Estate Planning: Critical Steps to Secure Your Legacy

Grandmother spending quality time with grandkids

Estate planning isn’t just about protecting your assets—it’s about protecting yourself and the people you care about. A thoughtful plan, rooted in values-based planning, can ensure that your beliefs about religion, medical care, and preferred treatments are respected if you cannot speak for yourself. For women navigating wealth management with a focus on empowering their families and values, working with a female financial planner who understands your unique priorities can make all the difference. Estate planning also eases the burden on those who must continue on without your input, while addressing critical issues like legal guardianship for minor children. Importantly, it’s a step you should take now—no matter where you are in life.

Planning for Care Ensures That You Decide What Will Happen

Having a plan in place to carry out your wishes if the unexpected happens—your minor children are left on their own, or you become incapacitated—is essential. Otherwise, a court will decide who cares for your children and how your own care is managed, leaving you without a voice in what happens to your assets.

So, how can you prepare? The first and most important step is to set up the essential documents that will ensure your plan can be legally enforced.

The essential documents are:

  • A will that appoints a guardian for minor children
  • A healthcare proxy that specifies your wishes and appoints someone to make healthcare decisions on your behalf
  • A durable power of attorney that gives someone you elect the legal right to handle your finances and pay for your care

1. Creating a Will

A will is the most common estate planning instrument. While it is the only legal way to appoint a guardian for your minor children, a will can also be used for other purposes. It offers significant control over how your assets will be distributed and who your beneficiaries will be. However, wills are subject to probate, which can be lengthy, expensive, and public.

It’s almost always advisable to consult an attorney about creating a will, particularly if it names a guardian for your children. A specialized estate planning attorney can help ensure your wishes are clearly outlined, especially in cases where care needs are complex. Additionally, a trusted financial advisor can often recommend an attorney who shares your values-based approach to wealth management.

2. Determining Your Health Care Proxy

A health care proxy designates someone to make health care decisions on your behalf and outlines your care preferences. You can be as specific as you’d like, from treatment types to the circumstances under which you’d stop receiving care. Depending on your state, you may need a living will in addition to the proxy, collectively called an “advance directive.”

Some states provide combined forms online, while others may require consultation with a lawyer. Start by asking your doctor or a trusted financial planner for guidance on what is required in your state to ensure your health care preferences align with your broader estate plan.

3. Creating a Durable Power of Attorney

A durable power of attorney grants someone the authority to manage your financial matters if you become incapacitated. Unlike a regular power of attorney, this document remains valid during incapacity, empowering your designated person to pay bills, manage assets, and ensure your care is funded.

It’s crucial to work with a lawyer to draft this document and selecting someone you trust to act as your agent is equally important. Your values-based planning should guide this decision, ensuring your finances reflect your personal and social priorities.

The Takeaway

You’ve worked hard to build a life of meaning and purpose. To ensure your values and wishes are honored, estate planning is essential. Partnering with a female financial planner who understands wealth management for women can help you navigate these decisions with confidence. Having the basic legal instruments in place, and updating them as your circumstances evolve, is the cornerstone of an estate plan that protects what matters most to you.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only and is not exhaustive. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Reproduction of this material is prohibited without written permission from Martos Wealth Management, LLC, and all rights are reserved.

Steps to Building and Sustaining Long-Term Wealth

Two blue wooded beach chairs facing the open ocean with calm seas.

For most people, steady, ongoing work is the foundation of their wealth. Career success and a good salary, or building and growing your own business, are the means to a lifestyle you enjoy now and the promise of a stable financial future.

For others, an inheritance, a windfall from an investment or employee stock, selling a business, or even winning the lottery is the source of wealth.

But no matter how high your salary, successful your business is, or big the windfall – is it enough to create lasting wealth? How about generational wealth?

If your goal is to have enough to live the life you want and pass down wealth to provide ongoing security for your family, what do you need to think about besides money?

Black swan events happen, markets go through extended downturns, and unexpected life or job issues can derail plans.

That’s where financial planning comes in. We break down some of the things you need to think about on the journey to lasting wealth.

Start by Creating Your Own Definition of Wealth

Rather than focusing on a number, try defining wealth as a lifestyle. This gets you closer to understanding what you need and when you need it. Once you start to understand what your goals are, you can build a financial plan that balances your lifestyle now with the goals you want to achieve in the future. For older generations, working and saving until retirement at age 65 was the norm. Younger generations may have different goals or may have multiple goals and want to achieve them sooner.

  • Early retirement
  • One spouse stops working
  • Start a business
  • Buy a second home
  • Pay off all debt and be able to self-fund kids’ college

Make Informed Choices

The word that resonates most strongly with investors today is flexibility. Whatever the individual definition of wealth is, it often starts with a desire to have more control over time and work.

Understanding the trade-offs that are involved can help you make decisions that are right for you.

For example, if retiring early is the goal, a common approach is to sacrifice lifestyle and time in the short term in favor of reducing expenses, increasing saving, and maximizing income through work. There’s even a name for this – it’s called the F.I.R.E. movement (Financial Independence Retire Early). However, there’s a limit to how long you can make sacrifices and continue to feel satisfied by your life in the moment. Instead, there are several “levers” you can pull to create a better balance:

  • Extend your retirement age
  • Re-evaluate risk in your investments
  • Reduce high-interest debt and shift to lower-interest debt
  • Optimize tax efficiency

These are just a few examples, there is no one right answer. Being thoughtful about your goals, then exploring different scenarios, and considering potential benefits from the financial planning toolkit can put you on a path to maximize your own financial independence and flexibility.

Expand Your Options

The first step to lasting wealth is to invest as early and as consistently as possible. Ensuring that you are maxing out tax-advantaged retirement savings, and taking advantage of health savings accounts and 529 plans can put money to work and reduce your tax burden.

Expanding beyond the options available in retirement plans by putting after-tax dollars into a taxable account can help you diversify your portfolio. This allows you to refine your risk profile and potentially boost return.

Control Your Risk

Ensuring that you have lasting wealth means protecting it. A review of your insurance coverage that considers potential liability is critical. Depending on your lifestyle, you may want to explore an umbrella policy that provides additional coverage above the limits on your existing insurance policies.

Start Estate Planning Now

Ensuring that your wealth can provide for your family for decades to come is something you should do proactively. A good estate plan is both thoughtful and efficient. It ensures that your wishes are carried out, and it preserves as much of your estate as possible for your dependents. For many families, a trust can simplify the transfer of assets, keep your estate private, and can be customized in ways a will cannot. You also don’t have to relinquish control of your assets.

The Bottom Line

Achieving lasting wealth requires more than just asset growth. Understanding your goals, the trade-offs in terms of choices, and how you can incorporate financial planning tools into your situation can help you protect and grow your wealth for generations to come.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only and is not exhaustive. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Reproduction of this material is prohibited without written permission from Martos Wealth Management, LLC, and all rights are reserved.

Secure Your Financial Future: Achieve Confidence and Success

Two happy women on a laptop zooming and laughing.

Northwestern Mutual’s annual Planning and Progress Study is out, and the results this year are very interesting. The study examines U.S. adults by generation to understand attitudes and behaviors toward money, financial decision-making, and financial security.

Given the volatility of the last year, the results reflect more uncertainty. But they also indicate that while each generation has different goals, needs, and attitudes towards money, getting financial advice from a trusted resource is a constant.
The study found that two-thirds of Americans believe that their financial planning needs improvement. But while YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram may be the go-to for DIY needs or setting up new tech, when it comes to money, people prefer professional advice from a financial advisor.

The One Thing Every Generation Worries About

Across all generations, being financially prepared for retirement is the biggest worry. Of Gen Z, Millennials, and still-working Boomers, more than 50% expect to be prepared for retirement. Gen X is the outlier – only 45% of Gen Xers are confident they’ll be ready for retirement.

Younger generations also expect more of the burden to fall on them. Gen Z and Millennials aren’t counting on Social Security. If it’s around for them (42% don’t think it will be), they are only counting on it for 15-20% of retirement income.

Younger Generations Expect More from Financial Planners

All generations value financial advisors for their professional expertise and for helping them think long-term and stay on track for goals. But Millennials and Gen Z want a more robust relationship with an advisor. For them, aligning finances with values, saving time, and keeping them up-to-date on changes to financial legislation or changes that will impact them are important.

How Can You Build a Confident Financial Future?

A key finding of the study is that people who work with a financial advisor are much more confident about their financial journey, from retirement to handling unexpected expenses to achieving financial security.

But before you can work with a financial advisor, you need to find someone you feel confident in. In short, someone you vibe with.

How do you do that?

It comes down to selecting an advisor that understands your priorities. And while these are specific and different for everyone, the stage of life you are at creates a set of challenges that everyone may face at some point.

These may include:

  • Cash flow planning
  • Buying an investment property
  • Career advice and planning, from getting the most out of your benefits to equity compensation
  • Retirement savings
  • Minimizing taxes
  • Ensuring you have adequate insurance, including life and liability. Depending on your profession, you may need professional disability insurance
  • Saving for kids’ education

For many people, the overall goal is to have confidence and flexibility. An understanding of the choices available to you and what the trade-offs are is a more modern way to think about financial planning. It goes beyond just investments.

The modern financial advisor is more of an architect who brings together all the other professionals in your life so you can see the entire picture and then make decisions. And as you move through your journey and things change, you can adapt and continue to thrive.

Technology Is a Key Attribute

A good relationship relies on strong communication, and today’s investors want their advisor to be tech-forward and accessible. If you’re considering working with an advisor, ensuring that they are available to you in all the ways you prefer to communicate can keep you both informed and build trust.

The Bottom Line

Working with a financial advisor can help you build the future you want, while keeping you calm and peaceful in the present. You want to be able to enjoy your life now and have options for the future. Finding the right advisor for your lifestage, with the expertise you require, is easier now than ever.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only and is not exhaustive. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Reproduction of this material is prohibited without written permission from Martos Wealth Management, LLC, and all rights are reserved.

Invest with Your Values: The Power of ESG Investing

A wooden boat on Lake Prags with the mountains nearby.

ESG is one of the fastest growing segments of investing, across the spectrum of financial products from ETFs to specialized, custom strategies. A recent survey from the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management reports that 77% of global investors are interested in sustainable investing, and 54% anticipate increasing their sustainable investments in the next year.1

This growth makes them much easier to deploy in investment portfolios, and it also ensures that the individual values of the investor can be expressed in a way that can potentially help them meet their financial goals.

Along the way, these strategies are active participants in creating change.

Breaking Down the Acronym

There are three components to ESG. The first two are usually most important to an individual investor, as they connect most directly to values. For institutional investors, the third one plays a role, under the theory that these principles can help to make the company better run and more responsive to shareholders – which can translate into better financial performance.

Environmental

Is the company an active participant in helping to support sustainability? Companies that support the move away from fossil fuels or participate in other key functions would of course be examples. But for companies that are not actively promoting sustainability, the question is more about the impact of the business on the environment. This can include everything from carbon footprint, toxic chemicals involved in manufacturing processes, and even how the supply chain is managed.

Social

This used to be more about how workers are treated but has evolved into an understanding of how the company is structured and what the social impact is on the broader community. Companies that embrace diversity and work towards equality in all spheres – even to becoming advocates for social good beyond just their own hiring practices – are becoming the standard. Where companies used to avoid taking public stances on anything likely to be controversial, we’ve seen over the last year that companies who take a stand have been rewarded, even if those gains are so far just in reputation.

Governance

This is about the company’s board and management. It includes everything from executive pay to diversity in leadership and how responsive a company is to its shareholders. This is where transparency, privacy issues, data security, etc. come into play.

Investing in Growth

The $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 is funding transportation, energy and climate infrastructure projects. This is intended to help meet 2030 climate goals – but will also rebuild key pieces of the infrastructure while likely significantly adding to the economy.

Incorporating ESG into Your Daily Life

Incorporating your values in investing into your daily life is easier now than it has ever been. One of the measurements for a company’s commitment to ESG is whether the company is a Certified B Corporation. These corporations meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. They work diligently toward maintaining these standards to balance profit and purpose.

But you’re not limited to just investing in Certified B-Corps – you can use your power as a consumer to shift your buying patterns to make a difference. On your next trip to the supermarket – take a look at the packaging on the products you buy. Many of them will display the B-Corp. symbol. And for those who don’t, there’s probably an alternative that does.

The Bottom Line

ESG has moved well into the mainstream and offers products and strategies that work for every investor’s values while also working towards their goals. No matter what stage you’re at in your financial journey, incorporating ESG investing can be both a long-term strategy and provide opportunity as we enter a historic phase of rebuilding both the economy and our country. On the less-heroic front, being selective and intentional about the products you buy can make a big difference.

  1. Sustainable Signals: Individual Investors’ Interests and Priorities. Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. 2024.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only and is not exhaustive. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Reproduction of this material is prohibited without written permission from Martos Wealth Management, LLC, and all rights are reserved.