Protecting your wealth requires taking an holistic approach, which includes strategies that help navigate financial uncertainty while protecting the assets you’ve worked so hard to accumulate and providing for the long-term wellbeing of both yourself and your family.
Key strategies include creating an emergency savings fund, diversifying investment portfolio and purchasing adequate insurance policies. Take these steps into your financial strategy and use it to grow wealth in today’s unpredictable economy.
Diversification
As the old saying goes: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!” Diversification is key for successful investments.
Over-investing in one form of investment increases your risk, so diversifying your portfolio with real estate and income annuities may help.
Diversifying can help protect against concentration risk in business. For example, if your employer gives you stock as part of their compensation package, make sure to diversify by purchasing shares from other companies to protect your financial footing should their company fail.
Building an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund is an integral component of wealth preservation. By creating one, you’re protecting yourself and your family in case unexpected expenses arise, such as medical or dental bills or repairs for home and auto.
An emergency fund can also serve as an invaluable financial safeguard should a job loss or other unexpected event arise, enabling you to cover necessary expenses without turning to credit cards or loans for money.
Set realistic savings goals that work for you. Doing this will make saving easier, and reaching smaller goals will build momentum towards meeting larger ones – such as saving three to six months’ worth of expenses.
Having Adequate Insurance Coverage
An adequate insurance coverage helps relieve financial pressure in case of unexpected events. It protects all that you’ve worked hard for – like your home and car – as well as covering medical bills should an illness or accident arise.
Find a reputable wealth manager or financial professional experienced in helping families and individuals devise protection strategies. Arrange for an initial protection review to identify gaps, suggest risk mitigation techniques, and uncover any possible discounts. Ongoing reviews are necessary to make sure that your coverage keeps pace with life changes and wealth accumulation.
Examine your coverage annually or after experiencing a qualifying life event (QLE). Many policies offer special enrollment periods or year-round enrollment to reflect any changes in circumstances or address transitional situations.
Creating a Will and Estate Plan
An estate plan is an essential step in protecting wealth. By planning ahead and creating one according to your own wishes, an estate plan will ensure that assets are distributed according to what is best for you – not left up to a judge to decide.
An effective estate plan requires creating a will and trust, power of attorney documents, medical directives, beneficiary designations for insurance policies and retirement accounts as well as important business planning issues.
Many people mistakenly assume that wills and estate plans are only necessary for those with substantial assets; however, this assumption shouldn’t hold. Even those with modest assets should ensure their estate plans are up-to-date.
Staying Informed About Tax Strategies
Tax planning should be part of any comprehensive wealth preservation strategy to minimize tax payments while protecting wealth. Insurance may play a crucial role in creating tax-effective strategies by diversifying portfolios and providing predictability – plus there could be potential tax advantages as part of such plans.
Protection your wealth requires taking a holistic approach that considers both day-to-day risks and long-term threats. An emergency fund, adequate insurance coverage and business succession planning should all form part of an overall wealth preservation strategy. An integrated financial plan also involves budgeting regularly as well as review and adjustment of goals as well as estate and succession plans – something an emergency fund cannot do alone.