This is an all-too-common misconception

“If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?”
- Basil S. Walsh

How was Thanksgiving? Any family gaffes to share with the entire world? I promise to only re-print your name if you make my staff upset. I jest, of course.

(Seriously, though, leave me a comment and let us know how things are going with your family–we’d love to hear what’s been happening with you!)

Now…have you ever had a myth “busted”? Of course, there’s that popular show on The Discovery Channel which I’ve enjoyed from time to time–I think there’s a primal pleasure in having preconceptions blown apart (sometimes *literally* on that show!).

Well, I’m here to do some mythbusting of my own this week, if you’ll forgive the hubris . Many families believe these to be true, and it’ll be the subject of this week’s Strategy Note (as well as one in a couple weeks down the road).

Would love your feedback.

“Straight Talk” Personal Strategy
Part 1: Common Myths About Estate Planning

As of this writing, it’s a fact that almost 60% of Americans don’t have a basic will, and that’s a big problem.

One of the big reasons that most families don’t yet have this in place is because of some incorrect thinking about whether it’s right for them, or if it’s even necessary. And sure, some people just haven’t gotten around to creating a will or trust. Others think they don’t need an estate plan because they’re not rich. I’ve even heard from people that they don’t want to put it in place because when they do, it’s sending some sort of death wish into the universe (or some such).

Well, I’ll start by busting THAT myth: Preparing a plan for your succession will not speed your demise. Easy enough.

But here’s the problem–if you continue without an estate plan, you could leave a legacy of bad feelings and attorneys’ fees.

But, I’ll move off of the easy one, and speak to some of the more common misconceptions out there. I’ll start with two this week, and address three more a couple weeks from now.

1. Only rich people prepare estate plans.

Do you own ANYTHING? Because if so, you need a will. You see, a will allows you to designate who will receive your property should anything happen. Continuing without one ensures that your assets will be distributed under the terms of your state’s “intestate succession” laws. That means your money and property could end up with family members you haven’t spoken to in years, instead of who you’d really like to see control your assets.

I won’t go into all of the different components of a will, trust, health care directive etc., as my purpose here is to emphasize that failing to plan is simply a decision to trust your assets to government bureaucrats.

Even if you think your situation is pretty straightforward, you may feel more comfortable hiring a lawyer to guide you through the process.

2. Everything goes to your spouse, if something happens.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. We deal with clients from different states around the country, and state laws vary. In fact, in most states, if you continue without a will (intestate), your inheritance will be divided among your spouse and your children. In New York, for example, when someone dies intestate, the spouse gets the first $50,000 of the estate and what’s left is divided 50-50 among the spouse and the children.

You can imagine how this could create all kinds of problems, particularly if your spouse was financially dependent on you or you have children from a previous marriage.

I’ll include a few more in the weeks ahead, but I hope you can already see that things are not always as we “think”.

But I hope this helps. To your family’s financial and emotional peace…

Simple ways to protect your family online

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.”
-Peter Marshall

Yes, it is the week of Thanksgiving, and we are getting ready to go visit our families this week. Tying up a bunch of loose ends around the office so that we can do so.

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It is a holiday we can ALL rally around, which is not the case anymore for almost any of the other big ones. And sure…historians might poke different holes in the original story, but like any good mythic story, it points us simply to higher truths–that laying down our grievances for a bite of turkey might go a long way towards making us happier and living with more emotional freedom.

Speaking of emotional freedom (and peace of mind–which is sort of our specialty, since I send these via email), I thought this week’s Strategy Note was particularly prescient. Some recent news revealed that thousands of Hotmail passwords were hacked, so here’s some tips I ran across for making sure it does not happen to you!

(And, again–please do feel free to leave comments. I read every comment that comes my way!)

“Straight Talk” Personal Strategy
How To Protect Your Online Passwords

It has been in the news that 30,000 passwords for Hotmail and Gmail accounts were stolen recently. Small wonder, right?

Well, a security group analyzed those passwords and found that the most commonly used password was “123456″! If that was not bad enough, the second most common password that was used…yep, you guessed it…123456789.

In today’s electronic environment, that is unbelievable. We no longer live in a world where we can use a simple string of numbers or a child’s name as a password. They are just too easy to hack…and the results can be much more devastating than merely finding your emails made public.

The problem is that we all have so many passwords. So how do we make strong passwords that we can actually remember for every account?

The tips below can help you avoid the most common password pitfalls and even implement a few new ideas that will make your passwords easy to remember…and hard to break!

Avoid The “Easy to Guess”
There is no way around it…a well-protected password is hard for other people to guess. How do you do that? It is pretty simple really. Just follow this advice:

• Use a random string of characters. That means no sequential letters or numbers, like those Hotmail accounts that used 123456!

• Make it looooong. The longer the better–even up to as many as 10 to 14 characters if space allows.

• Switch things up. Use a combination of upper and lower case letters, along with a few numbers mixed in the middle or end.

• Do not use substitute symbols in common words. Using “@” for “a” or “1″ for “I” may look good to you, but most hackers are smart enough to break those substitutes rather quickly when the password consists of a common word.

• For that matter, avoid easy targets like words straight out of the dictionary or things like family names and birthdays.

Mix Things Up
Most of us cheat when it comes to passwords. We have trouble remembering our passwords, so we come up with two or three that we can remember and use them everywhere.
But…you should avoid the temptation! That is because all of your accounts will be vulnerable if even one account is compromised. The reality is, you need to create and remember multiple passwords–a different one for each account! Fortunately, it iseasier than you think. Just follow the steps below.

A Simple Roadmap for Memorable, Yet Hard To Hack Passwords
Good passwords come down to two things: (1) they are easy for you to remember and (2) they are hard for others to break. Here is a sure-fire tip that can help you achieve both!

1. Think up a phrase. Instead of a common word or family member’s name, think up a unique phrase that only you know. For example, you may think up something off the wall such as “I Like Short Hair Too.”

2. Make it an acronym. In our example, “I Like Short Hair Too” would become ILSHT.

3. Add Complexity. Remember those substitutes you are not supposed to use with common dictionary words? Well, you CAN use them with your acronym. For example, “I Like Short Hair Too” can become “1 Like $hort Hair 2″ which makes: 1L$H2. You can also use upper and lower letters to make it 1L$h2. The point is to be creative, but in a way that you can easily remember it.

4. Make it unique. A password is only really unique if you use it for one account and one account only. So you can’t just use 1L$h2 for every account. And, in reality it is still too short.

Here is the key to the whole process: Mix in additional letters and numbers that are unique to each account. For example, if you are logging into a “gmail account” you can use the “gm” and “@cct” (for acct) to make: 1L$h2gM@cct. Then, for a Netflix account, you may use: 1L$h2Nf@cct. That way, your passwords will be hard for others to guess and unique to each account, but also easy for you to remember!

Of course, these are just examples. You will want to be creative and think up your own acronym and ways to add unique characters for each account. And then keep that little secret to yourself so no one will be able to guess your account passwords.

Follow these simple steps and you will have passwords that are tough to break, unique to every account, and easy to remember. And if you have children in your house who are starting to use passwords for email and IM accounts, teach them these steps to help educate them on the importance of strong passwords – they will thank you later in life!

I hope this helps!

A priceless conversation

“The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.”
- Esther Williams

Let’s really be straight, today.

There are only a few things that *really* last in life, and money is not one of them.

Now, sure–you might agree with me that this is a cliché, but step back for a moment and consider those things which you spend the MOST amount of time agonizing over, fretting about, etc. Probably not the things most precious, right?

I don’t know about you, but I would like to take this upcoming holiday season as an opportunity to re-focus and re-energize my BUSINESS life around the strategies and goals that will most concretely affect the things I care about most. Sure, I would love to continue to grow the profitability of my firm–but sometimes pursuing this goal comes at a cost that is too dear.

When we hear about tragedies like the recent shootings at Fort Hood, I think it should be a wake-up call for all of us to ensure that our most precious assets will always be protected.

So, in this week’s Personal Strategy Note, I am going to talk about this a little, and how you can preserve the most important parts of who we really are.

“Straight Talk” Personal Strategy
Protecting More Than Just Money

Too many lawyers just focus on the financials, and neglect to help families identify, articulate and pass along their dreams, passions and hopes for their children and loved ones.

Yes, some families take the bull by the horns, and do this themselves, but it makes really good sense to get outside help in making absolutely sure that every base has been touched.

Specifically, your children and your loved ones should be able to have resources and tangible memories which help them answer these kinds of questions:

• What dreams did they have for me?
• How have they seen the world change around them, and how do they feel about it?
• What kind of family were they hoping to create?
• Were there any mistakes made which they’d like to see me avoid?
• What activities were they most glad to have participated in?
• How did they make decisions about what to do as a family?

There are more questions like this, of course, that you could cover…but the main point I want to make with you is this:

You just never know when these questions will be asked.

And, I hope, you put in place the right tools to make sure you have got the answers.

We are here to help!