Anyone who has worked throughout their life and has been funding a 401k plan, owns a home and other assets needs to have an estate plan. In fact, retirement planning should include a comprehensive estate plan.

According to Employee Benefit Attorney, Brooks Hamilton, in an interview for PBS television’s Frontline, over 900 people in any given 1000-person retirement plan will retire in poverty or run out of money before they die.

In my experience as an Estate Planning & Asset Protection attorney, the biggest mistake I see people make over and over again is not taking advantage of the asset of time. Many people mistakenly believe they’ll have plenty of time for retirement planning once they buy a home, put children through college. But here’s what happens with that line of reasoning.

When you’re 20 years old, you think retirement is 40 years off, so you wait until you’re 30. Then, by the time you’re 30, you have a mortgage and kids and spend money like crazy, so you wait until 40. When you’re 40, the kids are in college, or your parents need help, so you wait until 50. Once you reach 50, too much time has been lost and your retirement savings is forever handicapped. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but severely handicapped.

The single most valuable asset you have when saving for retirement is time. And the sooner your begin your retirement plan you will want to establish a comprehensive estate plan as well.

The post The Difference Between Retirement Planning And Estate Planning appeared first on Felinton Elder Law and Estate Planning Centers.

Retirement is that time in life that so many of us look forward to… we all want to enjoy retirement.

It is the time when we all would like to be able to do the things we don’t have time to do while we are still working. Thoughts of hobbies, sports activities, travel and more dance through our heads. But, if you want to retire well and enjoy retirement, and be able to do all those enjoyable activities, you have to avoid making some very common mistakes that can really mess up your retirement years.

The first and most common retirement mistake people make is failing to make a plan! You’ve heard the expression, “If you fail to plan you plan to fail.” Well that holds true for retiring as much as for anything else in life. Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

If you want to enjoy retirement, establishing a retirement plan means more than simply participating in your company’s 401k.

That is an important part, but there’s more to retirement planning than that. Sitting down with an Estate and Asset Planning Attorney can make a big difference in the way you retire and how you benefit your loved ones upon your passing.

We know the ins and outs of programs that many people are unaware of. We can help you avoid the many mistakes that so many people make. Among other mistakes people tend to make is no fully taking advantage of a company’s retirement plan, underestimating how long your retirement will be, and being late to sign up for Medicare. There are many more mistakes people make that can make retirement less than ideal.

Take the step now, if you’ve never met with an Estate and Asset Protection attorney and schedule a consultation with us. We can review any current plan you may have and establish a workable plan if you haven’t yet started one. After all, retirement really should be an enjoyable time of life.

The post The More Retirement Mistakes You Make The Less You’ll Enjoy Retirement appeared first on Felinton Elder Law and Estate Planning Centers.