Adam Stalnaker 0:10
Hi, Adam, Joe here, wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about something that, unfortunately, is inevitable in life. And it’s dealing with the death in the family, and kind of the stages of financial life after death. And, you know, you’ve got a whole emotional side and a personal side of things. But then you’ve got this financial piece that you got to figure out.

Joe Kovach 0:31
When an event like that happens, you know, the first thing is kind of like general chaos. What do we do? How do we, you know, handle funeral arrangements, you name it, there’s, there’s so many moving parts that you’re trying to sort through. So finances kind of take a backseat for a really short period of time. But once the dust kind of settles, and it clears a little bit, then you kind of realize, okay, we’ve got things we need to deal with here. And it’s, again, not easy. And they take a little bit of time, but you know, you got to kind of organize the data.

Adam Stalnaker 1:04
Yeah, you get all these all this stuff in the mail, right, you look at, you know, depending on how the person that passed away, how well they were organized, whether digitally or, you know, had an we’ve got people that have notebooks that are their guides, some people not at all, and that’s where the you know, the tough part about organization is we’ve had people coming in shoeboxes full of mail, right, as they try to, like sort through all those all those pieces. So it becomes like you said, chaos, and then you start to try to organize things and try to figure out where everything is,

Joe Kovach 1:34
You kind of inventory it a little bit, you know, and then you’ve got to figure out when you inventory it, okay, what do we need to do for re-registrations, maybe there’s a bank involved, that’s gonna have, you’re gonna have to get in touch with or a financial advisor or financial firm that to do those registrations to get the, you know, the accounts designated to the beneficiaries and so forth. So it’s, it’s a lot of legwork. But you know, it will be kind of find as it falls in place, given a little bit of time. It’s not a quick process, right? It just, it just isn’t, I mean,

Adam Stalnaker 2:03
These things can take 6-12 months, you know, depending, depending if probate is involved, that’s a whole other issue in itself. That’s kind of a headache. But But that brings to the point then to is, as you’re going through all that, you know, you want to make sure that beneficiaries are updated, wills are updated, your stuff gets updated at the same time, because maybe you now have inherited these assets, and you want to kind of see how the chaos has happened. And you want to make sure that, you know, that doesn’t happen to your beneficiaries.

Joe Kovach 2:33
Exactly. Make it easier for everyone else, right, it’s, you spent a few minutes on it now, and it becomes easier, you know, unfortunately, it doesn’t make it easier on you, because you’re maybe not around for but it makes it easier on your loved ones, which is, which is really key. So that’s a great point. I mean, make sure you have well thought out beneficiaries. And keep in mind, you can change those at any time, but get something established early on, is really helpful as well. And then when you do you put together a plan, right? You know, after that you get get everything registered, and it’s time to start doing some planning, you know, what, you know, where did the assets go? Who needs what college? Who knows what it might be? Right?

Adam Stalnaker 3:09
Maybe your goals have changed, you know, maybe you look to pay off? Or pay off a house? Or how are you funding retirement? How does that change your timing of things, you know, mentally sometimes people will say, hey, you know, this just happened, I want to retire sooner, you know, how do I how do I do that with with this lump? lump sum of money, or, you know, I want to take a vacation, I want to I want to, you know, experience some some different things. So how do we plan for those things?

Joe Kovach 3:36
Exactly. You know, and then when you get that planning process to its, its, you know, as we speak today, you know, bank accounts aren’t paying very much. And you may have goals that you need to reach where, you know, you have to put together an investment plan to go along with that, too. It’s all it all ties together, but without the plan, stuff to figure out what you need to do with the money in terms of investing or saving whatever it might be.

Adam Stalnaker 3:58
So if you or a family member are experiencing something like this, you know, feel free to reach out to us there’s, you know, contact us we’ll have a conversation, we’ll talk you through kind of our process. See, see how we can help you because that’s it. That’s what you need at this point is you need some help. Hi, Adam Stalnaker with Rockport Wealth Advisors. Joe and I have been helping people manage their investments and navigate major financial and life changes for nearly 40 years. We’d be happy to learn about your current situation to see if we can assist you. You can call schedule a meeting online or chat with us online to beings complimentary. Thanks. And you know, we look forward to talking to you