Newsletters | Retirement & Financial Planning

I’ve been licensed to work with individuals on Medicare for the last ten years. During that time, one of the biggest issues I have seen clients run into is the cost of their prescription medications. If you were on insulin, inhalers or a new drug without a generic, you would most likely end up in the “Donut Hole”, which meant when you went to the pharmacy one month, you would get a huge surprise when going to pay for that medication, which once cost you only $47. This has always been a difficult conversation with clients, when it came to their upcoming drug costs. However, in 2022, Congress passed The Inflation Reduction Act and has since eliminated the “Donut Hole”, beginning in 2025.

The Inflation Reduction Act has changed several things about prescription drug plans, going forward. There are now four stages of a prescription plan, versus the five stages, which we have grown accustomed to. First, is the premium, or the amount you pay monthly to have the plan. Usually in a Medicare Advantage plan, which includes a prescription plan, the cost is zero dollars per month. Stand alone prescription plans, however, have a wide range of premiums, from fifty cents to over one hundred dollars per month. I am very curious to see how the new rules will affect the monthly premiums in 2025, which we will know on October 1st.

The second stage is your deductible, which in 2025, could be as high as $590 annually, up $55 from 2024. Now, not all tiers necessarily apply to the deductible. Some plans do not have Tier 1 and Tier 2 drugs included as part of the deductible. Regardless, once you have met your deductible, you move to the copays and coinsurance stage.

During the copays and coinsurance stage, you are responsible for copays or coinsurance assigned to the tier of your prescription drug. For example; in Tier 1 you could have a zero dollar copay and in Tier 2, it could be ten dollars.. However, with the new rules, you're probably going to see Tiers 3 and above go to more of a percentage of the cost of the drug, instead of a fixed copay. This is important to look at once you get the 2025 Summary of Benefits, especially if you have several Tier 3 (or above) drugs. Now, under the new regulations you are capped at $2,000 out of your pocket. Once you meet that, then you move to the catastrophic stage. It may not be great that you got to the catastrophic stage, however, the good news is that you now have zero to pay out of pocket, going forward.

Another problem that individuals have faced up until now, is that medication costs would vary widely from month to month. The new regulations let you set up the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, allowing you to spread out the cost of your prescription medications over the whole year. This is voluntary and you’ll need to opt in through your plan provider, should you choose to do that.

The last note on the Inflation Reduction Act, is that it gave the government the right to negotiate with the drug companies for lower prescription costs for Medicare recipients. Hopefully they are good negotiators. Therefore, it is very important that you get a new drug plan run for you, so you know what your best option will be for 2025. The prescriptions you take, where you get them from and where you live, will determine the best overall plan for you.

On another note, this newsletter hits as the Fed is meeting to discuss rates. The belief is that there will be a lowering of rates. How much? We will soon find out. One of the most important things you need to look at is how this will affect guaranteed investment rates, such as savings accounts, CDs and Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities. If the Fed does lower rates, that means the party is going to start winding down with your safe money. Rates on these products will start dropping. I’ve already seen it; Sentinel Security Life has reduced their three year MYGA rates from 5.90% to 4.95%. And, if the Fed continues to lower rates over the next year, then the party is really coming to a close. I’ve been saying this for over a year–this is probably the peak of guaranteed rates so take advantage and lock in higher interest rates while you can, because we don’t know when we will get these higher rates again.

Oceanview 2 yr - 4.65%

Equitrust 3 yr - 5.10%

Americo 4 yr - 4.95%

Americo 5 yr - 5.20%

Market Insight: Navigating Recent Market Volatility

What was I googling late Sunday afternoon? Who is the best quarterback in the 2025 NFL draft? This is not a good sign, when you know your football season is over after the first half of the first game of the season. I was so hopeful this year, but it looks like more of the same.

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

The end of the year is approaching quickly. Therefore, it is time to make sure we get everything accomplished that we wanted to in 2024. For us, this is our busiest time of the year. It ends up feeling like we’re running a marathon at a sprinter's pace, right up until December 31st. To make sure everything gets completed, it is important to start getting things done now. Below are the tasks you may want to accomplish before the calendar changes to 2025. I’ve added links for additional information regarding each topic.

Healthcare: Whether you have Medicare, Pennie or employer insurance, you want to set yourself up with the right health insurance for 2025. To start, you need to evaluate how your insurance worked for you this year, and keep an eye out for the new Summary of Benefits that you will receive, to look for major changes. The Medicare Open Enrollment period runs from October 15th through December 7th. During this time, you can change your Medicare Advantage plan or Prescription Drug Plan for 2025. Pennie enrollment begins on November 1st and runs until December 15th to be set up for January 1, 2025. The actual enrollment period extends through January 15, to be set up for a plan beginning on February 1, 2025. Your employer has their own dates and usually it is a small window, so be ready for that.

Required Minimum Distributions: Anyone turning 73 this year must begin RMDs from all of their Traditional IRAs. Funds in your IRA have never been taxed before, as the government says you can go through most of your life without these funds being taxed. Therefore, at 73, they are forcing you to take out a portion of these funds every year, going forward, until you pass. If you don’t complete this by December 31, you will receive a 25% penalty on the funds you did not withdraw to satisfy your RMD.

Roth Conversions: One of my favorite topics–these have to be completed by end of the year. I have written several prior newsletters outlining the importance of Roth Conversions. Today is a reminder to start the process of looking at your projected taxable income for 2024 and figuring out if there is room to do a Roth Conversion, up to the next tax bracket.

Tax Loss Harvesting: This is a great time to offset your capital gains with capital gains losses, in your taxable account(s). Several of my clients will need to generate cash for next year and we are going to start by looking to sell funds from their taxable accounts in a way that makes the most financial sense, matching winners and losers to keep the capital gains tax burden as low as possible.

Max Out Your Contributions: Once the year is gone, you cannot go back to max out your 401(k) or 403(b) contributions for 2024. You can contribute up to $23,000 with a $7,500 catch up contribution, for individuals over the age of 50, for a total of $30,500. Also, you can contribute $7,000 to either a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA or a combination of both, with $1,000 additional for individuals over the age of 50, for a total of $8,000. However, for the IRAs, you do have until April 15th, 2025 to make those contributions.

Spend Your Flexible Spending Account: This is the old use or lose it, so you better use it.

Get An Annual Free Copy of Your Credit Report: It is wise to review this to make sure there are no errors. Get your Annual Credit Report.

Planning for 2025: What do you want 2025 to look like? You have your vision, right? The best way to make 2025 what you want it to be, is to start planning now. Are you retiring at the end of the year, going on a major trip, buying a boat, planting a garden? The list is endless. We’ve discovered the worst time to do this planning is in December, because that month is crazy busy with other activities and holidays, therefore 2025 planning doesn’t get done until sometime during 2025.

For us and our clients, a lot of these tasks are part of our Fall review meetings; finishing up everything we wanted to get done in 2024 and setting ourselves up for an amazing 2025. No resolutions needed because we have already begun the planning process.

Today I am an optimistic Giants fan. Hopefully this continues beyond Sunday afternoon or it’s going to be a long football season. The reality is that there is only one game that matters in this divided house–the Monday night game between the Giants and Steelers in October. Winner gets bragging rights for the next four years.

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

It is somewhat ironic to me that we react to down periods in our lives as if we had no idea that something negative could happen, even though in the past, we have gone through plenty of ups and downs. The business world is no different; it also goes through cycles. We’ve had some volatility in the market recently, and this will likely not be the last period of volatility we will experience. In light of the negative few weeks we’ve had, I feel that this is a great time to remind us that odds are, there will come a point in the future where we experience another period of negative outlooks, economic news and returns. The hope is that we can balance that negativity with more positive periods of time. You see, like us, the economy and the businesses within, go through cycles. The goal is to try and find balance in each situation and not let the ups or downs dictate our future.

A rose bush reminds me of this. For the rose bush to produce the best and most vibrant roses, you need to prune it back each year. Similarly, when the economy is rolling along, many businesses will do well and are quite profitable. There is a lot of money flowing, banks are providing lines of credit and we are spending more freely because of the extra cash in our pockets. However, eventually the party starts to die down, like the roses at the end of the season. That can happen quickly, or it can be a slow trickle. The businesses that don’t have a solid base may not be positioned to survive those times. Banks start reducing their lines of credit and calling the ones that are outstanding. If a business doesn’t have the cash flow to cover their expenses, they may end up closing. To me, this is not necessarily a negative event. I see it as pruning the rose bush back. We are cutting off the limbs that aren’t going to produce the best roses. Unfortunately, the business world needs to do this also, and sometimes it seems unfair, unforgiving and uncaring. However, those who survive and have good roots will be ready to produce beautiful roses in the next upswing.

There are six technical stages of the business cycle; Expansion, Peak, Recession, Depression, Trough and Recovery. If you're interested in the details, the Corporate Finance Institute has a nice breakdown of the Business Cycle. For those of us that do not have to have a degree in economics, it is still important for us to be aware of business cycles and how they affect our lives and our investments. I hear it way too much, “If I go with you, will you make me more money than ____?” That, I will never promise, and ultimately, I see this short-term desire as an unrealistic task if we want true long-term growth. Unfortunately, the only place I know that will always have positive returns is the bank. However, we know what those returns have been over the last 15 years, and they aren’t all that attractive. Hopefully, we will return to an environment where those interest rates can get us some better returns on our safe money.

We need to start embracing these business and economic cycles and see them as a healthy part of life, similar to pruning the rose bush. They provide us the opportunity to refocus, reinvent and get out of stagnation. Life is pretty boring if it ends up being the same thing every day. Yes, I know there are some of you out there that love routine. I, myself, thrive on routines because they keep me focused on my goals, therefore keeping me productive and driving in one direction. However, I want my future rose garden to pop every year. (Ironically, we don’t actually have any roses here at the moment, but I am planning out my long-term landscaping plans and intend to include roses in those plans, this Fall, for a lovely Spring bloom.)

The Fed is trying to provide us a soft landing coming off the last year of high inflation because they do not want us to go into a recession. Is that possible? Yes. Is complete avoidance of a recession in our future likely? Not so much. We have learned from history that you never know for certain what might cause a recession, but I believe a recession is coming. When? How bad? How long? NOBODY knows. I remember reading articles about a prediction of such an event in 2023. There was overwhelming ‘certainty’ from some, that we were going to have a recession. Well, that didn’t happen as predicted, leading me back to the point that NOBODY knows.

The fortunate thing is that we know this: We are going to go through cycles of growth and prosperity with times of slowdowns and higher unemployment. Therefore, we structure your retirement ahead of time and do our best to set you up for success through all cycles. We are not going to let things outside of our control determine our amazing future lives. Mr. Market is moody and we are always preparing for his unpredictable mood swings. Your retirement will not stop because of the world's ups and downs, so we need to be prepared to be flexible in good times and in bad, because we know both are coming.

Summer is winding down already. What did you say you wanted to accomplish or do this Summer? I suggest putting it on the calendar now. The “some day” of the past is here and now we should be doing the things we said we wanted to do, before Summer comes to a close. Jill and I recently accomplished this by scheduling a few days away at the end of August, for the vacation we talked about taking this Summer. We waited until the last minute, but still managed to get something scheduled. Have a great couple weeks. More thoughts from behind my desk soon…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

Are you who you say you are? I have been facing this question with clients throughout my financial career. In the financial world, we are always having to prove that the individual in front of us is who they say they are. We cannot open accounts or do much of anything until we have all of their important information, including a copy of their driver's license. This regulation (understandably) applies to all types of financial institutions. So you would think it would be difficult for someone to steal your identity, right? Unfortunately, it happens more often than you would think. The US Department of Justice released a report in October 2023, for the year of 2021, citing that 23.9 million Americans, aged 16 and older, were victims of identity theft. That’s nine percent of those individuals! I was even a victim of identity theft, myself. Someone lived in an apartment under my name for six months in Arizona. I have never been to Arizona so it was strange to get a call one morning from a collection agency telling me I owed over $5,000 for unpaid rent. The world is full of individuals looking to scam money from you and those individuals will always exist. So, what do we do? Well, we make their mission more difficult. There are four areas I believe you should focus on to keep yourself from becoming a victim; protect your Social Security number, monitor your credit, protect your online accounts and understand how AI can be used now and also in the future.

What we should be focused on, is trying to make ourselves as unattractive to the potential scammer as possible. They are looking for the easiest way to get in, get as much as they can from us and get out, without getting caught. What I am not going to do here, is pretend that I am an expert in this world, so I will be adding several links to more in-depth articles that provide details as to the best way to protect yourself in each area. The most important piece of information you need to protect is your Social Security number. The Social Security Administration has a whole page dedicated to this. Scammers are trying to get that information through text, email and phone calls. There are individuals who pretend to be from the Social Security Administration, telling you something is wrong, so that they can get you to give up important information, for their use. Unfortunately, it can be extremely difficult to tell which calls are legitimate and which ones are not. A client of mine received an email from Social Security, requesting that he call a number to verify information. He had recently signed up for Social Security, but I still did not feel comfortable having him call the number on the email and instead recommended he call his local office to provide that information. It ended up being legitimate, but we just could not tell for certain. I think a crucial step you can take, when getting unsolicited texts, emails or calls, appearing to be from a government agency or financial institution, is to call them back on a direct phone number for that agency or company, rather than the one provided.

With your Social Security number, scammers can start taking out lines of credit, loans or other financial resources under your name. One way to be aware of this, is to have some type of credit monitoring service that alerts you when credit is being sought in your name. There are several services out there. Some are free and some you have to pay for. Some are offered to us because of data breaches, which seem to be happening more and more frequently. Several of my clients have received letters from a company, notifying them that their information was compromised. A majority of those companies will offer some type of free credit monitoring for a period of time. I always recommend you sign up because it’s one more layer of protection. However, I wouldn’t depend on them to be your only source of protection. Forbes Advisor has an article, Credit Monitoring: Is It Worth Paying For, which has a list of different Credit Monitoring Services you can use to protect your information. Jill and I have the free Credit Karma service, that gives us alerts when new credit is being applied for. Therefore, if someone attempts to get credit, we know. However, it becomes a lot more time consuming if you find out after the fact, so you also have the ability to lock or freeze your credit, through each credit bureau, so that no one can obtain credit against your record, including you. You’ll need to unlock or unfreeze it before you take out a loan for that new car.

Another area you want to protect is your passwords to all of your online accounts. Many sites and apps ask us to create a username and password. How do we keep record of all of this information on so many sites? I know my brain does not have the capability to remember them all, especially since many need to be updated on a regular basis. So what do we do? Notebooks are handy to keep next to our computer, but they aren’t so handy when we are trying to get into something when we’re not home. We can have our browsers, such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari save our passwords. But, what if we are using an app? Then the password information does not pull over. To solve this issue you can use a password manager. How to Use a Password Manager: Beginner’s Guide for 2024 is a good place to start. We are doing more and more from our computers, tablets and smartphones these days. Therefore, these devices should also be protected. A recent podcast by the Retirement Answer Man had some great insight into all of the things you can do to protect yourself.

Enter the world of AI–As businesses are trying to figure out how to use this tool to make their businesses more efficient, criminals are figuring out the same. Perhaps you’ve heard about the call from jail to bail out your grandson, even though said grandson is actually safe at home. Sadly, many individuals have fallen for this scam and sent money. But you wouldn’t fall for that, right? Now imagine this phone call comes from an AI generated voice that sounds exactly like your grandson. Would that increase the chances of you sending money? I think so. And scammers can make that happen by keeping a person talking for just one minute. That is all AI needs to be able to copy someone’s voice. This technology is moving fast, which makes it challenging for us to be on top of all of these scams. Therefore, we need to educate and protect ourselves.

Unfortunately, there will never be a world in which scammers don’t exist. What we need to do is make ourselves as invisible and as unappealing as possible. This is where a good offense really does turn into a great defense.

From Mark DiOrio, Chief Investment Officer, Brookstone Capital Management: Market Volatility

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

I know I have discussed this topic previously, but after reading Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, by Peter Attia, MD with Bill Gifford, I figured I would pass on some additional insights, regarding healthspan and lifespan, that caught my attention. I found this book while continuing my research and growing my knowledge around different aspects of retirement. However, the question I present to myself is, did I really choose this particular book because it will make me better for our clients, or did I choose it because I am getting up there in age, and subconsciously, I am recognizing my ticking time on this marble? My concern is that it's the latter. Regardless of that question, (which remains to be answered), there was a wealth of information in this book. Included in that information, were several technical references, about how the body works at the cellular level, which, quite frankly, were beyond my comprehension. Perhaps a second read will help me wrap my head around this particular subject…or maybe I just need to stay at a Holiday Inn Express? (Commercial link for those of you who don’t remember)

Anyway, the first takeaway from the book is that we need to be focusing on the four major causes of death, to help extend our healthspan. The medical world has done a great job lengthening our lifespan; however, the gap between our healthspan and lifespan is growing. Essentially, our bodies are living longer but we are not getting to enjoy those extra years because our healthspan has not kept up. Our goal should be to have our healthspan take us all the way to the end of our lifespan. One way to do that is to delay or prevent one of the four major causes of death; cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and neurological issues (Alzheimer's, Dementia, Parkinsons). The author’s concern is that the medical world doesn’t focus enough on long-term prevention of these issues. Rather, their solution is more of a reaction to these diseases once they present. However, by then you are already behind. His point is that these diseases have been building slowly throughout our lives and instead of being focused on prevention, we are waiting for a particular trigger to stop the progression. Alternatively, he suggests that we don't wait for these triggers, but start looking for signs earlier. Then we can begin to implement preventative measures that can push off the onset of these diseases for 10, 20 or maybe even 30 years. That, in turn, gets our healthspan much closer to our lifespan. Sadly, one of the reasons that a lot of these exams and blood tests are not performed earlier, is simply the cost to complete them.

The author references several other areas of focus, to help increase your chances of improving both your healthspan and your lifespan. I am going to touch on each one of these areas, but for the details regarding each subject, I’ve provided a link to additional information. The one area that can have a significant impact is Exercise & Physical Health, focusing on these four pillars: stability, strength, aerobic (zone 2 training) and anaerobic (zone 5 training). You should aim to build your body up, to handle the same activity level of an average person who is 20 years younger than you. This does make a ton of sense because as you get older and your body loses some of its strength, you can stay ahead of the downward curve. Working our bodies hard will also help us in the next area of focus; Sleep. This is when your body repairs itself. Limiting its ability to do this can have some effects on your insulin resistance, and make you more susceptible to cognitive decline and mental health issues. This is not the first time I have heard this, and personally, I’ve been shutting down earlier to make sure I am getting the proper amount of sleep. No big surprise that Nutrition is another area to pay attention to. How do you set yourself up for good metabolic health? As I’m sure you’ve heard, the American diet isn’t the best for helping you achieve that goal. However, implementing change in this area can make a huge difference. Relating to nutrition is Medications and Supplements, that could help our bodies on a cellular level. Keep in mind though, this area is very personalized when it comes to what would be the most beneficial for you. The last area, which can improve your longevity, is your Mental and Emotional Health. Not a major surprise, but worth noting, being happier and living a less stressful life can have a major impact on both healthspan and lifespan.

Obviously nobody knows the exact formula that will even out our lifespan and healthspan. However, there are a lot of thoughts and theories out there, when you start researching the subject. Adding in some healthier habits can help improve your healthspan and your ability to enjoy every day you have on this earth. To me, doing so makes a lot of sense. I think a big part of the solution is to focus on prevention, today. That will hopefully help keep those major issues away for as long as possible.

I have a few years on Jill, yet she keeps telling me that I have to outlive her. I believe this book has helped motivate me even more. I do know that I am really paying more attention to the choices I make. For me, that is one step in the right direction.

Mid-Year Recap and Outlook from Brookstone.

Enjoy these summer days! More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple weeks..

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

How do we spend our money? There are so many choices when it comes to spending money. Every day we make choices regarding the little things, that tend to add up in our monthly budget. However, this newsletter isn’t about those things. We have already established those habits and the little things that we like. Today is about a bigger ticket item; putting money into your home. Several of our clients, and even my parents, have updated their homes to fit their desires for their future, throughout retirement. Now, there are practical things you might want to consider if you’re planning to live out the rest of your life in this home. What you do now can make it a lot easier in the future, as your mobility becomes more restricted and your activity lessens. This article discusses many of these items: The Best Changes You Can Make to Your Home in Retirement. However, we are not going to talk about that today either. Today is about creating an amazing home environment to enjoy throughout retirement.

I’ve had five homes throughout my life and we also own several rental properties. Therefore, we do a lot of research on houses. I can’t tell you how many houses I’ve looked at that haven’t been updated since the 1980’s or 1990’s. The story behind those homes is usually something to do with an older couple that lived there for a long time and chose to forego any major updates. I can see how this can happen because at one point, maybe you become used to what you have and you don’t want to put the dollars into changing it. I see it differently though; where do you spend the majority of your life? In your home. Why not create the perfect place for you and enjoy the fruits of your labor? Yes, these projects can be expensive. However, as we discussed a couple of weeks ago, if we’re going to end up with a ton of money left over, why not put some of those funds to work, in the atmosphere where you spend the most time? Yes, the kids may not get as much, but your house will be worth more in the future, so maybe they don’t actually end up with less.

These changes can bring excitement. Of course, I can only go by my recent conversations with clients before and after their projects were completed. Even for my clients that are having to live in a camper for six months, as their home is going to be completely gutted and put back together, there is a level of excitement and happiness there. As they walked me through their plans, you could feel how much they were looking forward to the end result. I will admit, I was a little jealous because in their plans, they have a large screen TV that will come down from their ceiling. Yes, these projects are going to be stressful, but I think most would agree that they are also worth it. Jill and I have had many conversations about our future remodeling plans. The ideas are definitely flowing but neither of us have any desire for contractors to be in our house for weeks. The dogs, the chaos, the mess...yikes. However, I would imagine the feeling, once it's all over, would be amazing and well worth it.

The idea for this newsletter started bouncing around in my head after visiting clients in the middle of projects, and seeing some of their projects completed. I felt that I wanted to encourage everyone to evaluate their dreams about where they want their homes to be during retirement. As I sat on the back porch the other night, letting the dogs out, I was looking at the stars and I thought, “This is our tiny plot of land on this huge earth.” Why wouldn’t we do our best to make our place everything we want it to be? We do become hesitant about spending money, especially large dollar amounts. However, I can feel the positive effect on individuals that have completed their home projects. It's just a great feeling to come home to the vision you saw in your home. Why not make the place you spend the most time in, the place that feels the best for you? I want to help the “someday” feeling we all go through and the, “What if I need those funds later?” anxiety. We have a balancing act here; living our best lives now and being secure in our futures. If you have any thoughts or dreams about some future projects, let's dive in now. Why not put it on the table and see what that does to your future projections? You might love what we came up with or you might not, but you're going to get an honest answer from me. My biggest fear in this world would be any of my clients running out of funds in retirement. My second biggest fear is that my clients don’t have the security to spend the money that they worked so hard to accumulate. Finding the happy medium is a challenge, but it's what I enjoy doing.

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks...

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

I met with a prospect last month. He said he was anxious to meet with me because he felt like he was “going to the dentist.” I told him not to worry and hopefully our meeting would not be as unpleasant as a visit to the dentist. That was the first time someone referred to a meeting with me as being like a visit to the dentist. My initial reaction was, I am nothing like a dentist. I am here to give you guidance on your future and this is going to be an enjoyable meeting. So how could someone even view our meeting like this? Well, one evening, chatting with Jill, I recognized why it might feel that way and going forward, I have to be aware of the anxiety individuals might feel when attending a meeting.

It has (only) taken ten years for me to realize that individuals coming to meet with me are going to feel anxious about our conversations. Some may even choose to skip out on a consultation altogether, because of this anxiety. I mean, I feel it every time before a meeting, especially with individuals I haven’t met with before. They have taken time out of their day to come sit down with me and discuss their lives. Therefore, I better be on my A game and bring serious value to the table. However, I can see why it might be anxiety provoking for you, as well; you are opening up your financial world to a stranger. A stranger that focuses on retirement. I would imagine some thoughts might be: Where do I stand in comparison to others? Is he going to judge me? Maybe we haven’t done enough–can we actually retire? I don’t want to look like I don’t know anything–how do I know if he is going to try to sell me something? The list goes on and on. I didn’t realize how opening yourself up to this conversation could cause so much anxiety. But I see it now. You’re showing me the last 40 years (give or take) of your financial picture, in preparation for the upcoming moment when you retire. You want to talk about what you did well, but mostly you’re probably going to be concerned about what you may have done wrong. That can be scary and overwhelming. I do this for a living and truth be told, I have no desire to open up the book of my financial life to another person. I, too, would be anxious.

What do we do about this and how do we find a place where we can have a discussion about your future, where you are feeling at ease throughout the process? Well, there’s my end and there’s your end. I do my best when I am even just presenting the opportunity of having a meeting, to get the point across that I am not going to sell you something. I get it. There are absolute horror stories of people who have lost everything they had because they trusted someone to handle their funds. Even without those stories, it is not easy to trust anyone who is in a position to have some level of control over the funds that you worked your whole life for.

I do like having these conversations though, and sharing with as many people as I can, what we are about. I’ve had plenty of meetings with people that don’t turn out to be clients because it just wasn’t the right fit for them or for our community that we are building. I get this question all the time, “How can you do this for free?” Simple. Because I learn something from every meeting and with that, I hope to continuously improve my services. I will, however, be using the line, “Meeting with me is not as unpleasant as going to the dentist.” Also, I am going to remember to point out that this is just a conversation and my sincere hope is that you walk away with at least one piece of information that will help make your future better.

Now what about you? How do you look forward to this meeting, instead of feeling anxiety about opening yourself up? First of all, I’ve seen it all, from individuals who are over prepared for retirement, to those who are in a great position, to individuals who haven’t taken one minute to think about their future and find themselves on the doorstep of retirement. Let’s remember, this is where you are. It’s nothing to get worked up about. No judgment. Past decisions are what they are. It is tough to not look back and say, “What if…?” I occasionally get that internal tension about some of the decisions I have made, but then I remind myself that I have the chance now, to make better decisions. You are where you are so let's chat about some things you can do to have your best life, going forward. Some of you have done an amazing job setting yourself up for success and will have the freedom to do whatever you want to do in life. However, your problem might be finding the will to spend some of the funds you worked so hard to save.

I’ll leave you with this: Are you great at everything? I wish the answer was yes, for me, but I know that’s not true. For starters, I know very little about what is under the hood of a car. I had to laugh because the last time Jill and I went to look at a car, I popped the hood (actually the sales guy did because I couldn’t figure out how) and I stood there and asked myself, “Why?”. I have no idea what I am looking at. But naturally, we do not want to be vulnerable around people who know more than us. I want to believe I can become a car guy but I am fooling myself. Leave the unknowns to an expert, and let them do what they do best. Yes, you are going to feel a little vulnerable showing someone your finances and you might be worried about your past decisions or lack of knowledge, but this is all about getting the feedback you need to make the best decisions, going forward. Relax, enjoy a little conversation about your future. The fortunate thing is we don’t have to drill teeth to fix anything.

With Nvidia being the talk of the investment world, I thought I would pass along this interesting article, How Nvidia is Shaping the S&P 500’s Performance in 2024.

I hope your summer evenings are as pleasant as ours have been. We are halfway to our goal of getting a newsletter out to you every other week, this year. More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks.

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

As many of you that have read my prior newsletters understand, I use this newsletter to get my thoughts out and work through different subjects around retirement. This particular newsletter is no exception. I recently read the book, Die with Zero, and it has reinforced, and maybe altogether changed, some of my thoughts. The idea of the book is that every day you showed up to work, you exchanged your time for money. Therefore, throughout your life, you should use that money to invest in your life’s energy with the things that are most important to you. If you pass away with a ton of money, will you have missed opportunities to experience life more? This book truly emphasized what we, as a company, are all about–helping you live your best life.

One of the takeaways from the book was regarding activities and time. The unfortunate thing, as we all know, is that our bodies have limitations as we age. Knowing that is important because there will be things that we can’t do later in life, that we can do today. Our bodies in our 80’s probably won’t be able to handle the travel we might want to do or the hiking we had planned. Therefore, we should be lining up our desires to when our bodies are best suited to handle these activities. Maybe you want to travel across the country. Would that be easier in your 60’s or your 80’s? Maybe you have an interest in painting or reading more. Those things require less of us, physically, so we probably should not choose those hobbies over something that is more physically demanding. We should start looking at the things we want to accomplish and start aligning them to the times in our lives that are best suited for our physical capabilities. As I have said many times before, we need to stop the “someday” thought process and start doing things today.

Time is one thing we can never get back. Once the day passes, we can’t recapture those moments. That time has passed and the days ahead are one less. That is why, when I meet with clients, we are always discussing what they are looking forward to over the next few years. My hope for all of my clients is that those discussions we have about their plans and dreams lead to action and that they live their lives to the fullest in the days ahead. I understand that there is a huge fear of running out of money because you’re not working anymore. However, I would ask you, why did you make sacrifices along the way, if not to have this money to live your lives now, for this moment, when you don’t have to work anymore? I don’t imagine it was to build a pile of money and watch it get bigger while you let opportunities that bring you joy in life, pass you by. Would you rather leave a small inheritance but live your life to the fullest or leave a large inheritance and not do everything you wanted to do in life? It seems like an easy question, right? Yet, too many people say they want to live to the fullest but they continue to put off doing things until it’s too late. Spend your money that you earned with all of your hard work. If you’re not going to spend it, why did you work so long? And what do you think the number one answer to that question is? “I want it to go to the kids.”

Great, you’re going to leave your kids a nice financial legacy. When will they get it? When they are in their late 50’s or older? At that time, won’t they have most likely established their own life paths and be well on their way to being in the same position as you are? Could they use your funds for their retirement? Sure they could and I bet they will go out and enjoy more experiences, compliments of your hard work. My parents are in their mid 70’s and I hope they still have a ton of life left. So when my sister and I inherit what is leftover, we will hopefully be in our 70’s. Jill’s and I hope to be well prepared for our own retirement by then. That being said, I often hear this side of the coin too; “Our kids are doing well, so we don’t need to worry about leaving them a ton of money.” Great. If you see that you’re overfunded for your retirement, then you might want to be passing some of those funds down sooner, rather than when your life is over. You will get to see the results of your fruits during your lifetime and see the impact your funds made on your children and grandchildren. My dad and my uncle inherited their family farm and the family decided to sell that farm several years back. My parents then decided to pass some of the inherence on to my sister and me. I was very protective of those funds, knowing the sacrifice my grandparents put into building that farm and I wasn’t going to spend those funds frivolously. Instead, we put them into growing our real estate company. My parents got to see us better our lives now and will also get to see the impact on our futures. Now, a quick side note to my mom and dad, who are reading this newsletter; please spend your retirement funds on you.

Here’s my dilemma as a Financial Advisor: If a couple shows up in my office with a million dollars, and when they pass away, many years later, they still have a million dollars to pass down to their kids, did I do a good job? Many people would say the answer is, “Yes, Greg, you did an awesome job.” However, I question that. The biggest issue would be that I clearly didn’t give them enough reassurance that they could have used more of their hard earned money throughout their retirement, by maximizing their life experiences for themselves, with each other and with family and friends. I am definitely not going to be the advisor who will be encouraging you to hoard your money. Rather, I will be the one that will encourage you to live your life to your fullest and avoid having a pile of money at the end, unless, of course, your goal is to accumulate as much wealth as you can by the time you pass. (There are many people like this, by the way). What I love about this book though, is that it challenges you to look at that goal and to maybe change some of your priorities in life. I can see these themes (and many more) from this book, coming into play in our practice and future newsletters.

Well, we did it again, but this one is on me; we got another puppy. I had a chip to cash in to pick out our next dog and maybe this book encouraged me to not wait. We ended up with an Aussiedoodle. I was looking for a frisbee loving dog and Jill loves poodles so this was the perfect combination. Ozzy has joined the Korn zoo. More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

The thought of moving into a Nursing Home can be tough. Most of us would prefer to spend the rest of our days in the home we love. Unfortunately, for some of us, there will come a point when living at home will not make sense anymore. At that point, our options are limited. We could pay someone for care around the clock, have family members stay with us and take care of us or move into a child’s/family member’s home, where we have someone around to help us daily. However, these options do not always work out for many people. We experienced this with Jill’s Grandma; we provided as much care as our schedules permitted, but we couldn’t get enough outside help to come in and offset the times when we weren’t available. Jill’s grandma needed care almost every hour of the day, but we were lucky to get someone here twice per week for four hours. After a fall, very early in the morning, it became apparent that she needed more care than we could provide at home. We were able to get her into a nursing facility and now she is getting the supervision she needs to keep her as safe as possible. Somehow, that didn’t stop her from falling again and breaking her neck for the second time. And let me tell you, she really hates those neck braces!

One problem is that our bodies eventually hit a point where our balance and strength just don’t match our desires. Another problem is that we hold on so long to stay in our homes that we show up to the Nursing Home in rough shape. People try so hard to hold on that they end up doing more damage to themselves than if they had just taken this step earlier. This is especially true because as we age, it becomes a lot harder to recover, as our bodies don’t bounce back like they used to.

Nursing facilities have a ton of overhead, from the buildings, to the equipment needed, to feeding everyone, to paying the staff to care for individuals. Unfortunately, that means they are expensive to run and maintain. As I said in my previous newsletter, these facilities are getting hit from all sides and have increased costs with declining reimbursement rates. So, how much will it actually cost us for care? I used the Genworth cost of care website to help give me an idea for my clients in a given area. Go check it out for your area. I warn you though, you’re not going to like what you find out. We live in Philipsburg and today a semi-private room would be $10,859 per month. That’s a big number! Like most of us, I hope that won’t become relevant for a long time, or ever. You can also use the site to estimate for a time into the future. If you are 65 and want to know what the cost of care will be at 90, there is a sliding scale you can use to get an idea of the cost at that time. With those criteria, it projects the cost of care to be $22,736 per month or $272,830 annually. As you can see, the system is set up for you to go broke in the future. With this increased cost and tightening bottom lines, nursing homes have to evaluate whether a patient coming in will be profitable. They simply do not accept everyone like they used to. If we want great care in a nice place, these facilities need to be making money.

Remember, the only system set up to pay for your care (besides you), is the state, through Medicaid. Of course, there is Long-Term Care Insurance, but remember, you paid to have that policy. Now, to qualify for Medicaid is a major process that you and your family need to go through. To start, you’re going to have to provide five years worth of statements for all of your financial accounts. I don’t know about you, but that would not be a simple process for me, let alone if you are a child without a financial POA trying to collect all of that information. But that’s not all…you also need information on all Life Insurance policies. If there is any cash value in the policies, those are going to be cashed in to pay for your care, which means, no death benefit to your beneficiaries. You also need information on any property you own or property you have transferred in the last five years. Any resources that can be converted to cash above a certain limit, (currently around $2,400) will disqualify you from Medicaid. Therefore, you need to spend all of your money down to the last $2,400, before the State will come in to help pay for your care. As I was saying, the system is set up to make you go broke first.

Nursing Homes are a critical part of our society and we need them to take care of our elderly. It’s a tough business to be in. The stress those workers must feel on a daily basis–to provide great care and be able to keep the facility running, is something I commend them on. These last two newsletters do not hold great news for you and me. What are you going to do now that you have more information about what the future may bring? The first priority, in my opinion, would be to get yourself in a better position regarding your health, so there is less need for a place like this in the future. I have added three things to my life, on top of exercising, that I hope will have a positive long-term effect; I track what I eat to keep my weight in a healthier place, I do five minutes of mobility work at night and I use an app that challenges my brain through games. I hope my future self will thank me for those things. Of course, I will also use this as another opportunity to reiterate the importance of getting your Estate Plan (that includes a Long-Term Care strategy) completed.

I have always recognized the value of planning for Long-Term Care, but talking to someone who is overseeing the operations of a nursing home, has hammered home the importance of helping you to get this done. More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

This year has been a whirlwind of conversations with all sorts of experts, tackling the mysteries of retirement decisions. Even Jenna, over Sunday dinner, pointed out, “Dad, you’ve got a question for everything!” Guilty as charged—I’m on a quest for knowledge!

Earlier in my career, when I was focused on Medicare and Final Expense policies, I would always get the question, “What do you think of pre-funding funeral insurance through funeral homes?” Back then, I had gone through many educational trainings regarding Final Expense policies. During those trainings, there was a negative spin on pre-paid funeral policies. Looking back, that makes a lot of sense because those companies wanted you to sell their Final Expense plans instead. Recently, I decided to dive deep and chat with Joe Spewock from Kruise-Spewock Funeral & Cremation Services, Inc., who runs three local funeral homes. After speaking with Joe, I must say, I feel much better about pre-paid funeral policies.

Here are some key points on how these policies work:

The funeral home doesn’t get paid when you give them the check. Instead, they give those funds to an Insurance company that makes the funeral home the beneficiary of the policy. Therefore, they only get paid at the time the service is used. However, you are getting today’s pricing for the services you are requesting for the future. Also, your funds are growing each year, at a fixed rate, under these policies, which means if there are more funds than necessary to cover expenses, your family will receive a refund check for the difference. A couple of things to note about these policies: First, they are irrevocable and cannot be changed. Second, they are portable; meaning, if you want to move the policy to another funeral home, you can do so. However, the new funeral home doesn’t have to honor the pricing that you had arranged with the original funeral home.

While discussing funeral arrangements may not be the most uplifting topic, it’s important to consider and I definitely see the value of sitting down with a Funeral Director to discuss what your wishes are and how you want your service to go. These are your final wishes and it is probably not fair to leave these decisions to your family, while they are grieving. Instead, lean on someone, like Joe, who has been doing this for most of his life, and has much experience dealing with all of the details of the service.

Another option you may want to consider is an Irrevocable Burial Trust. The funds you put in this trust are excluded from your assets when calculating for Long-Term Care. Of course, there is a limit on how much you’re able to put in there, which is $17,000. For a married couple, however, we could set up two trusts and have $34,000 protected from Long-Term Care. From now on, I will be considering these as options for my clients, as part of their overall plan.

Planning ahead is key. We all share the same destiny, so it’s wise to lay down the groundwork early. As for me, I’m gearing up to make this a top priority in my client meetings. We’ll brainstorm, sift through options, and carve out the best path forward, just like we do with everything else!

I’m grateful to Joe for sitting down with me and explaining pre-paid funeral policies, which really helped paint a different picture for me. But, typical me, now I’ve got even more questions buzzing around my head. It’s like solving one puzzle piece just reveals three more missing ones!

This weekend, I aerated, fertilized, mowed, and planted seedlings. Spring is finally here, and enjoying the outdoors, especially playing endless frisbee with the dogs, feels fantastic. Wishing you a great couple of weeks ahead. More thoughts (and answers) from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

As planned, I am continuing to have conversations with individuals regarding different aspects of retirement. I recently had a conversation with two nursing home administrators, to get their perspective on how things work in that world. I can sum up many of my thoughts with one word: WOW! Nursing home care is a major problem that is not easily solved, to say the least. And it is a problem for all parties involved, from the residents to the staff to the insurance companies. There is a lot to discuss here, and it is going to take a couple of newsletters to communicate everything I learned and my thoughts on those points. However, in the end, this might be the quote that will stick with me the most: “I am telling my parents, don’t save and spend it all.” Those were the words of one of the administrators I spoke with.

Let’s first start with an understanding of the different levels of care and how they get paid for. This particular facility is currently in the process of expanding its Personal Care unit. I found that interesting because there is no help from Medicare or Medicaid to pay for these beds; they are all private pay. These are beds for individuals that don’t need Skilled Nursing Care, but it is best that they are not living on their own anymore. Therefore, they have a room in the unit with staffing around, but are mostly still taking care of their own daily living activities. However, an individual might start in this unit, and as their care needs increase, they will move to another unit which provides more oversight and care. As we know, as your body breaks down, you’ll likely need more care on a daily basis. Your needs will dictate where you are placed in the facility. Some facilities have special Memory Care units for those individuals dealing with Dementia or Alzheimer’s. Other units are for individuals that are bedridden. These facilities work hard to make sure you are placed in the unit that is best suited for you. Each of those units are paid for by you, privately, or by Medicaid, should you run out of funds.

Another unit of nursing homes that you may not be aware of, is the short-term care unit. These beds are for individuals that have had at least a three day hospital stay, but are not ready to go home yet. These beds are considered Rehab beds. Good news–Medicare helps pay for this type of care. The first 20 days are on Medicare and after that you have a co-pay for up to 100 days. That is correct–Medicare only pays for the first 100 days. After that, it’s all on you. I guess you had better work hard during rehab so you can get out of there and back home by the 100th day! Now, that is the way it is supposed to happen. However, there are sometimes Medicare Advantage plans involved and they have the final say in the decision making process, as to who pays. Let’s put it this way; these administrators did not have very nice things to say about Medicare Advantage plans. I believe it was something along the lines of, “We HATE Medicare Advantage plans!” But why? Because these insurance plans end up being the ones making decisions as to when you should be done with rehab. What the doctor says becomes irrelevant when it comes to paying for additional days. The administrators are constantly having to request days for patients that are not ready to go home. At times, the Advantage plans will say they will not pay after a certain date, even if the doctor is saying you are not ready to go home. Therefore, your choice is to stay and pay privately OR to go home when you are not fully recovered. Both seem like terrible options to me. Worth noting; when Medicare is your primary insurance, they are more open to listening to your doctor and making sure you get the necessary care before heading home.

This is a really difficult subject from all perspectives. For starters, I am in the business of helping clients pass on as much as they possibly can to their heirs, which involves protecting those assets from Long-Term Care. However, you earned these funds and the funds are there to take care of you. That being said, is it fair to the individuals that lived below their means and built a nice savings, then have to use all of their savings toward Long-Term Care, while individuals who spent everything they had are able to have the state come in to pay for their Long-Term Care? From that perspective, the administrator was right; “…don’t save and spend it all.” You also want to have great care during these years and these homes are getting squeezed from all directions. They are requiring higher staff to resident ratios. The demand for quality staffing is so high in the nursing field that there are bonuses offered almost everywhere. On the other hand, the government and Medicare Advantage plans are looking to save money where they can, so reimbursement rates are not keeping up with the cost to provide care. Medicare Advantage plans will sometimes even come back to the nursing home and do an audit, picking apart the paperwork and notes of procedures that they approved, so they can have the money sent back to the Medicare Advantage plans. If facilities are getting squeezed from all directions, how are they going to give the quality of care we hope to receive during this period of our lives? I commend everyone employed at these facilities for working through these difficult times and still focusing on providing great care to the elderly during this last stage of their lives.

More thoughts about nursing homes from behind my desk in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, what we may want to be thinking about, is getting out there and enjoying every day while we can. We only get so many spins on this planet so let’s live our best lives.

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Greg Korn DBA K Financial are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

April is Financial Awareness month. I believe this month was chosen to coincide with paying your taxes. I felt that Financial Awareness month would be a good time to review the title of “Financial Advisor”. Unfortunately, this is a title that pretty much anyone in the financial world can use, which I think can be misleading to individuals shopping around for an advisor. It does not give you the ability to distinguish between an individual’s background, education, how they get paid or what industry they represent, because they can all call themselves “Financial Advisors”.

I started down this road after many interactions with prospects about the services they were receiving from their advisors. The majority of these individuals were using advisors in large financial firms. What I have seen, is that many of the individuals within these firms, promote themselves as Financial Advisors. What I find interesting, is that when we start talking about taxes, Roth conversions, healthcare, long-term care and estate planning, these are new conversations with little discussion of these topics from their “Financial Advisors”. What tends to happen instead, is that clients are really on their own to figure out the best path forward in these areas. What this demonstrates to me, is that the only advice given, is on the investments these advisors manage– which is fine, but I don’t believe they should be promoting themselves as Financial Advisors when all they are doing is managing investments and not looking at the bigger financial picture. This definitely makes it more difficult for you, as the client, when you are trying to make a decision on who to go to, because essentially this title can be completely misleading. Is this person going to give you the full scope of advice or just advice on the investments they oversee? That is why there is a big fight in the financial industry about what titles people can use, so individuals like yourselves can understand who is giving you advice.

The other area which can be problematic, is insurance agents calling themselves Financial Advisors. When the only options they can provide are insurance products, how can they demonstrate the full spectrum of all of the options available to you, as the client? It’s kind of like showing up to a construction job site with just a hammer. You simply will not be able to complete every job with that one tool. I use a ton of different insurance products and believe in the value they bring to the table. However, they are not the answer to every situation. It is also worth noting that insurance agents are paid 100% by commission. Therefore, they only get paid if you purchase something. This can create a difficult situation because insurance agents are not fiduciaries, so what they are offering may not be in your best interest, but they may not want to tell you that because then they are not getting paid for their time. In an ideal world, they would use titles that expressed that they only offered insurance. Then, when you sat down with them, they would explain that this is what the insurance side of the world can offer you as a solution, but there are other options outside of insurance and you may want to do your research prior to signing paperwork. Unfortunately that is not how the world works. In the insurance industry, I have heard it said too many times; “Just get their signatures on the paperwork.”

One last thing I would like to discuss is the “alphabet soup” after everyone’s names. What do all of these letters/designations mean? Well, they do not all carry the same weight. Some designations can be earned after one eight hour course, while others, like the CFPⓇ designation, are earned after taking five full courses and passing a difficult 180 question exam. When you search FINRA, under Professional Designations, there are 250 listed. In The Alphabet Soup of Financial Certification article on Investopedia, they break down several of these designations to help you understand what they each mean. For me, it was pretty simple when it came to deciding which direction to go. To be able to offer the most comprehensive advice for clients in the financial industry, the Certified Financial PlannerⓇ designation seemed like the logical choice. It has provided me education in all of the areas in which I advise my clients. Personally, I do not like giving advice on something, unless I have a full understanding of the topic. That being stated, you will soon be receiving newsletters from me, outlining my recent conversations with; a Funeral Director, Nursing Home Administrator, Estate Planner and CPA (once the tax season is over).

Simply stated, it is important that you understand who is giving you advice and their background. You probably do not want to be getting advice from a podiatrist on what to do about your shoulder problem. Financial advice should be sought in a similar fashion; you want the best advice regarding the problem(s) you’re trying to solve, from someone who has the knowledge in that specific area.

Enjoy the next couple of weeks preparing to get those yards back in shape after this winter. I will be back with more thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

To keep up with our Financial Awareness theme in April, we’ve created a list of questions for interviewing a Financial Advisor. We’ve gathered the top questions clients often ask and have answered them below, tailored to our firm.

1. What are your qualifications?

I hold a Series 65 License: Designed by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Series 65 is an exam and securities license required for individuals to act as investment advisers in the US.The Series 65 exam, known formally as the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination, covers laws, regulations, ethics, and various topics important to the role of a financial adviser. (Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/series65.asp, 2022) I also hold insurance licenses in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Florida.

2. Do you have qualifications above the minimum required?

Voluntary accreditations: I am a Certified Financial Planner Ⓡ and I am a National Social Security Advisor Certificate Holder*

3. Are you a fiduciary?

Indeed. Holding both the Series 65 and CFP designations ensures that I act as a fiduciary.

4. How do you get paid?

Financial and insurance industries compensate advisors or agents in various ways, primarily through Assets Under Management (AUM) and commissions. We operate under both models without any preference, focusing instead on what best suits your needs and goals. Under the AUM model, we charge a percentage of the assets we manage, ranging from 0.85% for assets under one million to 0.75% for assets over one million, with additional fees from Brookstone Capital Management for investment oversight. Typically, clients pay around 1.25% of their total AUM annually, deducted monthly from their investments. Commissions, common in insurance, don’t reduce your initial investment; they’re already included in product costs and can be a one-time or ongoing payout for agents.

5. How will our relationship work?

Once you become a client, we’ll hold semi-annual meetings to review and update your plan as needed. These meetings will occur in the Spring and Fall. Additionally, I’ll be available by appointment throughout the year if you need to discuss any matters that arise.

6. Can I call you any time for advice?

Our philosophy is to get back to everyone within 24 business hours, to schedule a time that works for both of us to discuss what’s on your mind. Obviously, when emergencies arise, we will work to resolve your situation as soon as possible.

7. What is your investment philosophy?

We recommend using a diversified investment approach to support your goals, considering the uncertainty of the future and the unpredictability of events. Instead of reacting hastily to short-term changes, we acknowledge their ongoing impact on the future. Therefore, in crafting your investment strategy, we take a forward-looking view, accommodating potential fluctuations. While some investments may bring higher volatility but historically higher returns, we balance these with lower-risk options to suit your individual needs and timeline. With confidence in the strength of America, its economy, and our ability to overcome challenges, we aim to set your investments up for long-term success.

8. Do You Specialize in Certain Types of Clients?

Certainly. Our focus is on individuals nearing retirement and those already in retirement, and we remain committed to serving clients throughout their retirement years.

9. How Do I Plan for Taxes in Retirement?

Financial decisions have tax implications, so it’s crucial to know your tax situation. We’ll ask for your tax returns to consider their impact on our recommendations. We also suggest consulting a tax professional before making major decisions.

10. What services do you provide clients?

We offer advice and solutions for all aspects of retirement planning. These include: Income planning, tax planning, risk management (Health Insurance: Pennie & Medicare, Life Insurance & Long-Term Care Planning), Estate Planning and Investment Management

11. Does Your Firm Hold My Money and Investments?

We do not hold your funds. For Assets Under Management (AUM), funds are held by custodians like Fidelity or Charles Schwab. Additionally, we are contracted with various insurance companies where funds may be held.

12. Describe the process you use with clients.

We follow a three-meeting process for individuals interested in becoming clients:

The first meeting, a discovery session, involves discussing your needs and goals while we explore how we can assist you in achieving them.
In the second meeting, I’ll present you with a One-Page Financial Plan, which we’ll go over together. If we both feel it’s a good fit, we proceed to the third meeting.
The third meeting involves signing paperwork to officially become a client of K Financial. Throughout this process, Jill will keep you updated on the status of applications and funds transfers.

13. What is your disciplinary record?

None

14. What would you like to be doing in five years?

Continuing to provide our clients with top-notch service

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

I know you’ve been waiting a whole year for this newsletter. You know–the one where I dive into taxes. Well, the wait is over; it is time. Those of you who have met with me, know that I talk a lot about the tax laws, especially how we will be reverting back to 2017 tax laws in 2026. It is important that you understand that because if changes are not made, you only have two years left at our current rates, to help reduce your lifetime taxes. Being an election year, and with tax laws scheduled to revert back to 2017 laws, my guess is that you will hear a lot about taxes and what each candidate would do if they were elected. I would encourage you not to make any plans around what they say they are going to do. I am approaching it this way– focus on making smart long-term tax decisions over the next two years. Then see what the President and Congress come up with in 2025 for 2026. The next two years are important; one reason being, the Standard Deduction.

The 2024 Standard Deduction is $27,700 for married couples filing jointly and $13,850 for a single filer. And, if you are over 65, you get an additional $1,850 each. Therefore, a married couple that is over age 65, gets a total deduction of $31,400. That means a married couple over age 65 does not have to pay any Federal tax on the first $31,400 they make. I have had many conversations about how the tax bracket rates will rise in 2026: 12% goes to 15%, 22% goes to 24% and 24% goes to 28%, if no changes are made. What I also recognize, is that in 2026, the Standard Deduction goes back to the 2017 number, indexed for inflation. That number is projected to be around $16,500. Therefore, this same example couple, currently getting a deduction of $31,400, could be paying tax on $14,900 more income. But wait…there’s another problem regarding the change in the Standard Deduction. This also means that you will move to the next tax bracket sooner. Here’s an example, to give you some perspective: A couple has $115,000 in taxable income: Now, $115,000 – $31,400 = $83,600 (12% tax bracket). In 2026, if we revert back to 2017 laws, $115,000 – $16,500 = $98,500 (a majority of the income would be in the 15% tax bracket, but $4,200 would be taxed at 25%). Keep in mind, there are a lot of other factors that go into taxable income, but I wanted to give a simple example to explain how the change could potentially affect you.

There is no way around it; if we revert back to 2017 tax laws, all of us will be paying more in taxes because of the decrease in the Standard Deduction and the increase in tax rates. As I have emphasized in the past, you need to examine whether or not Roth conversions make sense. And it is important to examine this because I’ve come across several cases this year, where it looked like we could move a good bit of money to a Roth, but once we dove in a little deeper, it did not make sense. This can happen when you are on Social Security or if you have insurance through Pennie. As you may be aware, Social Security is taxed differently than other income. In these cases, clients had either zero or 50% of their Social Security included in their Adjusted Gross Income. If we had done a Roth conversion, they would have pushed the Social Security amount included in AGI to 85%. So instead of that Roth Conversion costing 12% in taxes, it would have been more like 18%-20%, which would not have been a smart tax move. If you get your health insurance through Pennie, for every extra dollar we put on the tax return (aka Roth Conversions), we increase your health insurance cost, therefore, reducing your monthly cash flow. Tax planning matters and it is important to focus on this, especially over the next two years.

That’s enough about taxes. I am falling asleep writing about it. If you have not heard, we bought a building in downtown Philipsburg, which will be home to our new office. It needed a lot of work, but we are close to finishing up the outside. As usual, my dad came up and helped us get this building into shape. Unfortunately, he won’t be back until June. I guess he decided he wanted to enjoy his retirement (aka skiing) instead of dealing with our endless stream of projects. Soon we will get to dealing with the inside work. Doesn’t seem like good planning on our part, now that I think about it–work on the outside during the Winter and the inside during the Spring and Summer. I guess I ought to stick to financial planning.

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

I actually can’t believe we never did this as a newsletter before, considering we talk about our pets all the time. As I am thinking about what to write in our next newsletter, I look over at Jill and see five dogs laying around, under her desk. Our animals are part of our family. We just had a birthday celebration, last evening, for Sunny. Therefore, that got me thinking about having pets in retirement and what the benefits are. Off to Google I go, and not surprisingly, there are many benefits of having pets during this stage of life.

First, I think we have to discuss why it might not be wise to bring home a cute little puppy or kitten. If you’re not going to be home for long periods of time, the last thing you want to be doing is arranging for someone to be watching your pet while you are off seeing the world or watching grandkids for an extended period of time. And, if you’re anything like my wife, you can’t leave your furry friends for more than a few days. We’re preparing to go away this weekend, but I know our trip time is limited. Yes, the dogs and cat are like our children, and she can’t be away from them for very long. We had a couple of dogs growing up, but my parents have not had any pets since. They have a busy life in retirement, between visiting their children and grandchildren, time on the farm in Missouri, spending time with friends up and down the east coast and traveling throughout the world. It wouldn’t make sense for them to have any pets–especially during the earlier years of retirement when they are the most active. You may want to hold off on having a four-legged creature running around your house until you know you will be home more consistently.

Now, on to the great things about having pets: Companionship is a big one, as well as the unconditional love you receive from them. It doesn’t matter how long we are gone; our dogs lose their minds when we return. They are so excited to see us and so happy that we are home, every time we enter the house. It doesn’t matter if we leave for ten minutes or ten hours, they are excited all the same. It is a great feeling when I come home from a long day and see them rushing to greet me. The love they show you can definitely help you feel good about yourself. They just want to be around you and be close to you. If you’re in a situation where the kids aren’t close and you won’t be traveling much, pets would be great daily companions to go through life with.

I talk about mobility and exercising a lot. Having a dog is a great way to get out and move around more. Dogs love to walk, so much so, that we can’t even say the word around here because they start running around the house getting ready to go. I have several clients for whom walking with their dogs is a daily part of their lives. Would they walk as much without their dogs? Maybe. But when you have this creature that brings you their leash every day, it’s extremely helpful motivation to get you out and moving. I can find excuses not to exercise but I know the importance of daily movement and quite honestly, my dogs don’t care to hear my excuses. Dogs can play a crucial role in keeping you active in life. My dogs get me outside more because they want to play frisbee every single day, or even multiple times per day, if they could get me to throw them that much.

A couple of other reasons to have pets: It’s better for your health, relieves stress and lowers blood pressure, according to an article from Cleveland Clinic. There’s the social part too–when you’re out and about walking your dog, you have a chance to run into others that love their dogs, as well. We are social creatures and interacting with others in different settings can always boost our spirits, overall. I know I’ve talked a lot about dogs, but cats can play a similar role. Our cat cuddles with us in the evening, laying on our laps. Now Sunny, our largest dog, who is 65 pounds, is a very jealous dog and tries hard to be a lap dog because she wants all the attention. She will literally jump up on our laps to prevent OBC (short for Oh Bad Cat, our cat’s name. No, really, that’s our cat’s name and it was earned. Believe me.) It’s a great feeling to have this little animal cuddle in, saying, it’s been a long day and let’s relax together because I love you.

Pets are going to be a part of the rest of our lives and play such a positive role in our daily lives now, that I have to encourage this companionship for others. More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

What does the ideal retirement look like? Well, according to the many ads we see, you’ll be walking on the beach, hand in hand, day after day, and you’ll be spending your evenings cuddled up on the beach, watching the sun set. Maybe the beach isn’t your scene though. Maybe, instead, you’ll live on a golf course and play golf every day of your life, without a care in the world. According to the sales people of the world, these are some ideas of what your ideal retirement should look like. And I am here to tell you that they have it wrong. These are people trying to sell you an idea. They want you to believe that if you work with them, that is where you will end up. The truth of the matter is, I don’t see a whole lot of individuals saying those are things they want when they envision their retirement. So what exactly is an ideal retirement?

I noticed last year, I was having several conversations in which individuals were feeling pressure about their retirement and their funds because of what they were reading or hearing others talk about. To me, that’s not what you should be feeling or what you should be focused on. It goes back to that old saying of “Keeping up with the Jones’.” All I can say is that that concept didn’t work for your mental health and your finances up to this point; it surely won’t work in retirement either. It can be difficult when you see what retirement “should” look like and you see everyone out there, putting up images of (only) the best parts of life. This can take a toll on your view of what your retirement should look like and cause you to start chasing things that are not you.

What you need to focus on is what makes you feel fulfilled and what brings joy to your life. From what I’ve seen, it is not endless days on the beach. Yes, travel is a common theme in retirement, but the beaches are just a small part of what I hear retirees want to do. The problem I see is that retirement is made out to be a long vacation…but it really isn’t. You still have a lot of idle time that needs to be filled. Also, once everyone discovers you’re retired, you’ll end up with a lot of requests for your time that you didn’t get when you were working. Before you know it, you’re busier than you were when you were employed. As a client just brought up to me, you need to develop a routine. Otherwise, before you know it, you will be wondering where the days have gone and why nothing has been accomplished.

The ideal retirement looks totally different from retiree to retiree. But guess what? It’s your ideal retirement to build–yes, build. You need to build your life around what is important to you, not what the ads are telling you is important. Sure, you can build your retirement up to be a grand adventure, which can be awesome. However, I’ve noticed that the most satisfied retirees are the ones that understand who they are and the ones who do the things that bring them the most joy. My grandparents did woodworking for themselves, their family and friends. That filled the majority of their days in retirement. However, they also did a ton of bus trips throughout the country. Somehow they built their ideal retirement on a farm, in the middle of southwest Missouri. It was a great retirement, after a long life of farming and factory work. Stop looking around at others’ social media and all these advertisements to find the answers. It just leads to this pressure that you simply do not need. There is no “correct” way to retire. Comparing your life to others can lead to disappointment and keep you from focusing on what you want in life. Focus on you and only you. What is going to feed your joy? Find whatever that is and ride that joy the rest of the way. That, to me, is the ideal retirement.

I read a great article that I wanted to pass along, 5 Things You Need To Know Before You Retire. Give it a read as you think through your own retirement.

Let’s not let the snowy, cold weather get us down. It’s one of the reasons we live here, right? Ahh, the beauty of the four full seasons. I do actually enjoy it though, because Jill and I get under a nice warm blanket and savor some down time, catching up on our shows. Now, if only I could keep her awake long enough to enjoy a full episode!

Two down, twenty four more to go! Have a great couple of weeks. More thoughts from behind my desk soon…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

We are living in the information era, and while it presents numerous benefits, it also poses a challenge: the overwhelming abundance of choices and data. This can complicate decision making and lead to confusion. Therefore, instead of contributing to this information overload, we have chosen to provide some clarity and guidance, regarding what we stand for and what we believe, as an organization.

Core Beliefs:

RELATIONSHIPS: Above all else, our interactions with clients stand as the cornerstone of our work. We are unwavering in our commitment to nurturing enduring connections. While this sentiment is often echoed, we strive to transcend mere transactions, aiming for meaningful, lasting relationships. Our aspiration is for every client who joins our community to remain with us for the long haul.

LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE: We aspire to lead fulfilling lives and contribute to the betterment of others. With our time on Earth being finite, every moment holds significance. Our aim is to inspire and support you in maximizing your experiences. Ultimately, if each client feels we’ve helped them to live their best life, we’ll consider our mission accomplished.

CASH FLOW: Your daily finances revolve around cash flow, making it a pivotal aspect of our focus. We prioritize comprehending your cash flow requirements. Our commitment lies in helping facilitate stable cash flow, not only for the present but also for the entirety of your life, achieved through meticulous planning. This commitment remains a top priority.

TAXES: Financial choices carry tax consequences, underscoring the importance of understanding your tax situation. To ensure comprehensive guidance, we will request your tax returns and factor in their implications with every recommendation. Additionally, we advocate consulting your tax professional to validate significant decisions.

INVESTMENTS: Given the inherent uncertainty of the future and the fallibility of predictions, we advocate employing a diversified investment approach to support your objectives. Rather than reacting to transient events, we acknowledge their perpetual influence on the future. Therefore, when devising your investment strategy, we adopt a forward-thinking perspective, accommodating potential fluctuations. While some investments may entail higher volatility yet historically offer greater returns, we balance these with low-risk options to align with your specific needs and timeline. Amidst our belief in the resilience of America, its economy, and our nation’s capacity to weather challenges, we strive to position your investments for long-term success.

ESTATE PLANNING: Every plan should begin with a clear vision of its ultimate goal. Hence, we’ll engage in extensive conversations regarding your desires for the future. However, to effectively achieve these goals and ensure the preservation of your legacy, we advocate for Long-Term Care planning. Collaborating with your attorney to safeguard certain assets from the potential expenses of nursing home care is essential to this process.

HEALTHCARE: As we age, it’s common for our health to deteriorate, underscoring the importance of making informed decisions about healthcare plans. Given the individuality of everyone’s healthcare needs, we are committed to assisting you in identifying the optimal plan tailored to your specific circumstances.

Time does give you perspective. I’ve been in the financial world for around twenty years and Jill for thirteen. What you might not know is that this world is a sales world, from banks to insurance companies to mutual funds to wealth management. Big businesses want you to sell and there is a lot of incentive for you to do so. Everyone is looking at your numbers. As we’ve worked hard on building our business, heading into our fifth year, we have discovered a lot about who we are and who we want to serve. It has taken time to develop these core beliefs, but we feel they will help guide us as we move forward and will also help individuals understand if our values align with theirs. I was fortunate enough to have worked for a small bank at the beginning of my journey. In that bank were great people that were focused on doing a great job for the people we served. When that bank was sold to a bigger bank, you could feel the shift in us and in the people we served. The mission was different and we knew it. It was a lesson I have never forgotten; be true to who you are, and the right people will come on board. That’s all we are trying to accomplish here–be exceptional at what we do, stay true to who we are (and who we are not) and then build relationships with the individuals who share our beliefs.

Three down! More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

When I am planning for clients, I always ask, “How many years are we planning for?” The majority of individuals are unsure and shrug their shoulders. Therefore, I use my default life expectancy of males to age 90 and females to age 95, unless, of course, we are already aware of some major health issues. That is your lifespan–the time from your birth until your death. Interestingly, I recently came across an article in the Wall Street Journal, Your Healthspan Is as Important as Lifespan – and It’s Declining. It gave me perspective; I definitely need to focus more on healthspan. Runstreet Blog defines healthspan as, “The period of a person’s life when they are generally healthy and free of chronic or severe diseases. Instead of looking at lifespan, which measures how long a person lives, healthspans help reflect quality of life.” To me, this is what we should be focusing on– Methods to lengthen our healthspan and improve our quality of life.

We should be more aggressive about living our lives when we are healthy because we never know when unforeseen health issues can disrupt our plans. I do talk about this during meetings and most people acknowledge that they’ll be more active during the first part of their retirement, because as we age, we will likely begin to slow down with our activities. However, the discussions I have had are centered more around our spending, and how we will do more of it in the earlier years, as we travel and enjoy other activities. This concept is referred to as the Retirement Spending Stages.

As we begin to consider healthspan, our focus should be on improving our health to sustain an active lifestyle for longer. This not only grants us more financial autonomy but also enhances our overall quality of life. On the contrary, poor health limits our options and drains our financial resources, taking away from other, enjoyable activities. The reality is simple: A longer healthspan will improve your overall quality of life. Realizing this, we should be focused on expanding our healthspan years. The Runstreet Blog suggested ten things you can do to help improve your healthspan, such as: exercising, regular doctor check ups, improving sleep and…something we’re great at–having a pet or two…or thirteen, in our case.

Sadly, societal trends indicate a decline in healthspan. Articles from WSJ and TheStreet highlight this concern, emphasizing that longevity alone isn’t sufficient if we’re not healthy. (Check out Living Long Isn’t Enough: Why Healthspan Matters More Than Lifespan.) We might be living longer but we are living longer in an unhealthy state. This has to do with our lifestyle and dietary choices. This is where you have to make the commitment to do things differently than others, which can be extremely difficult. I know that over the last several years, I have read a lot that indicates that having a great retirement begins with your health during those years. Therefore, if Jill and I want to have a long, happy retirement, we need to start new habits now, that our future selves will thank us for. Do I want pizza all the time? Yes. Should I eat pizza all the time? No. Did I have pizza this week? Yes. Knowing is supposedly half the battle, but to me, knowing is the easy part. Doing is where the winners win.

Understanding healthspan has been enlightening, prompting me to integrate it more into client discussions. As I have said in other newsletters, as a community, we want to be the exception. This feels like it has moved to the top of the exception list. Let’s not let the rest of society dictate how we live and let’s focus on doing the things that increase our healthspan.

Check out this video regarding the market, from Brookstone: The Dow and the S&P Climb to Record Highs – Brookstone Capital Management

Four down! More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

Happy New Year! Yes, it’s been a while, but it’s a new year with new goals–26 newsletters, to be exact. Goals are great, but we’re not going to sweat it if we don’t accomplish all 26. I enjoy writing these newsletters and we hope they bring value to you. However, it never changes our priorities of taking care of our clients and meeting with people to discuss their future retirement plans. That’s why every Fall we usually come up a little short in getting these newsletters out every two weeks. This Fall was no different. We had a lot of wonderful meetings over the last few months of 2023, and making sure those meetings were valuable to the individuals we met with, was our top priority. That got me thinking about what these emails are all about; they are a reflection of what is going on in the lives of individuals, like yourselves. A majority of our ideas come from time spent talking to you and your peers about planning for retirement, living in retirement and the legacy you/they want to leave behind.

We are all about helping you live your best life. We are not about growing this business just to add more advisors focused on accumulating more and more assets. We recognize that we can live a great life by just focusing on giving value to our clients and our community. At one point in the future, we will have to limit our onboarding of new clients because we would have to sacrifice something in order to bring new individuals on board, and we do not see that as an option. In the words of Zig Ziglar, “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

The ideas and topics we write about are not from some California-based retirement blog generator that doesn’t have a clue about the views of Central and Northern Pennsylvanians. Yes, there are a lot of topics that are universal, but we get how you feel on these topics and how they are affecting your life, here. I read A LOT about retirement. However, what I read is mostly general and doesn’t always reflect what I am hearing in our meetings. YOU are the best source of what retirement life is about, here in PA. What is important to us, is what matters to you, the concerns that keep coming up and how you want to live. Then you get things ruminating in our heads and these emails become the place for us to release those thoughts. That is, until someone comes in with a different perspective that we have to reflect on, because as you know, some subjects have one answer one year but have a totally different answer a couple of years later. A good example would be locking up funds for a period of time for a fixed rate…which I thought was a less than ideal idea, years ago, but over the last six months, it has been a part of our plans, as guaranteed interest rates are up.

In retirement, you start with a vision of what you want things to look like and as you get deeper into it, things can change. The same is true with our vision for K Financial. We have grown in who we are looking for to be part of our community. We are looking for individuals that have similar visions about retirement and that are enthusiastic about the approach we’re going to take on advising them, going forward. K Financial is not a “One-size-fits-all” firm. Your vision has to be aligned with our vision about retirement. What’s great about that, is that we do not have to morph into something new with each meeting so someone will do business with us. This allows us to be more connected with our clients and strengthen our relationships, because we’re all rowing in the same direction.

We look forward to bringing those ideas and thoughts that came out of the Fall meetings to these emails (e.g. What is an ideal retirement?; What qualifies someone as a Financial Planner?; Oh, I see why taxes matter; etc). We really appreciate you taking the time to read our thoughts and for providing such kind feedback. It definitely gives us the motivation to make sure we hit our 26 newsletter goal!

More thoughts from behind my desk in a couple of weeks…

Greg Korn, CFP® President & Investment Advisor Representative

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

Important Disclosures Regarding Email Communications

Advisory services through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. K Financial LLC and RWA are not affiliated. This Email is being sent by or on behalf of a Registered Investment Advisor. It is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, or confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate the Email or any part of it. If you have received this Email in error, please notify the sender immediately by Email or fax, and destroy all copies of this communication. Please be advised that you may conduct securities transactions only by speaking directly with your Investment Advisor Representative either by phone or in person. Requests for securities transactions via email will not be executed by Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. To help protect your privacy, we strongly suggest you avoid sending sensitive information, such as account numbers and social security numbers via Email. Please be further advised that, pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT ACT, and similar laws, any communication in this email is subject to regulatory, supervisory, and law enforcement review.

NEWSLETTERS 2024

BI-WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Address

207 Main St
Ridgway, PA 15853

308 Walton Street, Suite 3
Philipsburg, PA 16866

214 W High St
Bellefonte, PA 16823

CONTACT US

Local: 814-248-3026

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

EMAIL

begin@kfi.life

NEWSLETTERS 2024

BI-WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Address

207 Main St Ridgway, PA 15853

308 Walton Street, Suite 3Philipsburg, PA 16866

214 W High StBellefonte, PA 16823

CONTACT US

Local: 814-248-3026

Toll Free: 833-788-0404

Fax: 814-357-9070

EMAIL

begin@kfi.life

207 Main St
Ridgway, PA 15853

308 Walton Street, Suite 3
Philipsburg, PA 16866

214 W High St
Bellefonte, PA 16823