April 22, 2021
Retirement and Legacy Blueprint
What is a Retirement and Legacy Blueprint? Attorney Chris Berry discusses Retirement and Legacy Blueprint in this episode of Daily Wisdom.
Estate Attorney and Advisor Chris Berry of Castle Wealth Group answers questions on retirement and estate planning every Wednesday at 1pm. Register via this link or give our office a call at 844-885-4200.
Castle Wealth Group and Christopher Berry help families with estate planning, elder law, retirement planning, and tax planning from their offices in Brighton, Ann Arbor, Livonia, Bloomfield Hills, and Novi.
Castle Wealth Group helps families with their legal, financial, and tax planning for their retirement and legacy.
With the use of legal structures like revocable living trusts, Castle Trusts (asset protection trusts), Chris Berry and Castle Wealth Group can help your family plan, protect, and preserve what is important through their Retirement and Legacy Blueprint Process.
For more info visit:
https://castlewealthlegal.com/home
https://michiganestateplanning.com/
Episode Transcript
Creating Confidence, Clarity and Peace of Mind
Hey, this is Chris Berry with Castle Wealth Group and today we’re going to talk about what is a Retirement and Legacy Blueprint. If you like this information, please make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Christopher Berry is a leading estate attorney and advisor in the area of retirement and legacy planning. He has been featured in publications, such as Ford’s, Kiplinger’s, Crain’s Detroit and more. He’s the host of the weekly radio show and podcast, The Chris Berry Show. He’s a national Fox leader, as it relates to retirement and legacy planning and has authored the Amazon best selling book. The Caregiver’s Legal Guide.
What we do at Castle Wealth Group is we help clients create a Retirement and Legacy Blueprint and what this does is it creates confidence, clarity, and peace of mind and comforts for retirement and God forbid something happens to you, what you leave to the next generation. And so this Retirement and Legacy Blueprint, we first start with the initial visit, where we learn about your world. You learn about us. We figure out where you’re at. We figure out what your goals are and we figure out whether we can help you achieve your goals.
Then from there, we’re going to ask for a lot of information from you, because we’re going to have to put together a financial and estate plan, and tax plan and income plan, and health care plan and legacy plan, that gives you peace of mind. Then once we get all this information, we’re going to begin putting together your Retirement and Legacy Blueprint.
So we’re going to map out the rest of your retirement and then we’re going to map out what is that legacy you leave to the next generation. And then once we’ve done that, we’re going to begin implementing the plan. So it’s one thing to have a plan but then we need to make sure we implement that plan.
Three Cs
Then we’re going to have reviews, constant reviews, because just like any plan, things can happen. No one predicted 2020. No one predicted the pandemic. So we’re going to have to meet regularly to adjust that plan. And again, with this Retirement Legacy Blueprint, we think it offers you the three Cs; gives you comfort, gives you the peace of mind to know that you have a plan moving forward, and you have a plan for what you leave to the next generation.
It’s going to give you confidence. You’re going to have confidence now. You’re going to be able to sleep easier at night and it’s going to give you clarity. All those questions will be answered for you. When do you take social security? How do I avoid probate? What do I do to protect against long-term care costs? Imagine having clarity in all of those different issues.
This Retirement Legacy Blueprint really focuses on five key areas. First, creating that income plan. A lot of times, this is the foundation for your peace of mind in retirement. So while you were working, it was all about accumulation, accumulating as much wealth as possible. Well, as you move into retirement, now it’s about preservation and distribution and that’s that income plan. When do we take social security? Should we take a pension or the lump sum buyout? How do we draw on our assets to make sure our money lasts as long as we do. Which assets should we draw drawn first? Should we draw from the taxable IRAs? Should we be drawing from the IRAs? Should we be drawing from the taxable accounts? Those are the questions we answer as we put together your income plan.
Now the second piece of it is an investment plan. How should we invest your assets in such a way that you’re comfortable, so that you have peace of mind that no matter what the market’s doing, you’re going to be okay. Wat we do is we first see where your portfolio is at. Then we figure out how much risk or loss are you really willing to take on in retirement and then we craft a portfolio that matches your personalized individualized risk score.
So once we have the investment plan, then we need to look at the tax plan as well. One of the biggest risks and biggest opportunities right now is with regards to tax planning. We’ve had a lot of changes in the tax world with The Secure Act, with The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with The Cares Act. Most people think taxes are going up in the future. So the question is, do you have a plan for how to address that? And that’s what we do as part of our Retirement Legacy Blueprint is we make sure we have a tax plan.
Blueprint
Third, we need to make sure that we have a healthcare plan. What’s the best way to take Medicare? Which plan A, B, C, D? Should we do an advantage? Should we do original Medicare? What supplement plan is the best?
And then what about long-term care? What’s our plan for a home care, assisted living, or the devastating cost of nursing home care. We know current statistics say one out of every two, individuals will need nursing home care. Three out of four will need some form of long-term care. The average senior nursing homes, two and a half years, and the average cost of nursing homes, eight to $12,000 a month. So what is our plan for longterm care?
And then fifth, legacy planning. Whatever’s leftover, how do we make sure it goes to the next generation as efficiently and effectively as possible? Do we need a will? Do we need a trust? If we need a trust, what type of trust do we need? Do we need a revocable trust? Do we need a castle trust, which is an asset protection trust. Those are all questions we answer as part of our Legacy Planning Process.
So again, that Retirement and Legacy Blueprint, it starts with first getting to know you and you get to know our firm. Then from there, we give you a lot of homework. We need a lot of information. And then once we get that information, we start putting together that draft Retirement Legacy Blueprint, that’s going to give you clarity, going to give you confidence, going to give you comfort in retirement and what you leave to the next generation.
Then we implement that plan and we review it. And then again, that Retirement Legacy Blueprint, it covers five key areas; income planning, tax planning, investment planning, healthcare planning, and legacy planning, all geared to give you peace of mind for your retirement and what you leave to the next generation.
So hopefully this has been helpful, helping you understand what a Retirement Legacy Blueprint is all about. If you want more information, give our office a call at (844) 885-4200. This has been Chris Berry with Castle Wealth Group. Take care.
Castle Wealth Group has clients across the nation and helps families plan, protect, and preserve what is important by creating a Retirement and Legacy Blueprint.