When a Client’s Capacity Is in Question: Managing a Financial Crisis in Real Time
There are calls advisors hope they never receive—but increasingly, they are becoming part of the landscape of wealth management.
A family member, often a spouse or adult child, contacts you urgently. They are concerned that the client can no longer manage their finances, is making unclear or inconsistent decisions,...
Protecting the Portfolio and the Person: Five Critical Moves After a Client Is Diagnosed with Dementia
A dementia diagnosis changes the nature of the advisory relationship. Before a diagnosis, the focus may be on recognizing subtle changes and cautiously responding. After a diagnosis, it shifts to managing risk, supporting the client, and putting protective structures in place while the client can still participate in decisions.
When a Client’s Behavior Changes: A Guide for Advisors
At some point, most advisors will work with clients who experience cognitive decline.
The challenge is that these changes rarely become obvious all at once. They tend to emerge gradually - subtle at first and easy to explain away. A missed detail here, a repeated question there. On their...
Sudden Wealth Event: Restructuring for Complexity and Tax Efficiency
Good news in the form of a sudden windfall can force a family into a new financial position that materially alters their legacy and estate plan.
While newly acquired wealth may seem purely positive, it can attract the attention of the Internal Revenue Service and prompt an evaluation of...
How to Support a Client’s Adult Child Through a Personal Crisis
Whether it is the onset of a disability or chronic illness later in life or struggles with substance abuse, financial collapse, or bankruptcy, a personal crisis affecting a client’s adult child can affect the entire family.
Parents may feel an urgent need to help but are not always sure...
The Unexpected Death of a Spouse: Immediate Support for Clients
Your clients planned a life together. Nothing could have prepared them for this.
When a client’s spouse unexpectedly passes away, death is no longer theoretical. Decisions that may have been discussed briefly in a planning conversation are now a lived reality, and the situation demands both sensitivity and urgency.
A Windfall and a Target: Navigating Family Expectations After Sudden Wealth
Good news in the form of a sudden windfall can put your family in a new financial position that may materially alter your legacy and estate plan.
And while it may seem like a pure positive, it can also attract the attention of the Internal Revenue Service and prompt...
When an Adult Child Has a Crisis: How an Emergency Can Reshape Your Estate Plan
You never stop being a parent. Even when your child reaches adulthood, they are always in your thoughts - and, in many cases, your estate plan.
There may be times when your adult children need you just as much - or more - than they did while growing up....
Sudden Widowhood: Navigating Legal and Financial Chaos after a Spouse’s Death
You and your spouse planned a life together, and nothing can fully prepare you for their loss. Like most people, you may have let the thought cross your mind only to quickly push it away because it felt too painful to consider. But some level of planning is one of the most...
The Risks of an Unfinished Estate Plan – and Why You Should Complete Yours
Planning for the future, especially your own mortality, is never easy. Even when you understand the importance of creating a will or trust to protect your loved ones, finding the motivation to complete an estate plan can be difficult. Yet an unfinished estate plan is almost as risky as having no plan...