INSIGHTS & PERSPECTIVE
Articles & Insights
Every article here starts with a question someone actually asked. A client approaching 60 wants to know what to do with an inherited IRA. A business owner wonders whether this is the year to sell. A family in Ventura County tries to work out how Prop 19 changes the plan for the house. The topics move across retirement, tax, estate, insurance, and investments, because real financial decisions rarely stay in one category.
These articles are educational. They reflect how Summit Wealth Management Group thinks through common situations, not personalized advice for any specific circumstance. As a fiduciary firm registered with the SEC and affiliated with LPL Financial, we've served clients across Ventura County since 2002. If something here maps to your own situation and you'd like to talk it through, reach out and we'll set up a conversation.
Estate Planning
Those In Transition
What Your Will Actually Does — and What It Doesn't
A will controls less than most people assume. What it governs, what passes outside it, and why that matters most during a transition.
Insurance & Risk
Pre-Retirees
Long-Term Care: The Question Most Plans Skip
Extended care is the largest uninsured risk most retirement plans carry. The questions to answer now, the options, and how to decide without fear.
Estate Planning
Multigenerational Families
How to Read Your Own Trust Document
Most people with a trust have never really read it. A plain-language map of the sections that matter, what they mean, and what to check against your wishes.
Insurance & Risk
Multigenerational Families
Insurance Strategies for Aging Parents
Long-term care, life insurance, Medicare supplements: how adult children can spot the insurance gaps that affect their parents — and their own exposure.
Estate Planning
Pre-Retirees
Estate Planning Updates in the Pre- Retirement Phase
Most estate documents were drafted decades ago, for a different life. Why pre-retirement is the time for a full refresh — and what to check first.
Cash Flow
Those In Transition
Cash Flow Reset After Major Life Changes
Marriage, divorce, retirement, inheritance, or loss — each calls for rebuilding your cash flow plan from the ground up. The reset framework, in order.
Estate Planning
Multigenerational Families
Generational Wealth Transfer in California:Prop 19 and What Changed
Prop 19 changed how property tax basis passes between generations in California. The parent-child exclusion, the cap, and timing decisions families face.
General
Sandwich Generation: Watch Out for These Costly Financial Pitfalls
The sandwich generation is generally defined as middle-aged individuals aged 40 to 60 (Generation X) sandwiched between aging parents, adult children, and grandchildren. Because members of the...
General
The Founding Fathers’ Guide to Financial Independence
“A penny saved is a penny earned.” This nugget of financial wisdom from Benjamin Franklin, shared in the late 1700s, remains as relevant today as...
General
Professionals
6 Tips for Small Business Owners to Promote Workplace Wellness
Work is stressful at times, and anxiety and stress among your employees may lead to performance issues and an overall lower productivity rate. By promoting...
General
Homeownership: What It Could Mean for Your Estate Plan
There is one thing that we will most likely all do one day: regardless of your status in society, position at work, or whether you...
General
Stocks Benefit From Solid Fundamental Foundation
April showers brought May flowers as markets placed greater importance on economic growth and corporate profits than the “higher for longer” interest rate messages from...
General
4 Tips for How to Set Up a 529 Plan to Benefit Your Business
529 education savings plans allow families to put away money for their children’s education without paying taxes on the earnings, as long as the withdrawals...
General
Professionals
Tax Planning for Small Businesses
For small business owners, tax planning is crucial. Without proper planning, you may find a large portion of your hard-earned profits and savings eaten up...
General
Those In Transition
The Importance of Choosing the Right Life Insurance Policy for Your Retirement Years
Life insurance has its benefits, and choosing a manageable life insurance policy is a critical step in your retirement planning. It can help your family...
General
Social Security Simplified: Common Questions and Answers
Most American workers who earn wage income and pay Social Security taxes via withholding receive Social Security benefits at some point in retirement. While the...
General
Pre-Retirees
Why Your Credit Score Matters in Retirement
Regardless of the stage of life, your credit score is an essential component of your financial health when you’re in retirement. A consistently strong credit...
General
Independent Women
Managing Your Money: Top Financial Habits for Women Entrepreneurs
Today, there are an estimated 12.3 million women-owned businesses. To give that some context, approximately 43% of entrepreneurs worldwide are women. A study conducted by...
General
Independent Women
Pearls of Wisdom: Wealth Preservation for High-Net-Worth Women
Wealth preservation is essential for high-net-worth (HNW) individuals, but it warrants a gender-specific focus, too. Particularly for HNW women, understanding the complexities of wealth preservation...
General
How to Help Your Children with Their Debt
Parenthood is full of highs and lows. If you have children, you probably know firsthand what it feels like to be in debt. Because you...
General
Caring For Your Family Members While Preparing For Retirement
The newest generation of upcoming retirees is facing a more unique and prominent dilemma than past generations have experienced: caring for family members at the...
General
Retiring Early As a Couple: A Financial Love Story
Retiring early as a couple is a goal shared by many, and if planned comprehensively, it may provide opportunities for travel, passion projects, and more...
General
How to Estimate Your Quarterly Taxes as a Small Business Owner
For profitable small businesses, paying quarterly estimated taxes is part of the tax process to potentially avoid penalties at the end of your fiscal year....
General
Key Financial Wellness Metrics for Near-Retirement Individuals
As one approaches retirement, monitoring your financial situation by understanding your net worth and assessing the assets and resources needed to maintain a comfortable lifestyle...
Multigenerational Families
The Next Generation
8 Financial Wellness Tips to Help Manage Generational Wealth
Asset management and financial wellness can help develop long-term confidence when wealth transfers from generation to generation. Understanding and implementing financial wellness techniques is essential...
Professionals
Financial Wellness Checklist for Small Business Owners
Financial wellness is easier to work toward when a business owner understands their economic outlook and has set financial goals to take them through the...
Pre-Retirees
Creating Financial Resolutions as a Couple
It’s a new year and the time of year when you want to make resolutions about your personal life, business life, and finances. It is...
Independent Women
Multigenerational Families
Pre-Retirees
Professionals
Year-End Tax Planning Considerations for Capital Gains
As the end of the year approaches, investors need to focus on tax-related considerations, particularly regarding capital gains. Year-end tax planning can help investors manage...
Professionals
Year-End Planning Considerations for Business Owners
The end of the year can be a chaotic time for business owners. It is a time to compile data, review the numbers, evaluate strengths...
Pre-Retirees
Those In Transition
A Look at Tax Planning for Retirement
After years of saving and planning for their golden years, many people nearing retirement fail to consider the tax burden they may face on income...
Pre-Retirees
Those In Transition
Year-End Planning for Retirees
As we approach the last quarter of each year, it is a good time to plan for the next one. Year-end planning is especially important...
Multigenerational Families
Pre-Retirees
Year-end Tax Planning for High-Net-Worth Individuals
As the year’s end approaches, High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) must prepare for one of the most critical monetary tasks: year-end tax planning. Due to the nature...
Professionals
Tax Planning for the Self-Employed
What is it? According to the IRS, you are self-employed if you carry on a trade or business as a sole proprietor, as an independent...
Those In Transition
A Guide to Social Security for Seniors
Whether you’re nearing retirement age, have a significant disability or are struggling to meet your basic needs, you may be entitled to Social Security. This federal...
Independent Women
Professionals
What Should Women Entrepreneurs Know About Small Business Grants?
One of the biggest challenges for any new business involves maintaining liquidity and consistent cash flow. Many entrepreneurs take only a minimal salary—if any at...
Pre-Retirees
Those In Transition
Making Decisions About Medicare
As you near age 65, you may start to think about Medicare. How do you sort through your coverage options? When (and how) do you...
Multigenerational Families
High Net-Worth Individuals: Are You Missing Opportunities in Your Financial Planning?
High Net-Worth executives and those that have been self-employed, can experience common problems in their financial planning journey. Often, they have missed opportunities in their...
Independent Women
Multigenerational Families
Women and Estate Planning Basics
When it comes to estate planning, women have unique concerns. The fact is that women live an average of 5.0 years longer than men.* That’s...
General
Family Wealth Transfer Planning: Keeping It In the Family Through Generational Giving
You have worked hard for years and accumulated wealth. You earned this money through your job, investing, and saving, and you want to preserve it...
General
Ten Things You Must Know About Medicare
Heading into your retirement years brings a slew of new topics to grapple with, and one of the most maddening may be Medicare. Figuring out...
General
Women and Money: Taking Control of Your Finances
As a woman, you have financial needs that are unique to your situation in life. Perhaps you would like to buy your first home. Maybe...
General
Acquaint Grown Children with Your Financial Affairs
As your children get older, it may be beneficial to share financial, medical, and estate planning information with them. Awareness of this information, and knowing...
General
The Sandwich Generation – Caring for Parents and Children Simultaneously
As the population continues to age, the “sandwich generation” is caught in the middle, supporting both their parents and their children, whether financially, physically, or...
General
Why Business Owners Need Financial Planning
Regardless of the income a business generates, the ages of the owners, or how many employees it has, a business financial plan can help plan...
General
3 Tips for Preserving Wealth in Your Golden Years
After spending so much of your life saving for retirement, it can be challenging to transition from depositing funds to withdrawing them. With some careful...
General
Money Mistakes that Young Professionals Make
As you enter the workforce and start to earn a regular income, it’s easy to get carried away with newfound financial freedom. However, this can...
General
Aging Parents and Money
Your parents’ ability to manage their own finances may decline as they age and helping them with money matters is a sensitive issue you should...
General
Unused 529 Plan Funds: 5 Spending Options to Consider
Sometimes, 529 plans have unused funds after the beneficiary graduates or decides to discontinue their education. Whatever the reason for having unused 529 plan funds,...
General
Money Milestones: 4 Financial Goals for Older Individuals
Striving for financial betterment should not end when you hit retirement. You should continue to work toward new financial goals every year or every decade...
General
Four Things Women Need to Know about Social Security
Ever since a legal secretary named Ida May Fuller received the first retirement benefit check in 1940, women have been counting on Social Security to...
General
Retiring as a Small-Business Owner: What to Know Before You Go
The thought of retiring may be intimidating for anyone—but if you own your own business, handing your “baby” to new owners might be enough to...
General
Five Ways SECURE 2.0 Changes the Required Minimum Distribution Rules
The SECURE Act 2.0 legislation has changed the landscape when it comes to RMDs (required minimum distributions) – but what does this actually mean for...
General
When Changing Jobs, Rollovers May Offer Benefits
Changing jobs often can have many benefits, but it also has one potential downside — retirement accounts that are spread across different companies....
General
Thinking About Working in Retirement? Here’s What to Consider
Social Security income planning is complicated. It isn’t just a matter of when to collect Social Security retirement benefits and how your monthly payment may...
General
Women’s Financial Empowerment: The Challenge of Financial Wellness
March is #WomensHistoryMonth, a month-long celebration of female empowerment. In this blog we discuss some specific steps that women of all ages and all stages...
General
Tax Planning for Business Owners
Learn more about tax planning for your business on our blog....
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Saving Tips for Younger Adults
Today, younger adults face a variety of challenges in their pursuit of financial independence. Here are five financial tips to help you manage your personal...
General
Healthcare in Retirement
Healthcare in retirement is available from many sources – government programs, supplemental health insurance, military benefits, retirement communities, and nursing homes. Depending on your needs,...
General
Entrepreneurship and Financial Risk: What You Need to Know
Entrepreneurs tend to be natural risk-takers but this doesn’t mean committing to uncompensated risk. On our blog, we discuss some financial risks an entrepreneur may...
General
Women – Moving Forward Financially After the Loss of a Spouse
Becoming a widow at any age can be one of the most difficult challenges a woman faces. Not only is there the emotional loss of...
General
Tax Prep Checklist: Everything You Need to Be Ready for Tax Season
It’s never too early to get started on tax preparation, so why not start today? Check out our article on everything you’ll need to be...
General
What You Need to Know About the SECURE Act 2.0
With the signing of the Omnibus Appropriations package into law, both employees and employers can take advantage of more than 90 new provisions aimed at...
General
Trusts and Year-End Planning: A Checklist
The end of the year is a great time to review your trust document, update information, buy or sell assets or even cancel your trust...
General
5 Year-End Tax Planning Questions to Ask Your Financial Professional
There are many tax planning moves you can make before December 31 to reduce your owed taxes, but how do you know which ones are...
General
How Financial Planning Can Help Prepare for LTC Costs
With the cost of long-term care (LTC) increasing year over year, considering how the costs of long-term LTC will impact your financial plan is essential....
General
Now Might Be a Good Time for a Roth Conversion
One silver lining in the current bear market is that this could be a good time to convert assets from a traditional IRA to a...
General
Resources for Women-Owned Small Businesses
There are many professional organizations that understand the challenges that women-owned small businesses face and offer resources to help provide assistance....
General
Advanced Estate Planning Concepts for Women
So if you are married, you’ll also probably have the last word about the final disposition of all of the assets you’ve accumulated during your...
General
Teaching Your Teen about Money
Your teen is becoming more independent, but still needs plenty of advice from you. With more money to spend and more opportunities to spend it,...
General
Tips for Women Who Are Living in the Sandwich Generation
The day-to-day demands of caring for an aging parent and children can put a tremendous strain — both emotional and financial — on the primary...
General
Planning for Marriage – Financial Tips for Women
As you are planning for marriage, it’s important to consider how this big life event will impact your finances. Careful planning can increase the likelihood...
General
The Joys and Financial Challenges of Parenthood
As your children grow from infancy to adulthood, you try to protect them. You want to make sure that they are financially secure, but meeting...
General
4 Costly 529 Plan Mistakes To Avoid
For many parents, 529 college savings accounts may be a way to invest for your child’s future while perhaps saving money on taxes in some...
General
Grow Old with Me – Live (Almost) Tax-Free
While the income of older Americans may be freer from encumbrances of children or work- related expenses, the expenses of daily living must still be...
General
A Beginner’s Guide to Investing After Retirement
You may be retired and considering investing some of your retirement nest egg. Depending on your situation, it is crucial that investing in the stock...
General
Wealth-Transfer Taxes Can Take a Toll on Small Businesses
Under the current estate tax laws, there are several steps a business owner can take to help prevent his or her business from being liquidated...
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3 Moments in Life Where You Should Consider Consulting a Financial Professional
We discuss three common situations in life when it’s a good idea to consult a financial professional....
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What Role Does Social Security Play in Your Retirement Income Strategy?
As you near retirement, it’s likely you’ll have many questions about Social Security. How much will your retirement benefit be? When should you apply? Will...
General
Tax Planning and Financial Planning Go Hand in Hand
With tax season coming to an end, it’s the ideal time to use this year’s tax return to help update your financial plan. If you’re...
General
3 Estate Planning Tips for Small-Business Owners
Having a solid estate and succession plan in place may be crucial to your business’s long-term success. If you are incapable of making business decisions,...
General
Working During Retirement
Planning on working during retirement? If so, you’re not alone. An increasing number of employees nearing retirement plan to work at least some period of...
General
America’s Changing Vision of Retirement
Retirement planning is a primary reason for long-term saving, and when people think about retirement, finances are often the focus. However, it is important to...
General
What You Should Know About Contributing to an IRA at Every Age
A traditional IRA offers a great way to shield income from taxation while boosting your retirement accounts. Meanwhile, a Roth IRA can let you pay...
General
RMD Roundup: A Few Key Reminders About Required Minimum Distributions
With the holidays here, now is the time to get into the giving spirit and help to change others’ lives for the better. Whether you...
General
Solo Opportunities: One-Person 401(k)s
If you are a small business owner with no employees, the one-person 401(k) may offer a suitable combination of benefits that can help you save...
General
Understanding the Estate Planning Process
A well-structured estate plan can be invaluable. Through it you can control the distribution of your assets and possessions, as well as name guardians for...
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Financial Considerations for Working Parents
Though working parents make up one of the largest demographic groups in the country, they face many challenges—from the cost of childcare to inconvenient scheduling...
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