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By Maura C. Schauss, CFP® & Todd I. Youngdahl, CFP®

Wow, what a month it has been!  Our market reached the status of “longest bull market since World War II” this fall. (1) This has made December’s volatility feel particularly painful and, for some, frightening. It’s important to understand that markets go through tough times and why it’s critical to the success of your portfolio, to stay invested.

By James F. Anderson, Esq.

Powers of Attorney sometimes seem to be the black sheep of the estate planning family.  Trusts and Wills get all of the headlines while Powers of Attorney are forgotten.  That is a mistake. Powers of Attorney are versatile documents that can dramatically improve a person’s day-to-day life at minimal cost.   As an estate-planning attorney, I have spent a lot of time educating people about the benefits of having well-drafted Powers of Attorney.  Here are 6 important elements that I wish more people understood about Powers of Attorney.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP®

Before the year’s end, in the midst of the holiday events and travel, the last thing you want to think about is your finances. But considering how finance-related resolutions are the third most popular New Year’s resolution, (1) why don’t you give yourself a head start on your 2019 financial goals? Here are 10 critical financial actions you’ll be glad you tackled when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve!

Our clients are our top priority! In an effort to continually improve your experience with Washington Wealth Advisors, we are asking for your feedback.  Please take our brief 2018 Client Satisfaction Survey, evaluating us on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest.

By Todd Youngdahl, CFP®

You may have heard your friends talking about it. Or maybe you’ve seen it in the news. When it comes to deciding when to start drawing from Social Security, all you have to do is type in your information to a Social Security maximization software, and voila! It tells you exactly what you need to do to maximize your benefits.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP®

When it comes to retirement, there seems to be a never-ending checklist of tasks to complete in order to prepare yourself for this major milestone. You need to save enough to maintain your lifestyle, create a withdrawal strategy, work to minimize your taxes, and claim your Social Security benefits. But there’s one other critical piece of retirement planning to prepare for: signing up for Medicare. And with healthcare being one of the top five expenses in retirement, (1) your Medicare choices are some of the most important decisions you will make.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP

In any given month, there are well over 100 nationally recognized “days” on the calendar. Some of them are days to honor people, historical events, or important causes, and others are downright silly. Amidst all the significant or odd holidays in September, there is one that we think is critical to recognize: Fight Procrastination Day!

By Todd Youngdahl, CFP®

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “long-term care (LTC) insurance is designed to cover long-term services and supports, including personal and custodial care in a variety of settings such as your home, a community organization, or other facility.” (1) Essentially, this type of insurance policy was created to help cover expenses that you might expect to have when you reach 65 or older. Such expenses, for example, include costs of a nursing home, assisted living, or in-home care which all “help with basic personal tasks of everyday life, sometimes called activities of daily living." (2) Because these expenses are not covered by Medicare, LTC insurance can be very important for some. In addition, this type of insurance can help protect family members and heirs from bearing all the costs of long-term care for their loved ones. Before we explain the different types of LTC insurance, let’s go into a brief history of this kind of policy.

One of our goals at Washington Wealth Advisors is to have the most educated client base when it comes to the world of personal finance. Achieving financial peace of mind comes through a working partnership with your advisor as well as keeping yourself well informed. Videos offer an easily accessible and convenient way to learn about a new topic, understand a financial term, get the highlights of a blog, reference a subject discussed in a review meeting or meet a new member of the WWA team. With that in mind, we are excited to launch our very own YouTube Channel to engage our clients and community in support of our financial education goal.

By Maura C. Schauss, CFP® and Todd I. Youngdahl, CFP ® 

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If you’ve been investing for any length of time, you know that the economy goes through regular cycles, and the first half of 2018 definitely brought its fair share of highs and lows, market volatility, trade uncertainty, and record unemployment numbers. However, as most individual Americans see it, things are looking up. So instead of looking at the daily headlines, here’s a view of our economy from 30,0000 feet as we reach the mid-year mark of 2018.