simply aging. Wealth and health (mental and physical) decisions inevitably collide.
3 Tips for your family to PREPARE for the future:
1. Consult with an attorney to get a Power of Attorney in place, and ensure your family and Fiduciary Financial Advisor are introduced to your trusted POA. It should be someone you trust completely, who is organized, and can do a good job managing your affairs. Ideally, you want someone who personally cares about you and your well-being.
2. Simplify your financial life as you get older. You don’t want your financial surrogate to walk into a disorganized hornet’s nest. Simplify your assets as much as possible and share all your information with your surrogate well in advance of the need for them to step in. Create policies and written procedures about how your assets will be managed and your financial affairs handled.
3. Although one person will be in charge of your affairs, it is best to provide your entire family with information about your financial picture and how it is being managed. This will reduce family conflict when the need for your care occurs.
We have a 5-minute “Financial Wellness and Safety” assessment that will help you identify areas that need to be addressed within your family. We also have great attorneys to help you.
Sincerely,
Chad Willardson, CRPC®, AWMA® is the president and founder of Pacific Capital, a fiduciary wealth advisory firm he started in 2011 after nine years of climbing the ranks as an investment advisor at Merrill Lynch. Currently, Chad also manages a $350 million investment portfolio as the elected city treasurer in his community. Chad is the author of the Best Selling Book: Stress Free Money: Overcome These Seven Obstacles to Find Financial Freedom. He created and trademarked The Financial Life Inspection®, a unique process to remove the stress people feel about their money. He’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., California Business Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, NBC, Entrepreneur, and ValueWalk. Chad and his wife live in Southern California with their five beautiful children.
