Why?

Fans of the television show Blue Bloods enjoy watching the multi-generational family dinners. The fictional Reagans also hold family meetings when important issues pop up. We believe family meetings should be scheduled before there are issues and while all generations are still active. HFA recently held a Lunch & Learn seminar on this subject, which was a big success. Some of our guests have already scheduled family meetings.

A family meeting should be designed to map out what you want to happen in the future. Possible reasons for a family meeting include:

• Promote Stewardship, which is the responsible oversight and protection of something worth caring for and preserving.
• Share values as well as estate and financial plans.
• Embrace the challenge to discuss thoughtful planning and its impact on family members.
• Perpetuate a family legacy.
• Discuss multi-generational planning.
• Judiciously communicate details when all generations are still living.
• Prepare heirs for future roles and responsibilities.
• Establish a forum for collaborative decisions.
• Educate heirs on financial literacy or estate planning.
• Create an atmosphere of trust.
• Open lines of communication that may have closed.
• Establish family leadership roles and responsibilities.

• Can we retire soon or how much longer do we have to work?
• Should we collect Social Security at age 62 or wait until full retirement age (and what does that mean, anyway)?
• We have pensions, Social Security benefits, bank accounts and retirement plans — but what is the best way to provide our retirement income?
• Are we being too conservative or aggressive with our investments?
• Should we pay off our mortgage so that we are debt free heading into retirement?
• Why are we paying so much in taxes every year — is there anything we can do about it?
• We have several life insurance policies — do we still need to have them or should we cash them in (or can we cash them in)?
• What about Long Term Care insurance, do we really need that?
• We want to take care of our children and grandchildren — is there a best strategy?

We acknowledge that some people are more comfortable with their own version of financial planning, whether through a true “do it yourself” mode or with a “Robo Advisor” type of experience.

Mathematical projections can be done fairly easily to account for the 25 or 30 years of living in retirement, projecting income and expenses compared to assets and liabilities for the entire period using assumed rates of return and estimated life expectancy.