Purpose with Mark Bertrang

Before you discuss will-planning with an attorney, prepare your hard data collection. Mark's guest – Katelyn Doyle, attorney with Johns, Flaherty & Collins, SC discusses those items you may wish to outline prior to your first meeting with a lawyer. Our discussion includes a conversation of your dependents, special needs individual who maybe in your life, life insurance, debt, retirement account balances, non-retirement balance, second homes, business assets, real estate investments, personal representatives, executors, guardians, trustees, trust distributions & payouts for your children, guardian gifting, default estate planning, charitable giving and having a financial power of attorney. If you would like to request a copy of our fillable will preparation form used during this podcast, please email us at [email protected] and include "Will Prep Form Request" in the subject line. Here is an additional resource you may wish to listen to: Advanced Healthcare Directives https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/investmentsdonthug/Denise_Nicholson.mp3

At some point in our lives, things become real. In fact, sometimes things become 'really' real. Years ago Mark Bertrang had a client who worked in the silk screening industry. This specialization creates the display printing on the front of your kitchen appliances and the imprinted dials and woodgrain dashboard finishes of your automobile. Mark had always been impressed with some of the beautiful finishes he would see on the dashboard detailing of premium automobiles. He was disappointed to learn that the 'wood' finishing was barely wood at all, which he admired so much. Instead, it was a simply a sheet of paper (so, it was actually wood) incased inside epoxy or plastic. So, was it real or was it not real? The discussion of life insurance can be the same, as Mark shares the story of how this young design engineer's life ended abruptly. How might term insurance play out as compared to permanent whole life insurance? Was one real and the another not real?

As an employer, how do you show up for your team? As a team member, how do you show up for your co-workers? How do you show up for any audience, whoever that audience may be? monthly I engage in a half-hour Zoom personal critique with my good friend Michael Baker, a wealth advisor from Alberta, Canada. When we're sharing our international Zoom Room, we debate the steps we use to make the lives better for our families, our clients, our communities and lastly - ourselves. As believers in servant leadership mindsets, we question ourselves in the service and guidance we provide others. A question we asked during a most recent visit was "How do you show up for others?" For the last 35+ years of my career, this meant to 'dress' for the occasion; to 'dress' out of the respect for my clients – which means a dress shirt, a tie and a suitcoat. What does this mean to my clients and what does this mean to me? What's correct? Is there a standard I should consider? Is there a right or wrong way to approach this question? What does "How do you show up for others" mean to you? How do you show up for those around you? Are you making choices based upon what you want or what the expectations are from others. There may not be an absolute correct answer, except for the correct answer for you, specifically. What is your answer?

It is seldom that I am able to provide a conversation that will be needed by nearly every family at some point in their lives. I am blessed to have had this intimate end-of-life conversation with two medical providers who have answered the very important calling of working in hospice care. My guests are: Dr. Larry Skendzel - Medical Director, Gundersen Hospice and Dr. Jasmine Hudnall - Department Chair: Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Medical Director: Advance Care Planning department, Gundersen Health System. Following this audio outline, resource links are provided. 02:50 – Hospice: As a noun is it a person, a place or a thing? 07:00 – Young age hospice compared to elderly end-of-life care. 09:00 – Letting go, on our own schedule – Individual mysteries. 12:30 – Rewards of working as a medical caregiver. 14:45 – Bettering the quality of life. 18:00 – What improvements can be made? 20:00 – Death at home or in a facility. 21:00 – Four levels of Hospice care. 23:15 – Who makes-up the team? 26:15 – Religious faith and personal spirituality. 28:15 – Volunteers. 30:15 – Covid's effect on Hospice. 32:35 – Fear of Hospice. 36:30 – Who pays the costs? 40:30 – Initiating the hospice conversation. 43:00 – How are Doctors trained? 46:25 – Has medical training changed? 49:45 – What do you wish your patients knew? 51:45 – Hospice verses Palliative medicine. 55:40 – Where do I find more information? 57:00 – Additional online Resources. 57:30 – A typical day as a hospice doctor. Additional Resources: https://www.gundersenhealth.org/palmer/hospice https://www.nationalcoalitionhpc.org https://www.nhpco.org/

There are three questions you need to ask yourself. Mark Bertrang read these questions from Joe Polish's new book "What's in it for them?" this morning as he engaged his team, as he does each day at 9:00am sharp! These questions are: #1. Where are you? #2. Where do you want to go? and #3. How are you going to get there? These three questions might be the only ones you need to ask yourself in determining your present, your future and your journey. During this video Mark Bertrang also explores the additional three roadblocks that might be preventing you from succeeding in your personal goals.

This is the time of the year that we begin focusing upon taxes. Jason Steinhoff, CPA and Partner at Hancock & Robinson is our guest. We'll discuss the selection of a tax preparer, your own preparation prior to that first meeting, how are audits conducted and what happens during that audit; how does your return move through the IRS and what are the pitfalls you should lookout for.

This is the time of the year that we begin focusing upon taxes. Jason Steinhoff, CPA and Partner at Hancock & Robinson is our guest. We'll discuss the selection of a tax preparer, your own preparation prior to that first meeting, how are audits conducted and what happens during that audit; how does your return move through the IRS and what are the pitfalls you should lookout for.

At the end of the year, it's a perfect time to listen-in on a conversation on life's reflections, with guest – Michael Baker during this episode of "Purpose with Mark Bertrang". Guest: Michael Baker, Baker Wealth of Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada 00:00 – Insight comes from others, not yourself. 01:30 – Family Christmas Traditions 06:30 – Why we close our office for a full week at the end of December 10:30 – Asking questions, adjusting for conversations and being connected 14:15 – Resolutions and living with integrity 19:45 – Focusing, letting go and striving for a better work/life balance 22:30 – Don't wait for perfection 24:15 – Getting a Two-fer or a Three-fer out of everything you do 25:50 – Get "Negative First Responders" out of your life

When winter arrives, become much more cautious. While having my morning coffee at breakfast this morning, I received a text from a team member notifying me that they would be arriving late into the office due to his young and still somewhat inexperienced winter teenage driver sliding into the ditch on the way to school. He was waiting for a tow truck along the side of the road. This incident only damaged the driver's feelings; but it provided important future wisdom, that can only be learn through the experience. We can't all know all things or expectance all things. That's when we look toward the wisdom of others, who have gained that wisdom through their own years of experience.

What does the package say for throat lozenges? How about this - "Has not been evaluated by the food and drug administration." Yet, we buy them. I did in fact, for a sore throat and cold I'm working through right now. When you need to make life decisions more important than a sore throat lozenge, the small print becomes much more important. I will oftentimes see people enter into contracts without reading them. Think of when you purchased a house for the first time and you sat at the bank conference table to sign a thirty-year mortgage. The loan officer perhaps simply said - "Sign here, and here, and here and there". Did you wonder what you were really signing. The same should be the case when you enter into a life insurance contract. It may be called a policy, but it's actually a contract between you and the life insurance company. What does it really say? What are the guarantees. Do you know?