Common Financial Planning Questions:
Below is a list of some of the most common personal retirement questions we have been asked: If you are looking for a financial planner to help answer your questions, perhaps we can help:- Estate Planning and Gifting
- Insurance
- Investing
- Investment Advisors, Fees and Expenses
- Retirement
- Risk
- Savings
- Taxes
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Time
Printable VersionEstate Planning and Gifting
- What happens is my spouse or I die while we are living in a foreign country?
- How important is wealth preservation versus capital appreciation?
- What wealth should go to heirs or pass as gifts?
- Is charitable giving important, what’s the best way to do this?
Insurance
- Do I have enough Life Insurance?
- What is Long-term care insurance and how much should I have?
Investing
- How do I know if my portfolio is well diversified?
- What rate of investment return should I assume over the long term?
- What is the lowest and highest rate of return I should expect each year in my portfolio?
- What should my investment goals be?
- Which asset classes should be in my portfolio?
- What is an asset class?
- What is my reference currency (ies)?
- My spouse does not know anything about our finances and investing, what should I do?
- Is it possible to time the markets?
Investment Advisors, Fees and Expenses
- What’s the best way to choose an Investment Advisor?
- What is the normal cost for Investment Management?
- How do investment advisors earn their fees?
- Is it better to work with an independent investment advisor or the investment managers at my bank?
- Why are the Swiss Banks so expensive?
- Why don’t many foreign banks like working with Americans?
Retirement
- Should I put my entire investment portfolio into an annuity when I retire?
- What is the monthly income range I can expect in retirement?
Risk
- What does risk mean in investing?
- What is my risk capability? Over which time period?
- What is my risk tolerance?
- Does risk only mean losing money?
Savings
- How much money should I save each month so I don’t run out of money in retirement?
- How much extra should I save each month? Am I saving enough to meet my goals?
- How much of an emergency cash reserve should I have?
Taxes
- What is my current average and marginal tax rate?
- I want to minimum my taxes, is that the best strategy for my investments?
- What are withholding taxes and can I get them back?
- Do I have to file a U.S. Tax Return while I am living and working outside of the US?
- Will I be taxed in both the United States and in the country where I am working when I am overseas?
- How much money can I give as a gift each year before I owe any taxes? Does it matter which country I live in?
- What’s the difference between Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax?
- What’s included in the wealth tax calculation?
Time
- At what age can I afford to stop working?
- How long should I expect to live?
- How long is my investment horizon?
- What happens if I run out of money when I am old?