Estate planning isn’t just for the ultra-wealthy—it’s for anyone who wants their wishes clearly handled. Deanne Rosso and Gary Stoller cover the basic documents most people need, plus one of the most commonly missed items that can override your will: beneficiary designations.Want help organizing an estate planning checklist as part of your financial plan? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#EstatePlanning #WillAndTrust #PowerOfAttorney #HealthcareDirective #Beneficiaries #LegacyPlanning #FinancialPlanning #FamilyPlanning #PersonalFinance #ElevateWealthAdvisory

College savings can feel overwhelming when you’re also trying to plan for retirement. Deanne Rosso and Gary Stoller discuss why 529 plans are a common choice, how they compare to Coverdell accounts, and how to balance saving for education with keeping retirement on track.Want help choosing the right approach for your family? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#CollegeSavings #529Plan #CoverdellESA #EducationPlanning #PersonalFinance #FamilyFinance #FinancialPlanning #SavingForCollege #RetirementPlanning #ElevateWealthAdvisory

Long-term care planning is about choices and protecting your family and finances. Deanne Rosso and Gary Stoller explain what long-term care planning covers, why waiting can limit options, and the first conversation families should have to prepare for future care needs.Want to build this into your retirement plan? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.

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Long-term care planning can feel uncomfortable, but it matters. Let's talk about it today on Elevate Wealth. Hey, everyone, I'm Deanne Rosso with Elevate Wealth Advisory, and I'm joined here today by our director of wealth advice, Gary Stoller. Hey there, Gary. Hello. Gary, when it comes to long-term care planning, I hear people say, "I'm just going to think about that or deal with it later." Do you find that's the case? Yes, all the time. You know, it's one of those topics that you may not need it. The the numbers actually are not in our favor, though. The majority of American seniors, about 70% actually do need some type of care before they pass away. Yeah. At some point, honestly, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, they're full of people who said that they would never go there. So, it's a need. And so, it is easy to kind of kick it down the road, but really it's about having choices and options if you get to that point. And, for most families, they really don't want to burden their children or burden any other family members at that point in life. Yeah. So, in simple terms, what is long-term care planning? Well, it's really thinking through and planning for the possibility I might need help at some point later if my health declines. Maybe activities, just normal activities of daily living, they're called. And that's not just a nursing home. Everyone kind of just they naturally think of a nursing home when they think long-term care. It could be care in your own home. It could be an assisted living facility. There's a lot of memory care now, but there are costs with all of these, and there can be some sticker shock. Sure. They can be kind of significant. So, it's kind of about figuring out how are we going to cover these costs, and like I said, you know, maintain my dignity and have a good experience if I need help rather than being caught off guard and having the whole family caught off guard. Sure. So, what's a good first step for someone who's never talked about long-term care planning before? Yeah, that's a that's a good question. I would say, just have the conversation. Just start the conversation with family, if you're married with your spouse with your partner, children and talk about, you know what? If I do need help at some point in my life, what do I want that to look like? How should we think about handling that? Let's evaluate some realistic costs that are going to be added to our cost of living, if you will, and then you want to build your financial plan to be able to accommodate basically paying those bills. So, now, that could be with assets you have. You could self-insure. There may be other assets or maybe equity, things like that, that could be used to fund that need, or there could be even long-term care insurance, different kinds of insurance. Maybe even a combination, a little bit of both. Absolutely. So start the conversation, right? And sometimes we find we're the ones that help start that conversation with our clients, right? As advisers, you know, really important to talk with your adviser, talk with your family about what you want. Start with the end in mind, right? What is it that you want to happen and then let's make that plan for it, right? Yes. Fantastic. Well, thank you, Gary, for those insights and for joining me today. And if you have questions about long-term care planning and what that looks like for you, we're here to help. Visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click "let's talk." We'll see you next time.

Insurance is easy to set and forget—but your life changes. Deanne Rosso and Gary Stoller explain what insurance planning really is, how it protects your financial plan, and why reviewing coverage after major life changes can help prevent gaps or overpaying.Want help making sure your coverage fits your life today? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#InsurancePlanning #FinancialPlanning #RiskManagement #LifeInsurance #DisabilityInsurance #UmbrellaInsurance #WealthManagement #RetirementPlanning #PersonalFinance #ElevateWealthAdvisory

Insurance planning. What does that actually mean, and why does it matter? Let's find out today on Elevate Wealth. Hey, everyone, I'm Deanne Rosso with Elevate Wealth Advisory, and I'm here today with Gary Stoller, our director of wealth advice. Welcome Gary. Thank you. So, Gary, insurance is one of those topics that people know they should address, but they often put it off. So do you see that happening a lot? Yeah, I really do. Uh, it's one of those things they can kind of just kick down the road and procrastinate and put it off. A lot of families end up addressing this when there's like a major life change. Yeah. Maybe they move, or change jobs, have children, or when someone passes away, they might take a look at it. But really it's designed to protect the plan that you built. So, in plain terms, what is insurance planning? I would say it's making sure you have the right coverage, the right type of coverage, the right amount, and the right time. Mhm. Now, this can be health insurance, life insurance, disability, liability insurance. Also, you just want to make sure that your beneficiaries are up to date. Yep. That's that's an item that's just easy to forget about, and sometimes you know events can come up and people don't go in and update their beneficiaries when they really want to. Absolutely. So when someone says, "I already have insurance," what's your follow-up question? That's great. Do you actually know the details? Yeah. Like maybe, when's the last time you reviewed it? Is it some vague well general understanding...I think I understand the basics of it or no, I clearly understand the details, the amounts, and I reviewed it a year ago, or two years ago, or this year. Yeah. So reviews are really important because you want to make sure that there's not any gaps. Maybe when you got the coverage there was a gap you didn't notice and you realize it now. Yeah. We actually had clients that on the other side of the coin that received an inheritance and paid off a debt and then no longer need the protection. Yep. And so sometimes they're paying for something that they don't even need and just because they haven't taken the time to review their insurance coverage that you know maybe that money could be better used elsewhere. Yep. Agreed. And so you know you could be overinsured or or underinsured. We talk about gaps. That's correct. Right. So just important to do that review. That's a really great point, Gary. And you know, if any of you have questions about insurance planning, are you overinsured? Are you underinsured? Do you have the right kind of coverage? We're here to help. You can visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click "let's talk." Thanks for joining, and we'll see you next time.

Everyone wants one clear number for retirement spending, but the right answer depends on your plan. Joseph Hardeman and Deanne Rosso discuss why rules of thumb like the 4% rule are only a starting point, and how guardrails can help you spend with confidence through changing markets.Want to know what’s realistic for your situation? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!

The big question in retirement: how much can I safely spend each year? Let's talk about it today on Elevate Wealth. Hello, I'm Joseph Hardeman with Elevate Wealth Advisory, and I'm here today with Deanne, our president and CEO. Deanne, thank you for joining us. I'm glad to be here, Joseph. Deanne, I feel like everyone wants a number. Like, just tell me how much I can spend. Yeah, that's a big question, you know, what's my number? And you hear this on TV commercials and things, too, like "do you know your number?" It's realistic, right? Because people want clarity. They want to know what to expect. But the reality is: your number is going to be very different from your neighbor's number, and from your brother or your sister's number. So it really all depends on your lifestyle, and your savings rate, and what you have built up in that nest egg for retirement. Now, people hear a lot about the 4% rule. How do you talk to clients about that? We definitely use 4% sort of as a rule of thumb or as a starting point. We want to make sure that, you know, the nest egg that you've built, all those savings that you've built up, that you're not going to overspend. And sometimes that 4% is like a nice safe withdrawal rate. But again, it all depends on your personal situation. It depends on how those funds are invested. And how inflation pans out, and are your funds going to grow to outpace inflation? And so 4% is a is a good rule. It's a good rule of thumb. But I think that number could be higher or lower just depending on your personal situation. Now, what about if a client comes to you saying they're worried they'll spend too much early on? Yeah, I think, you know, that's an another great scenario. People I think do worry about spending too much early on, because when you first retire there are things you want to do, things that, travel maybe that you've been planning since your pre-retirement days. Things like that. And so what we want to do is, we want to build the plan with guard rails, right? We want to make sure that all the things that you want to do are incorporated into that plan so we know how much you're going to spend at certain phases in life, or at least we're somewhat certain. And then we can make adjustments over time. Maybe there are certain years when you don't need to spend as much. Maybe there are other years when you'll have more expenses that are needed...just for home upkeep or things like that. So, we just want to make sure that we've planned for all of these contingencies. Like I said, put those guard rails in place, because the last thing you want is to feel like every retirement spending decision is a gamble. You want to have a little bit more clarity on that. I like that. Guard rails. If you want to know what a realistic spending plan looks like for you in retirement, visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click let's talk. I'll see you next time.

Taxable account, IRA, or Roth—where should retirement withdrawals come from first? Joseph Hardeman and Deanne Rosso explain why there isn’t one perfect order for everyone, and how a tax-smart approach can help keep income steady and avoid unwanted tax surprises.Want a personalized withdrawal strategy? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#RetirementIncome #TaxPlanning #RothIRA #Investing #ElevateWealthAdvisory

When you retire, which account should you pull from first, taxable, IRA, or Roth? We're talking about it today on Elevate Wealth. Hi everyone, I'm Joseph Hardeman with Elevate Wealth Advisory, and I'm here today with our president and CEO, Deanne Rosso. Deanne, thank you for joining us. I'm happy to be here, Joseph. This question comes up constantly. Deanne, do you assume there's one right account for people to spend first in retirement? You know, people do assume that, they do. They think that there's one right account that they shouldn't withdraw from first. And you know, most retirees have different types of accounts. And the type of account that you pull from affects lots of things. It affects your taxes now. It affects your Required Minimum Distributions later. So there's lots of different decision points, if you will, that go into which type of account you should pull from first. So what's the simple answer? The simple answer is: it depends. like, as is the answer to every simple question. It depends. But we often use a blended approach. And what I mean by that is maybe the way that we're taking withdrawals is from different types of accounts simultaneously. And a lot of times, we do that just simply for tax purposes. You know, one account you take from is fully taxable. Another account type, like a Roth, may not be taxable at all. And then you have an account that only part of it, like capital gains, are taxed. So, a lot of times that the simple answer is not so simple, but it's just deciding which types of those accounts work together to get you the best tax outcome. And what would you say is a common mistake people make when they try to do this on their own? Oh, that's a really great question. You know, I think it's just not understanding what the taxation is of certain account types. So, for example, I've had clients before that wanted to buy a new car. So, they took a sizable withdrawal out of their IRA to buy a car in cash and not understanding that those dollars were fully taxable at ordinary income rates. So, not only did they owe tax on the withdrawal, but it also because they had taken such a large withdrawal, it pushed them into a higher tax bracket the next year. So, or or that year. And so I think that sometimes that's a mistake that people make is just not realizing the tax consequences of withdrawals. So when you're going into building a plan, what would you say is the first thing you really look for? Well, the first thing I'm looking for is, you know, what income do they need? What income do you need to live on? And then what income do you need maybe for the extras like in that example for buying a car? And then we're going to decide, okay, you know, here are your income sources. Here's what you have available to you. Here's how each of those are taxed. And how can we put those together in a way that's most efficient for you and your personal situation? It's all helpful information, something really everyone should consider. If you want help building your best tax withdrawal plan, visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click let's talk. We'll see you next time.

Should you take Social Security early because everyone else is doing it—or consider waiting? Aspen Townley and Deanne Rosso discuss why the best choice depends on your full income plan, including monthly benefit amounts, spouse considerations, cash flow needs, and taxes.Want help comparing your options side by side? Visit elevate-wealth.com and click Let’s Talk.🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#socialsecurity #RetirementPlanning #RetirementIncome #TaxPlanning #ElevateWealthAdvisory

Your friends say take the Social Security early, but your adviser says maybe wait. Who's right? Let's talk about that today on Elevate Wealth. Welcome back. I'm Aspen Townley here with Elevate Wealth. Today I'm sitting here with Deanne Rosso, our president and CEO. Deanne, I'm glad you're back. Always happy to be here. So, I have to ask, do you ever hear this exact line from clients? "My friends tell me to take my Social Security as early as possible, but you're telling me to wait." All the time. We hear that all the time and we do advise clients differently based on their life situation. So we hear all the time, "well I went to lunch with my friends and everyone else is taking social security now" or "they're telling me I should take it early." But it really that choice really depends on your own personal life scenario. So yes, to answer your question, we hear that a lot. Makes sense. So why would waiting ever be the move? Well, oftentimes, waiting increases the benefit that you're going to get. And also when you are married, have a spouse or when you're divorced, or when you are widowed or widowered, there are lots of different options that are available with Social Security. So the important thing is that you analyze it for your own situation because what you're doing and your family and your life is different than, you know, your best friend or your friends at lunch. And so it's very very important that your own benefit is analyzed and in context with the rest of your retirement plan, as well. Okay. What is one thing that you wish people would take a look at before they decide? Just doing some side-by-side comparisons of what they would actually get over their lifetime by taking it early, versus delaying that decision and waiting versus maybe even delaying all the way until the maximum age of 70 for themselves, and if they're married, as a couple, because it's really the lifetime benefit that matters, not what matters as far as what you get today. Ah, that makes sense. Thank you, Deanne, for your insight. If you want help reviewing your Social Security choices, visit elevate-welp.com and click let's talk. See you soon.

Retirement is more than hitting a savings number—it’s about creating a paycheck. Aspen Townley sits down with Deanne Rosso to talk about the “I wish I’d known this sooner” moments, including how taxes, timing, and income decisions can shape your retirement.If you’re getting close to retirement and want help mapping this out, visit elevate-wealth.com and click "Let’s Talk."🔗 Website: https://elevate-wealth.com🔗 Facebook: / elevatewealthadvisory 🔗 Instagram: / elevatewealthadvisory Subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell 🔔 to stay updated on the latest investment strategies and financial planning tips!#RetirementPlanning #RetirementIncome #TaxPlanning #FinancialPlanning #ElevateWealthAdvisory

What do people wish they knew before they retired? Let's talk about it today on Elevate Wealth. Hi everyone, I'm Aspen Townley with Elevate Wealth Advisory. I'm sitting down today with Deanne, our president and CEO. Deanne, thank you for joining us. I'm happy to be here, Aspen. Okay, so this topic comes up all the time. Deanne, do you ever hear clients say, "I wish I would have known that sooner when they're getting ready to retire." All the time. There are so many things that go into the retirement decision. And then, you know, a couple years down the road, people will look back and say, "Oh, I wish I had known this. I wish I had known that." And so, it is part of our job to help bring those things up and think about what are the things that you need to be prepared for when you're thinking about retirement. Ah, gotcha. So, what's the most common "I didn't know that" moment? Oh, that's a great question. You know, I think when you have worked a whole career and you've built up all of these savings, you understand that you have this nest egg for retirement, but sometimes you don't understand how that translates into how you actually get a paycheck in retirement. And so thinking through all of your income sources, where do those paychecks come from, taxes associated with it, timing, all of those kinds of things, I think are probably a top-of- mind decision for pre-retirees. Makes sense. So, if someone was a year or two out from retirement, what is the first conversation you'd want to have with them? Yeah. I want to think about, you know, how much income do you need? What do you need to live on in retirement? What do your expenses look like now and in the future? You're talking about, you know, the next half of your life's journey. And so, we want to think about how do we pull that paycheck? And we want to think about, you know, also things like what benefits do you get from your employer now that you're going to need to replace on your own in retirement, like health care, for example. So, I think there's lots of little decisions that add up to the big overall retirement picture, and we want to have those conversations heading into retirement. That's such a good point. Thank you, Deanne. If you're getting close to retirement and want help mapping this out, visit elevate-wealth.com and click let's talk. See you soon.

Freezing your credit is a simple step that can help prevent identity theft and stop new accounts from being opened in your name. Deanne Rosso and Clarke Holt explain what a credit freeze does, what it doesn’t do, and when to temporarily unfreeze it.

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#CreditFreeze #IdentityTheft #CyberSecurity #PersonalFinance #ElevateWealthAdvisory

Want a simple way to protect your identity and your finances? Let's talk about freezing credit today on Elevate Wealth. Hey everybody, I'm Deanne Rosso with Elevate Wealth Advisory, and I'm here with Clarke Holt. Hey, Clarke. Hey, how are you? I'm good. So Clarke, what does it mean to freeze your credit, and what does it actually do? Okay, so a credit freeze means you are going to hopefully all three of the bureaus, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and you are freezing your credit. And that way someone cannot open new credit or new loans in your name. It does not affect your existing credit cards or your ability to use your existing credit, lines of credit, things like that. So this is more about stopping new accounts being opened on your behalf. Exactly. Not stopping someone from using cards you already have. Right. So, you still have to protect that. You still have to protect that. And you do that a lot of the ways we've talked about prior series like, you know, strong passwords, unique passwords, multifactor authentication, alerts, things like that. Okay. So, when should somebody freeze their credit, and when should they unfreeze it? So, I think, I tell people I think you should freeze your credit no matter what, no matter how old, no matter if you have built credit, go ahead and freeze it. It's a great way to protect yourself. And what you can do with these three credit bureaus is you can actually add a...what they call...we call it unfreeze, but you can add a thaw to your credit. So basically, you can thaw your credit for 24 or 48 hours or a period of time. So if you're going car shopping in Atlanta for the weekend, you can.. and then it immediately automatically will refreeze after that time period. That gives them time to pull your credit if you're, if you are purchasing that car. So, just only when you're going to apply for credit. Gotcha. Okay, that's really smart. And so just note also, I think, that when you freeze your credit, you're sometimes unable to access things like your social security. You're unable to set up a social security online account, but if you already have a login, you can still access that, right? So, just know you may need to unfreeze your credit when you want to do things like that or thaw it for a period of time. One thing to add is these credit bureaus do give you usernames, passwords. Some give you PIN numbers that you really have to keep up with. So if you want to go in and add a thaw, you've got to have that PIN number. So it's very important you keep up with those as well. Right. So another layer of password security as well. Yeah, absolutely. So that's super super helpful. And for those of you who are watching, these what seem like small steps, I know they take time, but they're definitely things that can protect your identity, can protect your finances, can protect you from those online hackers and scammers and and folks who try to open accounts in your name. So, if you'd like some advice or help or guidance in ways that you can protect yourself online or you can protect your finances, we are here to help. You can visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click "Let's talk." Thank you for joining me, Clarke. Absolutely. And thank you all for watching and listening.

Those update reminders can be annoying, but they often include important security fixes. Deanne Rosso and Clarke Holt explain why updates matter, plus how to tell the difference between real updates and fake “update” pop-ups that could be risky.

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#SoftwareUpdates #OnlineSafety #CyberSecurity #ScamPrevention #ElevateWealthAdvisory

Those software update reminders are really annoying, but are they actually important? We'll find out today on Elevate Wealth. Welcome. I'm Deanne Rosso with Elevate Wealth Advisory and I'm joined by Clarke Holt. Welcome, Clarke. Thank you. Glad to have you with me today, Clarke. So, Clarke, tell us why do software updates matter so much? So, software updates matter because they often include security patches and fixes, bug fixes, things like that. So, this can help alleviate any kind of vulnerabilities that are exposing us to hackers and that the hackers may already know about, so to speak. If we delay those updates, and we often do hit, you know, remind me in 24 hours, that leaves us exposed. Yes. And that's not good. No, that's not good. So, what's a practical approach to installing these updates that won't disrupt your day? The easiest thing is just make everything automatic. So turn on automatic updates whether that's your laptop, your desktop, cell phone, iPad. And so that just keeps it so much easier for us and not we don't have to either be worried if it's suspicious. Yeah. And so that's the main thing right there. Well, I think you know you make a good point that something could feel suspicious. So we often see popups that say "update now," and sometimes they do feel sketchy. So how do we tell a real update from a fake one? So, a little bit like our series on phishing emails, updates often are real, but they can be fake. And so, it usually would come from the, you know, the device itself or the apps inside the device or maybe from the app itself or from the app store. If you have any concern, best thing to do is avoid it, or treat it as suspicious and maybe go to the app store or go to your settings and then update from there. But, again, don't click on anything. Don't hit update. It could be suspicious and then leave you vulnerable. What are some of those things that are good rules of thumb to kind of stay safe? And going into your settings, you know, just update from apps you trust or software programs you know that you have. It doesn't hurt to take a second, and third look at any kind of update that pops up. But typically, if something's popping up and and giving you kind of a sense of urgency, maybe just take a breath, and go about it a different way, but do treat it maybe as suspicious until you know that it's the real deal. Yeah. Only updates from things that you trust, right? I mean, and get guidance if you need it. You know, you can go online, you can look up things. You can call um Microsoft, for example. You can call places. Call your adult children. Exactly. You know, or call your teenage children. They'll probably know too. So, best thing you can do is just act with caution in these situations. So, great guidance. Thank you for being with me today. And if you'd like to build safer habits around your financial life and online logins and making sure we're avoiding phishing emails and things like that, we're here to help. You can visit us at elevate-wealth.com and click "Let's talk." Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.