To those who haven’t witnessed it first-hand, guardianship may sound like a heroic assignment in which bigger, stronger, more seasoned protectors keep individuals who are unable to fend for themselves. However, as the ragtag super hero team the Guardians of the Galaxy has come to learn, the reality of assuming guardianship (over a single person, let alone the entire galaxy) is far less than ideal.
Written by: Chelsea Emery | Jeff Motske has one of the strongest ways to tease out client priorities I’ve heard in quite a while.
“What if?” Motske asks clients.
“What if one if your partner needs critical care? What if you want to move to Arizona? What if one of your kids starts a family on the other side of the country?,” the CEO of Trilogy Financial asks.
It’s deceptively simple, but an excellent method for getting at the heart of clients’ values and fears.
“These are critical questions,” Motske told me during a recent visit to Financial Planning offices in New York. “You want to ask them before things happen.”
...It’s the time of year when many parents have watched their children graduate from high school. While no doubt proud of their offspring’s achievements, in the back of their heads, all parents wonder about one thing: does my child have good financial habits. As they embark for the first time into that brave new world of adulthood, they’ll also be venturing into the terra incognito of money. Are they prepared?
It’s a challenge for parents to teach their children everything they need to know to ready them for their lives ahead. A good, practical, common sense financial education often falls far to the back of the priority list (though sometimes for good reasons). It shouldn’t. “If there’s one huge gift we as parents can give our kids,” says Jessica Ludvigsen, Sr. Vice President of Retail Banking at Axiom Bank in Orlando, Florida, “it’s the knowledge they need to grow up to be financially stable adults.”
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