Estate & Financial Planning

PERSPECTIVES IN THIS ISSUE  Estate planning How to choose your trustee If you’ve decided against a corporate fiduciary Core advantages that we bring to the job of trusteeship Retirement planning Smaller RMD’s in 2022 Financial managment “Buy, Borrow, Die” Traditionally, the hot button for estate planning has been the reduction of federal and state death taxes. That tradition has been over for some time, given the increases in the amounts exempt from federal estate tax over the last decade. The 2021 federal exemption stands at $11.7 million, and married couples may double that with routine estate planning. (Note, however, that under current law the exemption falls roughly in half in 2026, unless Congress acts sooner.) Freedom from estate and inheritance

PERSPECTIVES IN THIS ISSUE  Retirement Retirement income management The scary word for retirees: Inflation Estate planning Marriage, Israeli style Timing may be more important than many realize. Investor truism: Time in the market is more important than timing the market. For those with a long-term time horizon, volatility in the financial markets is relatively unimportant. Imagine that a portfolio has an aver- age 10-year return of a modest  5%, but the yearly returns are 25%, 18%, 3%,  -4%,  -28%,  -2%,  8%,  10%, 12%, and 8%. Does it matter when the  bad years occur? It does not. Table One below shows what would happen to $500,000 over ten years. On the left, the bear market comes early, pushing the portfolio into loss territo-