With open enrollment season approaching, I was talking with a client about health care coverage and the accounts that are offered to help fund health care costs. Under her health insurance plan, she has the option to use a Flex Spending Account and under her husband’s plan, he can use a Health Savings Account. We […]

We’ve written about education savings accounts (known as 529 plans) in the past (you can read initial post here). I was working with clients on 529 plan funding approach this week and they asked what happens if the accounts are overfunded. While this doesn’t seem to happen all that often, it certainly is a possibility, […]

It’s almost that time of year when you start to think “what was it that I needed to get done before 12/31 again?” – both on a personal and financial level. A popular item in the financial column is the processing of Required Minimum Distributions from pre-tax investment accounts. We covered this question/topic in detail […]

This week, I’ve had a few discussions with clients concerning areas of their financial journey beyond investments – areas such as income taxes, life insurance, and estate planning. A common theme to those discussions is the need to surround oneself with qualified and trusted advisors. Let’s take a closer look! Beyond Investments At Windermere, our […]

I spoke with a client this week about funding a Roth IRA for their child. This is a great gift idea, as well as a sound financial strategy, so I thought I’d review it this week I’ve written quite a bit about Roth IRAs versus traditional IRAs in the past. (you can find one such […]

I met with clients this week that own a home in another state. They have owned it for a few years and during that time, they have used it mostly for their personal use (themselves and family). In the past year, they have started renting the property out to tenants. When the house was first […]

While meeting with a prospective client earlier this week, he asked about a key differentiating factor in the world of financial advisors. Specifically, he asked what makes a financial advisor a fiduciary (which Windermere and its advisors are). This is an excellent concept for everyone to understand so let’s dive in What is Fiduciary Duty […]

A client reached out this week inquiring asking for help to decipher the various types of fees being charged by another financial advisor to a family member. I thought it was a great topic to cover as there can be lot of confusion (and not much clarity) on this topic. While this may be a […]

A lot of the questions I receive from clients are triggered by newspaper articles or stories on the business news channel that they come across. That was the case this week when a client asked about a tax mentioned in the Wall Street Journal – the Net Investment Income Tax. Let’s take a look What […]

If you have federal student loans (like my client’s son does), you may be wondering when (or if) payments will resume after a three-year pause (originally put in place during COVID) This pause also included a moratorium on interest accruals. The short answer – payments are coming back – and soon. Recently, the Department of […]