Category: Wealth Strategy

A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is a great way to manage donations to your favorite causes while optimizing your tax advantages. With a DAF, you can take a current tax deduction as you pre-fund your future gifts to charities.  Also known as a “Charitable Gift Fund,” the account is managed by a public charity, but [...]

When we suffer a loss in our life, we experience stages of grief, such as shock, anger, and eventually acceptance. Becoming a widow is a deeply emotional and stressful time for a woman, no matter whether she had time to prepare for her spouse’s death or her spouse passed suddenly. In fact, women often experience [...]

We all want to feel secure in our future and confident that we are making the right financial decisions to help us achieve that security. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for some women. Research has shown that women typically are less confident than men when it comes to investing. Some women investors feel intimidated because [...]

A conflict of interest is anything that puts the investor at risk for the personal gain of the financial professional. Such conflicts of interest generally put the interests of the professional ahead of the investor, and in some cases can even cause harm to the investor as a result of a financial professional’s outside interests. [...]

CONFRONTING THE SINGLE PERSON PENALTY: Empower Your Finances with Strategic Planning The reality facing single people in the United States today is that it is more expensive to be single than married. For example, a single woman may end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more over her lifetime than her married counterpart when [...]

Each year in October the window opens to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the following school year.  Although you have until June 30th to complete your application, filing your FAFSA as close to October 1st as possible can improve your chances of qualifying for the most grant, scholarship and work-study [...]

Since the late 1990s, the Internet has enabled broad access to investment information. This, coupled with the rise of discount brokers, has provided cost-effective ways for anyone with a computer to play in the stock market. Companies like Schwab and eTrade have reduced trading fees to zero, and “Robo advisors” like PersonalCapital.com have automated the [...]

Women’s financial power today is higher than it has ever been before, with estimates that women control 32% of the world’s wealth. That’s an amazing statistic considering that before 1974, women in the United States couldn’t get a credit card in their name if they were single or had to have their husband co-sign for [...]

Update as of: January 27, 2022 On January 27th, Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1732 which delays implementation of the long-term care payroll tax in Washington State for 18 months.  Employers will not be required to collect the .58% payroll tax until July 1, 2023. In addition, the law was updated so individuals born [...]