Unlocking Social Security and Making Your Benefits Work for You Workshop

On Thursday, June 28, 2012 6:00pm at the Mediterrano Restaurant in Ann Arbor we will be having a free dinner workshop on "The Keys to Unlocking Social Security and Making Your Benefits Work for You!".

During the workshop we will cover topics that educate the participants on making the most of their Social Security Benefits.

Please see the full details on the flyer link on our web site home page.  Seating is limited so please RSVP ASAP to Leslie White at lwhite@whitehousellc.com or (734) 433-1670.

White House Financial & Investment Solutions helps families live easier and less stressful lives through the proper management of their financial resources.  We do this by acting as our clients’ trusted advisor providing a personal touch customized to the client’s needs!  Please visit our web site at www.whitehousellc.com for more information!

Portfolio Strategy

While meeting with a new client yesterday and explaining our investment process, I thought about the basic keys which I have learned in over fifteen years of helping clients invest their assets which are as follows:

1.) Having a disciplined written investment plan and process, that is regularly monitored and properly managed, is much more important than the individual investments you select to implement your plan.  In general, it is my experience that people spend far to much time worrying about which stock or mutual fund to buy or sell and they do not even have a written and monitored plan to evaluate whether these investments are doing what they are supposed to.

2.) All investments can have good times and bad which is why it is not worth spending so much time selecting the individual investments which make up your portfolio.  Sure, you want to make sure that the individual investments have low expenses, have historically done what they say they are going to and are run by reputable firms with established long term track records, however, as mentioned above, it is more important to have a disciplined process for managing and monitoring the portfolio as a whole than the individual investments themselves.

3.) Diversification and rebalancing are the keys to reducing portfolio risk (although diversification does not guarantee against loss; it is a method used to help manage risk).  To many investors are over concentrated in their investment portfolios to one or only a few asset classes or investment styles, and do not rebalance their portfolios regularly.

White House Financial & Investment Solutions helps families live easier and less stressful lives through the proper management of their financial resources.  We do this by acting as our clients’ trusted advisor providing a personal touch customized to the client’s needs!  Please visit our web site at www.whitehousellc.com for more information!

Financial Planning in Divorce

We work with many clients, both individuals and couples, who are going through the difficult process of divorce.  We help them understand their current financial situation, what they have, and how various decisions, pursuant to the divorce, may affect their financial future. 

I just met with a gentleman yesterday who is going through the divorce from his wife of 24 years.  This meeting made me think of the common advice which we give to clients going through a divorce, over and over again, which is as follows:

1.) Understand your current financial situation and get it in order.  What assets and liabilities do you have?  What are the account numbers and values?  How do you contact the financial institution?  What assets or liabilities were brought into the marriage and kept in separate name?  Make a list of all your assets and liabilities (debts) and how they are titled.

2.) Review your credit report.  Many clients are shocked when we review their credit report with them and they find out that there are debts they knew nothing about.  It is typically a good practice to review it early in the process as well as six months to a year after the divorce is final to ensure that all the post divorce debts were titled the way in which they were intended and that there aren't any new debts which were created without your knowledge.

3.) Create joint household and individual budgets.  It is impossible to know how various settlements scenarios will affect you financially if you do not know how much you spend, on what.  It is also impossible to get your future financial house in order if you do not have a plan to get there!

4.) Do not take financial advice from your attorney.  Attorneys know the law, however, many of them try to practice as financial advisors as well.  Get your legal advice from your attorney and your financial advice from a Certified Financial Planner who focuses on working with clients going through a divorce.

5.) Make sure to change your beneficiary designations to reflect your wishes and the divorce decree (if applicable) as soon as the divorce is final!   Having ex-spouses listed as the beneficiary on your retirement plans and insurance policies, when this was not ordered by the court or intended, leads to significant estate settling issues should you die without making these changes.

White House Financial & Investment Solutions helps families live easier and less stressful lives through the proper management of their financial resources.  We do this by acting as our clients’ trusted advisor providing a personal touch customized to the client’s needs!  Please visit our web site at www.whitehousellc.com for more information!