Lifestyle & Mindset
Winning! Finding Your Competitive Edge in Life
Whether you're on the field or in the marching band, the spirit of competition shapes who you become.
The American Retirement Advisor — News & Insights
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inheritance planning
The Call Your Kids Will Get: Inheritance From the Other Side of the Table
You spent forty years building it. It will land in your kids' lap during the most expensive decade of their lives. This week we sit in their chair, because the best inheritance plans are designed from the receiving end.
Lifestyle & Mindset
The Lobster Roll Trail, Part 2: Cash Only in Harpswell, Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain
Part 2 of our weekend break from the serious stuff. A no-mayo roll at the end of a peninsula where they only take cash, a bench in Camden harbor where the masts sing, and a 3:30 AM alarm on Cadillac Mountain. Plus the question this whole trip is really about: what was all the saving for?
Lifestyle & Mindset
The Lobster Roll Trail, Part 1: Plum Island to Kennebunkport
We spent all week on The Widow's Penalty, and it was heavy for a reason. This weekend we are taking a break and doing something fun: a two-day road trip up the New England coast, one lobster roll at a time. Part 1 runs from a comeback-story shack on the Plum Island Turnpike to a round bun on a bridg
Retirement Income
What to Do Financially When Your Spouse Dies: The First 90 Days
She started over from zero and built a seven-figure retirement on her own. Most survivors never need to do that, because most of what goes wrong in the year after a loss is preventable with a calm list and the right order. The finale of The Widow's Penalty: the first 90 days, what can wait, and what
inheritance planning
A Maintenance Log and a Mother's Love: Why Home Records Matter
Linda's careful home maintenance records became an unexpected gift to her children after her passing, showing how simple documentation can ease difficult transitions.
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How It Works
1
Discovery
We start by learning what you want to accomplish and what you have to work with. We can't help if we don't know the full picture.
2
Build Your Plan
We keep the best of what you already have, replace what can be better, and make sure nothing is falling through the cracks.
3
Review Every Year
As life changes, so should your plan. We lock in an annual review to make sure everything is still working for you.
Medicare & Healthcare
See What Smart Medicare Planning Looks Like →
Medicare & Healthcare
Three Medicare rumors to ignore this fall
The Annual Enrollment Period opens today, and three claims are making the rounds that are wrong or out of date: a new escape hatch when your doctor leaves, a $2,000 drug cap, and a rule that you must re-enroll every year. What the official sources actually say.
Medicare & Healthcare
Will any Medicare plan pay for long-term care?
As people compare 2027 Medicare plans, the biggest late-life cost is not on any plan summary. Medicare and Medigap do not pay for long-term care. What Medicare does cover runs out fast, what care costs today, and the questions a couple can settle calmly, before either of them needs it.
Medicare & Healthcare
Why can a $0 drug plan still bill you?
Plan shopping starts Thursday, and plenty of plans show a $0 premium. For about 1 in 12 people with Medicare, that is not the whole bill. The income-based Part D surcharge follows you to any plan, so here is how to shop around it instead of into it.
Medicare & Healthcare
What do the extras really cover?
Dental, vision, and hearing are the extras people notice first, and the plan letter rarely shows their limits. On Medicare.gov, the dental flag read 'not specified' for every plan we pulled. Where the real limits live, and why the extras belong last on your list, not first.
Retirement Planning
Discover How Retirees Protect Their Income →
Retirement Income
Can you beat Eddie at this week's quiz?
Eight true-or-false questions from a busy week: charitable giving, the income surcharge on $0 plans, long-term care, three Medicare rumors, and Social Security's 2027 raise. Every answer links back to the article it came from.
Retirement Income
Your 2027 raise is set. What will you keep?
Social Security's 2027 cost-of-living adjustment is 3.6%, about $75 more a month for the average retiree. What lands in your January deposit depends on a few numbers that are not out yet, plus some that are. A short household check before the year ends.
Retirement Income
Giving to charity this year? The rules changed
Starting in 2026, the first slice of every itemizer's charitable giving is no longer deductible, and top-bracket households see their deductions trimmed. If you are 70½ or older, there is a cleaner route straight from your IRA, and it has to happen by December 31.
Retirement Income
The Annual Physical for Your Money
You would not skip your annual physical, and you should not skip your money's either. To close out our week on financial interactions, here is what actually happens in a real annual review, piece by piece, and the moment from one of ours that I would put up against any product pitch in the country.
Inheritance Planning
Learn How Families Preserve Their Legacy →
Lifestyle & Mindset
Is an estate plan from 2004 still a plan? Fiscal Fridays Episode 8 answers that and three more, now on YouTube.
Four real situations, thirty seconds each: a widow who found four accounts she never knew about, a man who sold his company and felt nothing, a couple whose plan is twenty-two years old, and three kids who will not agree. Plus Greg Frantz on thirty years of Medicare. Hayes's thirty-two-minute cut is
inheritance planning
How to Split the House and the Heirlooms Without a Family War
The thing that actually splits families isn't the money. It's a ring, a chair, a photo, and the feeling of being left out. Here is how you hand it all down without anyone stopping speaking.
inheritance planning
How to Ask Your Parents If They've Actually Planned Anything
Asking your parents about their estate feels like reaching for the inheritance. It isn't. It's making sure the plan they built still does what they wanted. Here are the words that open it gently.
inheritance planning
How to Give the Grandkids Money Now, and Watch It Matter
The money you give while you are alive to watch it land is worth more than the same money left behind. Here is how to do it without stepping on the parents or spoiling the kids.