With the passage of the SECURE Act & SECURE 2.0 Act, Stretch IRAs are no longer an option. So, how should investors with an IRA manage this and what should beneficiaries do with their inherited IRA? Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, share strategies investors may consider with their IRAs.

In 2022, Congress passed SECURE 2.0 Act, and this new legislation has significant changes to the ways you save for retirement. On this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, detail important changes in SECURE 2.0 Act that may affect your retirement savings. They’ll discuss required minimum distributions, Roths, saving for education expenses through 529 Plans, student loan payments and more.

In celebration of Your Life Simplified’s 100th episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, look back at the last 100 years in finance and the markets. While history doesn’t provide a perfect roadmap for the future, it can teach us useful lessons about bear markets, industry trends, risk and the economy.

A Roth IRA is an important component of your retirement portfolio. In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss mistakes that can be made when investing in a Roth IRA and how to avoid them. Topics discussed include spousal contributions, Roth 401k options, the 5-year rule and contribution eligibility.

On this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, is joined by special guest, Brett Kunshek, head of options. They break down what an option is and dive into risk mitigation, generating income and return enhancement. They’ll also cover areas of frustration for investors and examples.

To kick off the new year, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, share financial goals and new year’s resolutions you may want to set in 2023. From retirement planning to estate planning and gifting, we cover ways to help you achieve your goals.

With only a few weeks left in the year, make sure you check everything off your financial list. On this episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor provide an end of year wealth planning checklist, which includes areas like retirement planning, Required Minimum Distributions and gifting.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Christina Lynn, practice management consultant, continue their conversation about financial conflicts between spouses. Topics discussed include tips for managing spousal differences as an advisor, suggestions for spouses when talking about financial conflict and examples of financial conflict.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Christina Lynn, practice management consultant, dive into the topic of financial challenges between spouses including divorce, overspending and how wealth advisors and clients can communicate during this difficult time.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, share what they are grateful for. Each discusses one thing in the financial industry and one personal thing they are cherishing this season. Listen to hear more about their gratitude for compounding interest, investments and financial planning.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Mike MacKelvie wealth advisor, and special guest Kevin Ahern, Human Resources Manager, discuss Health Savings Accounts and the 5 benefits of having one.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Mike MacKelvie wealth advisor, and special guest Kevin Ahern, Human Resources Manager, discuss how to get the most out of your open enrollment.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and special guest Joe Reynoldson, associate wealth advisor, get into the spooky seasons spirit by discussing five financial decisions that can haunt you and tips to avoid making these mistakes.

Description: In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss what a donor-advised fund is, the best strategies to use a donor-advised fund and how they can be beneficial to your charitable giving.

In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss how financial decision making can be tied to emotion and why it is important to make logical decisions when managing your finances.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss how retirement plan rollover works. They also discuss your rollover options, including but not limited to the pros and cons of using an IRA as a rollover vehicle, and what options may be beneficial to your long-term goals.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, andMichael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss the checklist you should run through before the end of the year to make sure your taxes are in ordergoing into the new year.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, talk about pensions and how you can use your pension to elevate your retirement plan. Mike and Valerie discuss the factors to consider when thinking about your pension, risk factors and the other pension options that may be available to you.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Michael MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss the ins and out of tax-loss harvesting. Topics discussed include the selling of a security, capital gains brackets and tax deferrals.

Compensation for executives can come in different forms and be more complicated than simply earning a salary. In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Natalie Haggard, senior wealth advisor, discuss the different retirement plans that are advantageous to executives, compensation in the form of stock and strategies to effectively make the most of your executive compensation.

Long-term care insurance can be complex and costly. With so many different plans available, it can be difficult to know which one is right for you and your family. In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss the thing you should consider when searching for a long-term care insurance plan and how to have a successful long-term care plan in place to save money and have the essential care required.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss the complexity of college funding and strategies to tackle to rising cost of college. Mike and Valerie weed through the complexity of paying for college talk about effective ways to pay for college including 529 plans, Roth IRAs, brokerage accounts, and things to consider before applying to a school.

How do you, as an investor, sift through all these choices that you have when creating your wealth plan? What’s the order of operations when building your financial plan and managing your cash flow? In this week’s podcast episode, Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, is joined by special guest Abby Foster, associate wealth advisor, as they discuss tips to help maximize your wealth through this order of operations as you pursue your financial goals.

The one constant in life is change, and the investment world is certainly no exception. As the world changes, more investors seek to invest in a socially responsible way. In this week’s podcast episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, talk about how you can invest in a socially responsible way. This area of investing can seem overwhelming and complicated, but we break it down for you: SRI=Socially Responsible Investing – This is typically religious or moral principles. We’ll screen for things people like to avoid and exclude them from investment. ESG=Environments, Social, Governance – This could be pollution, green energy initiatives, labor relations or customer satisfaction. SCI=Socially Conscious Investing is a combination of SRI and ESG.

Inflation is unavoidable right now. You see it every where you look and on the news, but what can we do to combat this inflation? Is there anything you can be doing differently in your portfolio?  In this week’s podcast episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, talk through several different variables affecting inflation.  

An estate plan can play an important part in your overall wealth plan and can make a large impact on your spouse and children. Taking a few steps can help ensure that your estate doesn’t end up in probate and your family isn’t left with a headache. On today’s episode, Mike MacKelvie is joined by special guest Drew McDowell, attorney and senior wealth advisor at Mariner Wealth Advisors, as they talk through 5 costly estate planning errors that celebrities like Prince, Whitney Houston and James Gandolfini made in their own estate plan and learn what you can do to help make sure you’re not making these same mistakes.

When keeping up with the, sometimes sensational, media coverage of the markets, things can seem bleak without proper context. In this week’s episode, Valerie Escobar and Mike MacKelvie talk us through how to assess the information we glean from these news story headlines, and how it might impact our investing plans.

Are you thinking about retiring early? In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, discuss several things you should think about before retiring early. Considerations discussed include Roth conversions, capital gains, when to take social security and how much income you should take during retirement.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Mike Mackelvie, wealth advisor, and Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, discuss bond alternatives and the pros and cons of bonds. Valerie and Michael talk about the basics of bonds, bond alternatives that you can invest in, rates of return and how impactful bonds can be in the market.

In this episode of Your Life Simplified, Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, and Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, discuss volatility in the stock market and strategies to embrace the up and down rollercoaster that the stock market can be. Valerie and Michael talk about the history of markets, rates of return and impactful days in the market.

In part 2 of Your Life Simplified’s real estate series, Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, and Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, discuss how REITs, or real estate investment trust, and ETFs, or exchange trades funds, have performed in high interest rate environments and the advantages of investing in real estate assets.

Are you looking to invest in real estate? In this week’s episode of Your Life Simplified, Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, and Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, talk about the things you should take into consideration before investing in real estate. The topics discussed include interest rates, return on investment and the advantages and disadvantages of investing in real estate.

Often times, we only look at the short-term cost of owning a pet such as adoption fees, toys, food and vaccinations. However, other costs, such as pet insurance, additional vet bills and housing need to be considered before adopting a furry friend. In this week’s podcast episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, are joined by very special guest Lucy as they talk about the real cost of owning a pet.

How do we get our kids to make better decisions with money? In this week's podcast, Valorie, senior wealth advisor,  and Mike, welath advisor, will be sharing with you tips and insights to help you teach your kids how to become financially literate.

In this week’s podcast episode, Valerie Escobar, senior wealth advisor, and Mike MacKelvie, wealth advisor, walk through 5 tax planning strategies and opportunities like Roth conversions, backdoor Roth IRA conversions, asset allocation, tax-loss harvesting and making qualified charitable contributions. They’ll also discuss considerations for each of these strategies and why it’s important to consult with your wealth advisor.

Should you or should you not be doing your own investing? In this episode, Valerie and Mike will be covering the 5 most common financial pitfalls of a DIY investor.

When there are so many outside factors affecting our well-being, it can be very beneficial to take a moment and focus on what’s happening inside you. In this episode, we invite Briana Struemph to help us understand what meditation is, how we can benefit from practicing and lead us through a simple breathing exercise. 

If you’ve always wanted to give back to the community where you live and work, but wonder how to get started, learn strategies from Katie Dunn Fitzgerald, principal and senior wealth consultant at Mariner Wealth Advisors, who joined us to talk about how to find an organization to volunteer your time for that’s fits your interests, aligns with your values and operates with integrity.

We’ve all seen the automotive industry headlines lately; chip shortages and used car scarcities, to name a few. In this episode, we invited back John M. Vincent, an automotive consumer advice writer with U.S. News & World Report, to discuss challenges manufacturers face, how to take advantage of the current car market and his thoughts on electric vehicles.

When it comes to multi-generational wealth planning and how prepared children and grandchildren are to receive an inheritance, there are a few key concepts to keep in mind. We invite Chad Hamilton of our practice management team to discuss setting up a goals-based, comprehensive foundation of education. Included in this groundwork discussion are building blocks of debt, cash flow management, investment 101 and insurance.

If you or someone you know is just getting started on the financial paths of life, there are many routes to choose and potholes to avoid. We invite a group of our advisors to sit down and share some tips on how to thoughtfully build wealth based on conversations they’ve had with their clients and experiences in their own lives. From recognizing the difference between good debt and bad debt, to best practices for budgeting, this conversation offers five actionable steps that can be taken to begin building wealth today.

When looking for ways to improve success within an organization or business, individuals may consider reaching out to a consultant for recommendations. Another avenue for this goal, that employs a more collaborative approach, is leadership coaching. We invite Teresa Carey, CEO  and president of PerformancePointe, to discuss the key differences between consulting and coaching, describes methods she uses to work alongside executives and offer some general advice for business success.

Blockchain, cryptocurrency, Digital Ledger Technology. These terms are becoming commonplace in the news cycle, on social media and even in casual conversation, but digital assets can be a very complex topic. So, we invited Scott Duba, portfolio manager and director of our investments team, to give us an introduction to the realm of digital assets and what to think about when considering investing in this asset class.

The ongoing pandemic has changed the way we travel and many are changing their approach to transportation, like driving or taking the train. Before you book your next trip, tune in as we invite Erika Richter, with the American society of Travel Advisors to share travel tips like planning ahead and hiring a travel agent who can help you navigate COVID restrictions that vary by state and internationally.

There are currently nine states that have no income tax, which can be an enticing reason to move to one of them – especially for retirees. But are tax advantages on their own a good reason for you to move to Alaska? On this episode, we invited Patrick Kimbrough, managing director of our Dallas, Texas office, to share a more comprehensive view of considerations before packing up for another state.

In the realm of managing finances, there are some key issues that are unique to women. Whether that be considerations around the fact that they statistically live longer than men or why it's important women are empowered to take control of their financial future. Recently, several of our wealth advisors joined together to discuss how women can address these challenges and take control of their finances.  

As students are preparing for their final year of high school and where life may take them after that, many turn their eyes toward going to college. Getting accepted into the school of their dreams can be stressful enough, but then you have to think about how – and who – is going to pay for it. We invite Cozy Wittman, of College Inside Track, to share best practices on financing college, including what scholarships to seek, tips for filling out the FAFSA and how to make your student a more compelling applicant. She also shares her own personal experience of sending 5 of her own children off to college.  

Proper hydration is essential to our overall well-being, especially after being physically active. Whether a professional athlete or a weekend warrior in your local gym, your body needs to rehydrate in order to recover. We invite Anthony Wolfe MS, a senior scientist at Gatorade Sports Science Institute, to share how hydration – whether water or a sports drink – is essential in staying healthy and keeping your muscles, including your brain, in top shape. Plus, he explores the science behind what a sports drink provides over water.