Insights

During the pandemic, my family moved into a new house. We weren’t planning on moving, but that didn’t stop us from participating in the pandemic housing boom. But we did so at a time where the kids weren’t yet out of school, so for about three weeks, we owned two homes. Instead of having to …

By Erin Wood, Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Advanced Solutions After my struggle with pregnancy issues, I was surprised by how quickly I found out I wasn’t alone. Friends, relatives, coworkers – people I’d known for years – were suddenly sharing with me a vital but private p …

As a financial advisor who’s spent her career in the midwest, I’ve worked with more farm families than I can count. From buying new expensive equipment to riding out the drought years, there can be millions in play even on small family operations. Estate planning – splitting up the land bet …

COVID-19 caused an economic shockwave that we’ll feel for a long time. Nonprofits, from large global networks to the local churches, have been hit hard, too. In a recent survey of 110 nonprofits, 80% of them said revenue had fallen across the board.

Teaching kids about money is especially complex – you aren’t just passing on a few bucks to go to the movies, but an array of attitudes, values and assumptions regardless of whether you mean to. Your kids watch, in a way not even they are aware of, how you interact with finance and how you …

We live in the Information Age, where any information we could ever want is available to us within seconds, but due to the overwhelming wealth of info and sources – not to mention neck-break speed of the instant news cycle – it feels hard to know what’s really going on.

Your financial advisor may not be the first person you call when considering splitting up, but they should be somewhere on the list. One of the concrete things you can do to help with the process and the healing to follow is to plan ahead. 

The retirement planning process is full of potholes – they seem to pop out of nowhere and can do major damage if you’re not careful. In my years as a financial guide, I’ve put in a lot of man-hours helping people avoid financial potholes. The danger is real and the monetary bruises take a w …

Estate planning, no matter how large or simple your assets, is a conversation everyone should have. From dividing up gigantic bank accounts to choosing the music for a funeral, putting a plan in place can keep a lot of stress and family tension from reaching fever pitch.

Having to buy a car is like having a sliver stuck under my fingernail. It’s painful and annoying, I know I have to deal with it, but it’s going to take forever. Might as well pack a lunch too, because the second you decide you want to test drive something they have you trapped.