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HARVESTERS EVENT

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Community Involvement, Spring 2019 by Scott Dougan

We are so proud of our clients, family and friends that donated most needed items for our food drive and those that were able to participate in the Child Feeding BackSnack Program this past Saturday at Harvesters. We had a little over 40 folks who worked four assembly lines and put together approximately 3135 backpacks filled with nutritious, child-friendly foods …

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Back to the Basics: Revisiting an Enduring Strategy

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Back to the Basics, SLC Spring 2019, Spring 2019 by Scott Dougan

In a recent email from a very well-known firm in our industry, the subject line stated, ‘[this person] Shares A New Retirement Strategy.’ Always eager to add a new tool to the toolbox, I read further. What the article was sharing was a strategy that isn’t ‘New’, but it’s one that we’ve been using since the day Elevated Retirement Group’s …

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Briefcase Study: Those Pesky Remaining Debts

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Briefcase Studies, SLC Spring 2019, Spring 2019, Tax Planning by Scott Dougan

Before retirement, most people would like to pay off any remaining debts, so they can feel good going into that next phase of life all tidied-up. That makes a lot of sense, both financially and psychologically. In a recent meeting, we not only discussed this but put a plan together that was well received by the family, so we thought …

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Retirement Plan Buyer’s Guide

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Articles: Salt Lake City Office by Scott Dougan

Car buyers use them and so do people shopping for appliances. The buyer’s guide can be an extremely valuable resource for the person who wishes to compare and contrast the options available to them. But what about retirement plans? Is it possible to test-drive various options for converting one’s nest egg into an income for life? While I’m not aware …

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Is Estate Planning Only For Rich People?

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Articles: Salt Lake City Office, Investment Management, Tax Planning by Scott Dougan

I recently had the pleasure of teaching two classes called ‘Your Retirement And Taxes.’ In the classes, we sought to deepen our understanding of how our tax system works as it pertains to investments and income sources, as well as consider some strategies available to a retiree to pay only their fair share of taxes during retirement. While the subject …

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The Roth IRA Is Taking Your Medicine

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Articles: Salt Lake City Office, Tax Planning by Scott Dougan

Taxes, taxes, taxes. When we celebrate Independence Day each year, it’s easy to focus on the fireworks and forget that much of our dispute was over taxes. After all, wasn’t that part of the deal when we declared to the British that we wanted to see other people? That ‘taxation without representation’ thing, right? Well, in the hundreds of years …

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Foodies, Homebodies, and Globetrotters: Which Retiree Are You?

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Articles: Salt Lake City Office by Scott Dougan

Always on the lookout for new retirement insights, I stumbled upon a 2015 J.P. Morgan study (Spending In Retirement – Roy, Carson) that provided yet another way to view spending patterns of retirees. In the past, I’ve written about something called the ‘retirement smile’ that highlights the natural changes in spending patterns during successive phases of a typical retirement, during the …

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Tick, Tock: How Time Touches So Many Aspects Of Retirement Planning

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Articles: Salt Lake City Office by Scott Dougan

If there’s one asset class that’s become much more valuable than all of the others, it’s time. It’s finite, making it scarce. It’s fluid, making it difficult to firmly grasp. It’s misunderstood, allowing it to escape the reaches of our attempts at mastery of it. In fact, time is the very asset we’ll willingly trade all of the rest of …

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Thank you for supporting the 2018 Fall Festival Make-A-Wish® campaign!

In Articles, Articles: Kansas City Office, Community Involvement, Winter 2019 by Scott Dougan

Your support will help Make-A-Wish create life-changing wishes for children battling critical illnesses. We are thrilled to announce this year’s campaign raised over $10,000.00 for local wishes! Without your efforts, we would not be able to make wishes like Connor’s wish to go on a Disney Cruise come true! At one year old, Connor was diagnosed with a rare form …