Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging and emotional periods in anyone’s life. When assets, such as property and investments, are left to their beneficiaries, many families have a difficult time knowing where and how to start the process of settling the estate.
In today’s episode, we’ll focus on estate planning, specifically the responsibilities and tax implications that a beneficiary has when they inherit those assets. I’m joined by our very own Mark Kenney and Amanda Glennon, who both have years of experience guiding families through this process to ensure that the actions and decisions that are made won’t have financial consequences later.
In our conversation, you’ll learn how changes to the SECURE Act have impacted how inherited assets are taxed and distributed, the new estate tax exemption rules for Massachusetts residents, and why developing a relationship with an advisor to create an estate plan makes the entire process easier to handle during such an emotional time.
In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:
- How changes to the SECURE Act have accelerated the timeframe to deplete inherited assets for non-spouses.
- What cost basis means and how it applies to inheriting property or investments.
- The values of an estate that are excluded from state and federal estate taxes.
- How long a beneficiary can expect to wait before the estate is settled.
- The difference in taxation from inheriting an IRA and a Roth IRA.
- The added value in dealing with a Financial Advisor in person vs over the phone when handling an estate.
Resources
Matthew Peck: Welcome everyone to another edition of the SHP Retirement Road Map. I’ll be your host today, Matthew Peck. Obviously, you’ve been here before, and I certainly hope everyone is enjoying their spring or the nicer weather. I think that’s part of the reason why we all live up here in the northeast is this time of year, although the pollen and allergy season is also in hand.
So, today’s topic is you are a beneficiary. So, you’re a beneficiary, right? What does that mean? What are some of the terms that you need to be aware of, of when you actually inherit this money? And what are some of the tax implications of it? What are some of the responsibilities that you will have as a beneficiary to that asset? What are things like step-up and basis? And what are the different tax treatments? And what are the different options that you now have as somebody that has been named as a beneficiary?
And this is so crucial because I think a key part of what a good financial plan and planners and our industry does is make sure that opportunities aren’t wasted, that people are not choosing an option, let’s say, for an inheritance that ends up sort of increasing their tax liability rather than decreasing their tax liability. So, here to discuss all this options, we have Mark Kenney, a returning guest in the podcast. He has so many initials after his name. I don’t really have time to go through all. Welcome back, Mark.
Mark Kenney: Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
Matthew Peck: And we’re also extremely honored to have a first-time guest. So, this is Amanda Glennon. So, ladies and gentlemen, she is a young superstar that joined our firm just recently, however, has been working in the financial field now for over three years. So, Amanda, thank you so much and welcome to the show.
Amanda Glennon: Thank you for having me.
Matthew Peck: And in fact, this was actually Amanda’s decision in the sense of like, it was something that you had done in your past in the other firm that not nearly as cool as us, of course. But yeah, tell us what kind of inspired it. Did you see someone that had sort of inherited the assets and then was kind of like a babe in the woods and had no idea what to do? So, tell us kind of what inspired this topic itself.
Amanda Glennon: Yeah, I think just being young and inheriting a lot of money is intimidating. You don’t know what to do with it, what the tax implications are, anything like that. So, I think just being aware of it before you come across this money and making sure that you know your options and you’re well educated, you feel confident with what you just inherited is very important.
Matthew Peck: All right. So, I’m going to put you on the spot a little bit now. Okay, so obviously, young, relatively new to the industry. And so, now, as a representative, are you officially Gen Z? Is that…
Amanda Glennon: I don’t know. We were actually discussing this the other day.
Mark Kenney: I don’t even know what I am, Matt. I’m like, on the cusp, ‘81. So, I don’t know. What does that make me? Gen X, Y, Z?
Matthew Peck: Right. But no, Mark, the reason why I ask is because, and Amanda, I wanted to ask was that, how knowledgeable do you feel? I mean, obviously, you’re in the field. You know these terms and we’re going to start to share it with our audience, but just friends and family and other people that are your age, how savvy are they? Do you feel like they’re savvier than your parents were at their age? Or I guess, what’s your opinion there?
Amanda Glennon: Yeah, I think it depends how you grow up, honestly. I grew up with both parents working extremely hard. And they weren’t very financially well versed. So, I didn’t know about any of this personally. Like, the importance of contributing to a 401(k) and things like that. I do feel like a lot of my friends, so we are introduced to this now. I think it was less common when our parents were growing up. They were just taught work as hard as you can, and then eventually, when you retire, hopefully, you’ll be good with your pensions and everything, but yeah, I think the younger generation is now more aware of all of our options in retirement and it’s important to know.
Matthew Peck: Well, and do you feel too– and Mark, I’m going to come back to you to kind of give us the lay of the lands on the beneficiary side of it. But the other questions to ask, again, sort of as a representative of Gen Z or whatever, how much was COVID and Robin Hood and all the things that happened there, I mean, obviously, Robin Hood went up like a rocket during that time, how much of an influence do you think that had?
Amanda Glennon: I think a huge influence. I think it scared people. I think when COVID hit my generation, we were stuck inside and we didn’t really know what to do. But yeah, no, I think it had a huge impact. And I think a lot of people wanted to get more well versed and just working virtually and everything, I think. Yeah, people just wanted to learn more about it.
Matthew Peck: And then they suddenly have the time to do a certain extent, right? Because I mean, that was obviously, suddenly, you’re locked in home. And yeah, I remember that, just only because I cleaned out my attic. I had so much time on my hands that I was cleaning out my attic.
Mark Kenney: I think that’s what it was. I think Amanda hit it that the older generations didn’t talk about money. Money was a taboo subject, right? You didn’t discuss politics, religion, and money. And now, information is readily available. You can easily understand this. We always hear about this huge transfer of wealth of the baby boomer generation. And there are these beneficiaries who a lot of them don’t even know that they’re beneficiaries, right? You don’t get something in the mail when someone signs you up as a beneficiary, says, you’re a beneficiary on your grandfather’s or your dad’s, your uncle’s account, and they’re coming to get this money and have no idea what to do with it, the implications of that. And you’re right, as they had time, they kind of delved their foot into the financial industry and learned how to trading and they have enough information to make them dangerous, right? But we know that there’s huge implications when you inherit money, especially given the tax status of that, that we want to make sure that we address that before they make the mistakes.
Matthew Peck: Let’s pick that up a little bit then. So, tell us a little bit, what is the lay of the land, right? I mean, what are some of the most important terms to learn? And I guess, where do you start when you first start to educate people on, “Okay, so you’ve been named a beneficiary, what’s the deal?”
Mark Kenney: Yeah, great question. Obviously, this is usually in a time of mourning, right? So, you’re inheriting assets because some family member that liked you well enough to put you as a beneficiary passed away. So, there’s the emotional aspect that has to be dealt with and that can delay the time, the essence of this all happening, which does come into play. Because the whole rules of inheriting assets have changed significantly over the last few years through laws and through the SECURE Act. You have to understand the IRS changed the rules on how non-spouses inherit money.
So, if you inherit an IRA from anyone other than a spouse, the rules have changed significantly over the last few years. And now, you are accelerated to take out those distributions over a 10-year period. So, although you’re mourning and sometimes you don’t want to deal with this, time is ticking. You have a number of years that you must satisfy these distributions if the account comes from an IRA or a 401(k).
So, the first thing I start with when a client says, “I inherited money,” is I want to see what type of account did you inherit? Was it a 401(k), an IRA? Was it a house? Was it a Roth IRA? Was it a car? Depending on the type of asset or account will differentiate how that is taxed and the implications to the beneficiary.
Matthew Peck: Well, and let me kind of sort of expand on that a little bit, just in regards to the differences that are there between same generation versus a different generation, right? And I guess, let’s just to kind of be clear, for spouses, or if it’s the same generation, it’s a completely different set of rules than if it’s a next generation. Is that correct? Or is that an accurate statement or not?
Mark Kenney: Yeah. So, most of our clients will name their spouse as primary beneficiary. And that’s because they are given certain exclusions by being primary beneficiary. So, I’ve named my wife a beneficiary on my 401(k). Anything happens to me, she can move that into her own name without penalties. And she can distribute those assets according to her life expectancy.
But those same rules, those same leeways are not given to a child, to a niece or nephew. And so, those rules, when you inherit an IRA and you’re someone other than a spouse, you have 10 years to deplete that account. And this can be problematic because think about it, you might be in your peak earning years, right? You might be 30, 40, 50 years old and you inherited Uncle John’s IRA or 401(k), and now the IRS says, you have to take this account out over 10 years. And if you don’t know that how much you take out per year is added on to your income for that year and determines how much taxes you will pay. So, that’s why it’s important to understand, work with the financial advisor who can say, “Okay, what does your income look like over the next 10 years? When is it appropriate for you to take out this money, knowing that the IRA that you inherited has to be at a zero balance in 10 years? And the taxes you pay will be anywhere from 0 to 45%, depending on when you take that out.”
Matthew Peck: Okay, so it’s almost like the first question that people need to understand when they are named a beneficiary is what is the tax status? And if it’s IRA assets, then we are dealing with this 10-year drawdown and having to understand just the impact on your personal income or your earnings. Now, you have this 10-year drawdown.
Mark Kenney: Yes, correct.
Matthew Peck: And I’d also add two before I bring Amanda to the conversation that a heavy majority of retirees’ assets are pretax assets.
Mark Kenney: That’s exactly right, man.
Matthew Peck: But then, aren’t going to be have to be subject to this 10-year payout? And also, I will jump back in a second because I do want to talk about the impact of Roth IRAs because we get a lot of questions there. But Amanda, walk us through okay, so now, let’s say someone inherited something that’s not an IRA, that’s after-tax dollars, whether it’s a home or whether it’s a brokerage account or even cash, what happens there for a beneficiary?
Amanda Glennon: So, they get a step-up in cost basis. So, if you inherit a property, let’s just say for $800,000, you are now not taxed on $800,000 that you inherited. So, if you keep the asset and it grows, you will be taxed on whatever it has grown. But I think it’s important to work with a financial advisor to now, “Okay. I have this money. Let’s just say I’ve already been taxed on it, what do I do with it now? What’s the most tax efficient way to invest this money?”
Matthew Peck: But to go back, though, just above that term, because I think we use that term a lot. We bandy about step-up in basis, your cost basis. What exactly is your basis? And what exactly does that mean, step-up in basis? Because you explain about the $800,000, but I mean, is it properties? Is it stocks? I mean, where does this basis play a role?
Amanda Glennon: Yeah. So, let’s just say your Aunt Becky invested $200,000 and bought this property. So, her cost basis is $200,000. But let’s just say in 25 years, it’s now grown to $1 million. And Aunt Becky unfortunately passes away, and you are now the beneficiary of that property. She bought it for $200,000, but you’re inheriting at when it’s a value of $1 million, so now, you won’t be taxed on anything above $1 million.
Matthew Peck: But to be clear, we’re talking capital gains taxes. Or what do you mean by not taxed? Because I do know that estate or death taxes play a role here. I’m not sure, Mark, if you want to pick that one up.
Mark Kenney: Yes.
Matthew Peck: You need a certified tax specialist.
Mark Kenney: So, Amanda is correct. And I love the Aunt Becky analogy because we grew up on Full House, right?
Matthew Peck: Is that where that came from?
Mark Kenney: Amanda probably doesn’t know what Full House is. But yeah, so any non-qualified asset, when we talk about non-qualified assets, that’s money assets that aren’t in IRAs. So, properties, right? Stocks that you own. Maybe you bought Tesla stock 10 years ago and you held it in a brokerage account. All those assets receive a step-up on cost basis, meaning the cost becomes whatever the fair market value is of that asset at the time of transfer, which is the time of death. Okay?
So, now, these beneficiaries inherit these assets and they’re not subject to taxation as far as capital gains or income tax is concerned. However, Massachusetts has what we call Estate Tax, okay? And Estate Tax says, “Well, how much was Aunt Becky worth, all of her assets, at the time of her death?” Her home, her Tesla, her stock, her life insurance, you add all that up and there comes a value to that. And dependent on the total of that value will determine if that estate has to file an estate tax return or owe estate taxes. And this gets really complicated, but roughly, about $2 million each individual is allowed to have in assets that they are in control of without having to pay Massachusetts’ Estate Tax.
There is a Federal level, which is a lot higher around that, I think it’s like $27 million. But the state level is $2 million per person, and that’s been a significant increase since over the last two years. It used to be a million per person. And a lot of people from Massachusetts were calling themselves Florida residents, right? And Massachusetts says we got to solve for this problem, and said, “We’ll raise the exemption to $2 million per person or $4 million per married couple.” But when we’re talking about inheritance, when you’re inheriting an asset, the estate has already paid taxes on that, right?
So, if Aunt Becky had to pay estate taxes and you get her Tesla stock, that’s already been paid for. Now, you’re not going to pay capital gains tax or income tax on that stock, unless you hold it and it happens to grow from the date you inherited it, to when you eventually sell it.
Matthew Peck: Okay, so just for all of our listeners, I mean, you inherit this property, you inherit this Tesla stock or whatever that may be, it’s the date of death. I mean, your new basis, what you would then pay capital gains taxes on is the difference between the date you inherited it and then the date you eventually sold it.
Mark Kenney: That’s correct, yeah. It’s a step-up. And that can be huge. And that’s why, if you have these highly appreciated stocks like Tesla or Nvidia, if they’re passed on to next generation, they will get a huge step-up, where if you sold them right during your lifetime, you’re going to pay 15% to 20% on how much they’ve appreciated. So, highly appreciated stocks are great gifts to receive via inheritance because of the step-up.
Matthew Peck: Well, let me– because I do want to come back to that a little bit because I have an interesting situation with a household and whether or not to sell a property in Nantucket and what they’re going to do. But let’s also talk about the expectations for beneficiary. And this is a little bit, I’m kind of bringing probate into it. And I know we’re not attorneys per se, but what’s the expected timeline? So, if Aunt Becky, if they do inherit this home, and let’s just say it’s a nice smooth will process and let’s say it’s not difficult, it’s not being challenged or anything like that, when should a beneficiary expect to be able to make changes or to be able to, hey, I do want to sell that home, I don’t want to maintain it or whatnot, when should the beneficiary accept to almost assume ownership of these assets? Whoever wants to take that.
Mark Kenney: Yes. I mean, it really depends on how much legwork they’ve done beforehand, right? So, any time an estate goes through the probate system, I always set the expectation of one or two years before that estate is settled. And I tell the executor to leave estate bank accounts open for at least one or two years. If something passes on via a trust, then it’s a lot more efficient because it avoids the probate system and expectations are less than a year.
Amanda and I recently worked on a case where one of our clients unfortunately passed away, and the daughter and son inherited the IRA, and we were able to– I mean, the money’s already in their names, and it’s probably 60 days after his passing. And now, we’re working with her on, well, how do you take out this money from the inherited IRA, knowing your income over the next 10 years? So, it really depends on how much legwork was done beforehand. Was there a beneficiary designated, right? Because remember, if you have a beneficiary on an IRA or 401(k), that doesn’t go to probate, it goes directly to the beneficiary. You’re telling that financial institution, I want my son and daughter to get 50% of my IRA when I pass. We just submit the death certificate and the application to get their piece into their name and then start the distribution process from there. Where if you don’t have a beneficiary, it can take a while to get caught up and probate can take years.
Matthew Peck: Okay. So, we do have that kind of separation to a certain extent too. So, not only do you have a tax difference, obviously, if it’s in an IRA or a 401(k) pretax dollars. So, within a sense that Mark, what you’re saying, to build on that, that if you are listed as a beneficiary, you can start to act on those assets, I’d say, relatively soon, whereas if it’s a property or stock, it might be longer, Amanda. I guess, what would be the expectation? Would it be back to what Mark had mentioned about one or two years or– because it’s almost like, imagine, again, you inherit Aunt Becky’s home. And I’ve had a client inherited a home in Florida and held that– hopefully, they’re listening because they’ll get a kick out of it. Lucky was the parrot. But not only they inherit a property, but they inherited the animal.
And so, they were literally having to go back and forth from Boston to Florida to maintain the property before they were eventually able to sell it. So, I guess, just to manage people’s expectations, if you do inherit a property by the probate process, it’s almost like you have to expect to maintain the costs for at least in a year or two years.
Amanda Glennon: That’s correct, yeah. And I think an important point to point out is that having a trust is super important because if you have your property in the trust, if you have your IRA is in a trust and you just name the trustees that you want, that can actually avoid probate and avoid the one to two-year mark. And it’s tax efficient too.
Matthew Peck: Okay. So, certainly, I want to make sure if people are taking that step. And I think it’s also interesting being in the field that we’re in because at times, we certainly want to make sure that we’re helping out the next generation, but then you’re also trying to help out sort of the wealth creators, if you will, and where that line is drawn because the story I wanted to share with you is that, recently, I had a client. They’re in their mid-80s. And so, they had a home in Nantucket, and probably, their original basis was $1 million. And now, it’s at $8 million. Obviously, Nantucket has done very well.
Mark Kenney: Limited supply.
Matthew Peck: Right, exactly. Not breaking any news here. But it was just very interesting and sort of a little bit of a conflict because on one hand, if– and then the husband eventually passed. So, now, it’s just an 85-year-old woman who has this home in Nantucket, and she’s living in the Metro West area. So, it’s like, okay, well, if she sells the property, then all that capital gains, she would have to pay. However, it’s less maintenance for her. And obviously, it’s a lot easier to live her life not having this sort of albatross of this beautiful property, but something that you need to maintain. Whereas if she held on to the asset, then all of those capital gains are sort of washed away. It gets caught in the estate tax net, like you’re saying. So, I guess, in your experience in that spot, how often are you telling people, okay, live for now versus live for the kids and that type of quandary?
Mark Kenney: It’s a balance, Matt. I always say to my clients, “Money has to go somewhere.” So, either you spend your IRA money or it just accumulates and it goes to these beneficiaries. Money just doesn’t disappear, it has to go somewhere. But it’s also understanding the beneficiaries’ financial goals, right? So, in that situation, there may be three beneficiaries. They may have three children and one child says, I live in California, I love San Diego. I want nothing to do with Nantucket. And the other two, maybe one wants to sell it and one wants to live there. So, I think it comes from communication, having that conversation with your family, and bring this, pulls back to originally when we started, is we said, people weren’t talking about money, right?
And now, you can see how this can cause issues, where if you have a conversation and say, “Listen, this asset is going to get passed on, you guys figure out,” and this one person buy out the other person, then it sets the expectations, I think, a lot more clearly and avoids all the conflict and all the fighting and bickering that can go on while you’re mourning and just, I think it’s all about communication.
Matthew Peck: Yeah. And so true, again, about how everyone’s circumstances are different, not just on their income taxes, and also, to come back to that a little bit, again, as I mentioned, to come full circle. Okay. So, now back to the beneficiaries in hand. So, first they inherited an IRA. And now they need to do what? They need to take a look at their income tax, but they also need to determine whether or not– and if it’s Roth IRA. So, walk me through the Roth IRA, Amanda, if you don’t mind. Walk me through the Roth IRA options. Is it similar to the IRA options? And how is it different? And how is it similar?
Amanda Glennon: So, Roth IRA is tax-free money. So, whoever gave you this Roth IRA have already paid the taxes on what they invested. So, I believe that if it grows, is it capital gains there?
Mark Kenney: Nope, tax free to the recipient. So, if I inherit a Roth IRA, the same 10-year rule applies. I must distribute that Roth IRA by year 10. However, the benefit is, I can let it marinate or grow for 10 years. Okay? So, looking at if someone inherits some of an IRA and some of a Roth will usually say, like defer the Roth IRA for as long as possible because you’ll get it tax free. But if it’s $20,000 now, it might be worth $50,000 by year 10. You can take that out all in year 10 and be tax free. So, although both the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA has to be gone by year 10, it’s just a matter of when we take it and in which year and whether it’s going to be taxable. The Roth IRA will be tax free, where the traditional won’t.
So, it’s just a matter of figuring out the beneficiaries’ income, their situation over the next 10 years, and that can be totally different, right? You have three children. One happens to be 65 and he’s retiring next year. So, his income is going to be down. One is 60, he’s got five years left to work. And the other one is 55, you had a third child late, right? And they have 10 more years to work. And their situations are totally different and their taxes are totally different. And how they distribute each of mom and dad’s inherited IRA might be totally different based on their incomes.
Matthew Peck: I mean, and that’s what’s so kind of fascinating to kind of bring it all together a little bit. I mean, think of it this way. So, we have like, well, just different buckets, right? So, let’s say, okay, a certain amount that you may or may not inherit is IRA money, pretax dollars that you’re going to be subject to income tax as you draw it down. Then you got to have a certain bucket, hopefully, more in that bucket of Roth IRA money that is also subject to that 10-year spend down. However, it’s tax free. Then if there’s any after-tax dollars that’s liquid, cash, stocks, etc., yes, you might receive a step-up in basis, but at least now that’s fully liquid and you can do whatever the heck you want to do with it.
And then finally, you have property which, although it does receive a step-up in basis, now you’re sort of fighting or debating, I’m trying the right way of putting it, you’re working with the other beneficiaries listed as to what are we going to do? I mean, are we going to sell? Is one of the three beneficiaries going to buy out the other two and maintain the property? I mean, so these are all the things that are so specific to each individual sort of generational transfer. And then, what each individual beneficiary then has to decide?
Mark Kenney: Yeah, yeah. And again, it comes back to communication, understanding the beneficiaries’ financial goals, their objectives, what their wishes are, where they’re located in this country, right? I have it all the time where one child might be in New York, one child might be here in Massachusetts, and one child might be in California. And geography plays a huge play into what asset they receive and if they want to receive it. And remember, you inherit a house. The municipality, the town still wants their property taxes. The insurance still wants their money. The onus becomes a liability for inheriting that asset, you must maintain it and pay for it until it gets transitioned through these estate sales that we see all the time.
So, again, it comes down to communication, understanding what assets you have, what assets are best to be passed on. I tell my clients all the time, spend your IRA, because at one point in your working career, you deferred compensation. You said, “I’m not going to spend this on a trip. I’m going to save it in a 401(k).” And from a tax efficiency standpoint, that is the least efficient asset that can be inherited by a beneficiary. So, spend your IRA. Bounce that last check. The other assets are more efficient. We see it all the time. As you said, most assets, 90%, I believe, of assets, retirement savings are pretax dollars. And these beneficiaries have no idea what they’re inheriting as far as tax liability, as we see this huge transfer of wealth through the baby boomer generation.
Matthew Peck: Well, initially, I want to go back to that communication, just again how key that is. I mean, I always like to talk to our client. So, let’s say the owners rather than the beneficiaries of the asset. And when they’re setting up things like the trust, as I mentioned, Amanda, how important that is. These terms like equal distributions versus equitable distributions, people say, oh, it sounds like the same word. It’s like, well, not really, because let’s say, your one daughter is Taylor Swift, she might not need to really receive any beneficiary, whatsoever. And let’s say if your son is kind of down and out, then he might want to receive more. And then it becomes more equitable where it might be like an 80/20 split towards, maybe it’s a single mom or a single dad or something along those lines. Or is it equal? Is it a third, a third, a third? And hey, it is what it is and to each their own. So, I mean, how often do you see people sort of wrestling with that? And is it primarily people just end up doing the equal because it’s just easier to understand? Or do you at times see this equitable where people will do different splits?
Amanda Glennon: Yeah, I think it just depends on each client situation. Everyone is in a very different spot. We had one client come in and just explained what you explain, that one son was very well off and one wasn’t, and she didn’t know how she wanted to do that. So, I think it’s just talking through the pros and cons and making sure that they can make an educated decision as well. And I also think, going back to the communication, it’s just offering that we can also be here to talk to the beneficiaries so that they understand prior to them inheriting it. They have a plan in place and they understand what exactly is coming to them and how should they be distributing this new inheritance.
Matthew Peck: Well, and that’s the thing, I mean, not to interrupt, Amanda, that’s another question I want to ask is, I know we’re– as obviously, the podcast is symbolic of how SHP helps, but can you be more exact? Like, how exactly does SHP help with the process, whether it’s with the owners or with the beneficiaries?
Amanda Glennon: Yeah, so we help on both ends. So, with the owners, we work with them if they want to have that conversation with their beneficiaries to come by the office and just learn what they’re actually going to inherit. We offer that. But also, when the owner does unfortunately pass away, we do work directly with the beneficiaries. We help them with paperwork because, as Mark mentioned, it’s a very emotional time. So, we do like to help in any way we can. And I think just making it a seamless process as best we can is how we like to provide.
Mark Kenney: And just bringing it down to basic terms, right? So, again, during this emotional time, they just inherited sometimes a large amount of money and it’s all new to them and they have no understanding of their tax liability. We talk it through them. But it’s so specific to everyone because each individual has different needs, different wants, different goals. And we really want to tailor– that’s ideally what financial planning is, tailor it to their individual goals. And yeah, we see it all the time where different beneficiaries will have different needs, and we just want to make sure it’s seamless and efficiently as possible.
Matthew Peck: Well, and just to add to that too, I mean, it’s amazing how much paperwork is needed when people do pass away because then, specifically, and I’m just thinking on the top of my head, just kind of a recent client, I mean, all his assets get frozen for the time being. And the death certificates have to be collected, and obviously, beneficiary forms have to be signed off on. Sometimes, if there is a single spouse or if a spouse will want, a new contract has to be signed because it’s a new household. I mean, it’s just amazing. Even when we try to make it as seamless as possible, I’m amazed at how much paperwork is still there.
Mark Kenney: But I’ll add to this, Matt, and especially in the day and age where there isn’t a lot of brick and mortar, it’s nice that they can come down and sit down with us face to face and hand us that paperwork. I’ve seen it so often where they may have an account with some– I’m not going to throw any names, but there’s no brick and mortar, right? There’s no representative. You’re on a phone call. It’s very impersonal. And they’re going, “Can you send me the death certificate?” And there’s no emotional elements in that relationship. I mean, they just lost someone they love. So, we want to take that off their plate, right? There are some things they’re going to have to give us, unfortunately, but we’re going to do it in a kind way and we’re going to answer any questions they have. It’s going to be face to face, how it should be done instead of over a phone call, that someone, they’ll know where they’re located.
Matthew Peck: Yes, some 1-800 number because the other thing I want to say too, Amanda, is I think the SHP portal is a big help too during this process. Is that right?
Amanda Glennon: For sure, yeah. And I was going to say that actually. If you’re comfortable with it, showing your beneficiaries your actual SHP client portal and making them aware of these are all the assets that I have at SHP. If and when I do pass away, these are the ones that they’ll be able to help you with. But also, in our portal, we have assets held away. So, it names the properties or life insurance policies or anything like that. So, I think it honestly just divides each asset down. And now, you can understand, oh, this is what I’m going to inherit. Oh, maybe this is not what I’m going to inherit.
Matthew Peck: Absolutely. And I’d love it, because again, or just this topic, because it’s just a great example of how the five financial worlds, they’re not mutually exclusive. I mean, everything bleeds into everything else. I mean, what you want to do for your legacy and how much you want to leave behind, then that goes into questions like, okay, which tax assets do you want to leave behind? How would you like it left behind? Then how are you going to spend now if that becomes your ultimate goal, which then also brings into taxes, which also brings into the investments, like you mentioned, with the Tesla stock as an example of, if you have this highly appreciated stock, that does not end up part of your income plan, that’s more of a complete buy and hold, right?
And last but not least is health care. Obviously, what’s your health and what’s that situation? Because of a long-term care event is looming or potential, that’s going to impact it. And I really want to end with that because it just gives you an idea of being that comprehensive financial advisor, CFPs, there’s two of us here.
Amanda Glennon: Almost three.
Matthew Peck: I love it. But that’s what I mean. It’s like you need that type of all-around knowledge because again, everything interacts with one another and everything has an impact. And I’m just so proud of what SHP does because of that fact, because that is our approach both for the owners and the creators of these assets, but also the beneficiaries, and really making sure that mistakes aren’t made, that things are done as seamless as possible with the friendly face and with the warm heart. And I know it’s a little bit cliche, but it’s a fact. I know, I’ve been at funerals. I know Derek has. I’m sure you have.
Mark Kenney: Unfortunately.
Matthew Peck: And Amanda, maybe not yet, because you’re really young in your career. But the same idea is that, I’m sure you will be. And so, I just want to make sure all my listeners know that this is what we want to bring to the table and these are the things you need to consider. And then having someone walk you through that is just such a relief, both now and then, obviously in the moment of crisis. Mark, thanks so much.
Mark Kenney: Thanks for having me. I think it’s a great conversation. And I love having Amanda here. Welcome to the group.
Amanda Glennon: Thank you.
Matthew Peck: Absolutely. Amanda, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it.
Amanda Glennon: Thank you for having me.
Matthew Peck: Well, stay tuned for next week’s episode. And thanks so much for listening.