Tom Egan's NEW WORTH-While #238: Known & Unknown

I thought about ‘mailing this one in’ (dare I reissue a prior commentary?) or totally skipping this week’s edition since I’m on the brink of taking a few days away from the office.?However, I’ve also been thinking a lot about being the change one wants to see in others and mailing it in isn’t part of that mentality, so here we go on this week’s edition.?

The following are a few anecdotes of real life situations that paused me to think about being prepared for known, and unknown, life events:?

?·???????A client of mine had an unexpected, life-threatening medical emergency and she told me that preparing a will and trust was a priority to her.?Among the many reasons for that, she said she did not want her children to receive their inheritances in a lump sum because they weren’t ready to accept the responsibility of properly managing a large amount of money.?That was more than three months ago; there is still no will or trust.?

?·???????Another client knew that his child was getting married and he wanted to assist with the payment of the reception.?We had repeatedly talked about setting aside a specific amount in lower risk investments to ensure the money would be available when needed.?The client repeatedly tabled acting on that recommendation.?He e-mailed me the other day saying he is now ready to do something – a large deposit is due in nine days.

·???????A colleague shared a story of one of his clients talking about opening accounts for his children.?The client has plenty of money and his children are young adults, primed and ready to learn about investments and financial planning.?The client put the idea on hold; the US stock market is now nearly 20% higher than when the client first discussed the idea.

Sometimes we know the hour and the day of something major and other times we don’t.?Nevertheless, isn’t it better to be prepared for the known and to also be prepared for the unknown since we do know that surprises inevitably come up along the way? If you need financial and/or planning help with either the known or the unknown, let’s talk.

Tom [email protected] 312-641-2400

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