By Pete Neuwirth FSA FCA and Barry Sacks JD Ph.D, founders, Neuwirth Associates Consulting
As the prevalence of “Silver Divorce” (divorce where at least one spouse is age 55 or older) continues to increase dramatically, the need for family lawyers to consider the complexities of dividing up Qualified Retirement Benefits has become more challenging.Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, Barry H. Sacks, and Stephen R. Sacks
In a recent SOA White Paper, Wade Pfau, Joe Tomlinson, and Steve Vernon presented a wide-ranging review of the many retirement income generators (RIGs) available to retirees. Included among the RIGs considered were the obvious and most prevalent ones, i.e., defined contribution plans (most commonly the 401(k) account and rollover IRA), and the less obvious (but equally prevalent) one, home equity.Read more
SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT OF THE ACTIVITY
By Barry H. Sacks, Peter Neuwirth, and Mary Jo Lafaye
A Note from the Authors/Presenters: We are happy to welcome you to a two-hour program entitled “Using Housing Wealth to Facilitate Asset Division in ‘Silver Divorce.’” It is approved by the California State Bar as a presentation for two hours of MCLE and by the Certified Financial Planner Association as a Continuing Education class for CFPs and other financial professionals.
The program is divided into five segments:Read more
Essay by Peter Neuwirth FSA, FCA
“The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.” — John Ruskin, the motto of the Society of Actuaries
The Actuarial Perspective
As our economy opens up and the issues around the risk of becoming infected and dying from COVID-19 get more complicated and confusing, it becomes harder and harder for individuals and organizations to make well-informed decisions. I believe, at least with respect to one key aspect of these decisions, the actuarial perspective can be extremely useful.Read more
In 2020, I wrote a series of short essays expanding on each of the 6 principles of Holistic Financial Wellness that I outlined in my book, “Money Mountaineering.” These essays were intended to help readers understand how each principle might operate in practice as well as give me a chance to update what I had written for how the world and my thinking about these principles had changed in the months between the submission of my manuscript to the publisher and the day that the book became available to the general public. Read more
The game of chess has taught me a lot about how to make decisions. Most of my early lessons were given to me by my father, who was still able to beat me years past the point where I had become a better player. He used to tell me often that “resign is the weakest move.” For chess players, that is undoubtedly good advice, but when facing choices in other areas of our lives, particularly those that relate to money, chess is perhaps not the best model — largely because the position on a chessboard board is visible for all to see and the only unknown to ponder when choosing a plan is what move your opponent will make in response to the one you choose and how the future might unfold as a result.Read more
A Note from actuary and author Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA: It is a pleasure to feature actuary Ken Steiner in the June episode of Money Mountaineering. As mentioned in our interview, Ken has created a list of 3 principles and a 7-step process to help accomplish financial goals. He calls it the “Annual Actuarial Valuation Approach” and has been kind enough to share those with us in the essay below. Thank you, Ken! We know our audience will benefit from this insight.
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert and author, Money Mountaineering
“Everything changes a little as it should. Good ain’t forever, and bad ain’t for good,” — Roger Miller from “Lou’s got the Flu”
I learned a lot from my mathematician father and as many lectures as he gave me growing up, there was almost always music playing in our house. Roger Miller’s songs formed the soundtrack to many of my childhood Sunday afternoons. I always listened to the words of the songs and from the men and women who sang them I learned even more. As rigid and clear as my father’s views and teachings usually were, he was always open and curious about the world around us and how it can change – in unpredictable ways that can render one’s normal survival strategies a recipe for suffering.Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert and author, Money Mountaineering
This is the second in a series of essays on the 6 Foundational Principles of Holistic Financial Wellness that I describe in my new book “Money Mountaineering.” In this one, I want to talk about “Debt” in a more general sense. As we look at our personal financial balance sheets we have many obligations that might be satisfied by money, but many of those obligations were incurred through the receipt of goods, and services that are often not measurable in dollars and that the terms of repayment are far from clear. How to view these debts and how they affect one’s financial well-being is a very tricky issue and whole books could be written on the subject. Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert, and author, Money Mountaineering
In my essay earlier this month about Holistic Financial Wellness Principle #1, I talked about the need to adapt to changes in your own financial or life situation to make sure the financial decisions you make are consistent with who you are and how you are situated in the world around you. In that essay, I talked about how the wildfire that destroyed my home last year changed the way I now look at the decisions I make around money and the things I buy with it.Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert, and author, Money Mountaineering
As I started to write about the 4th fundamental principle of Holistic Financial Wellness, I realized that while many of the 6 HFW principles I espouse are more and less applicable in our lives at different times, the need to be able to live comfortably with uncertainty as you make financial decisions that have significant consequences for your future while also entailing painful costs in the present may be, for many, many people, the most important principle of all right now.Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary, reverse mortgage expert and author, Money Mountaineering
My minder, social media coach, cheerleader, and overall brave new world guru, Julia Page must take some responsibility for this essay about Holistic Financial Wellness Principle #5. It’s not that she told me what to write. One of the reasons I hired her is because she is so good at letting me be me. Read more
By Peter Neuwirth, actuary and author of Money Mountaineering
For this, my final essay on the principles of Holistic Financial Wellness, I need to disclose some aspects of my life that, in normal circumstances, I would never consider writing about and posting where strangers can read. I do so, however, because throughout Money Mountaineering and in the previous five essays, I have not shied away from sharing aspects of my life that bear directly on the issues I am discussing. To not do this now would be the height of hypocrisy.Read more
