Kickin' with The Rickens: Redefining Retirement

Heidi Ricken-Provost discusses legacy planning and how it can be a complicated process. Heidi shares a story about someone she knew who handled a trust the wrong way and their heirs ended up paying nearly 40% in taxes. Heidi lays out what funding a trust properly means, steps to take, and how Ricken Financial works with attorneys and tries to get clients’ affairs in order. This organizati...

With Gerry away, Heidi Ricken-Provost has a laugh about Heidi’s grandpa Willy and his moonshine still. She shares how her grandpa actually supplied Al Capone’s crew with moonshine during Prohibition and the tax trouble it led to. Then Heidi turns that around to explain how people can easily be scammed by fake IRS communications. She details how getting an IRS letter in the mail does...

Heidi Ricken-Provost talks about the difference between money managers and money planners. Gerry and Heidi share how planners earn their fees by not just taking care of money, but buy helping craft goals and the plan to try and achieve them. They also share how planners help people make the proper adjustments along the way to reaching their financial goals and how financial advisors help with investments, income, taxes, healthcare,...

Heidi Ricken-Provost discusses how people can handle market volatility and how the right plan can help keep people from obsessing over the daily gloomy headlines. She talks about diverse plans that help preserve funds, an income plan that is not market-dependent, and the importance of tax planning. And Heidi talks about the people she networked with at a recent women’s financial seminar i...

Gerry Ricken talks about the transition from April to May and how taxes are always in-season. He also explains how tax strategizing goes hand-in-hand with healthcare planning and the financial factors people should consider when deciding to switch to Medicare. Gerry shares how a financial advisor can distill many numbers and factors into simpler, straighter lines to help people make better financial decisions in healthcare choices....

With Heidi away, Gerry Ricken discusses her speaking appearance at the Investing in Women conference in Boston. Gerry then talks about the recent financial volatility and how an approach to that can be like his family’s approach to gardening. He compares the precision of tomato farming to that of a fixed index annuity: harvesting at the right time and the right ways to preserve. Gerry explains the different types of annuities...

Heidi Ricken-Provost discusses several factors that can stack the deck against women and their finances. Fresh off of a women’s seminar with Ricken Financial, Heidi shares some eye-popping statistics about women and wages, divorce, and long-term care. She then shares six phases of planning that every woman should do and why a financial advisor can help in some of these tricky or daunting ...

Gerry Ricken discusses index universal life insurance (IUL) and explains what it is, how it is different from other life insurance products, and how there are elements of it that can grow tax-free. He also explains how IULs can grow tax free and how the principal amount is preserved in those accounts. Gerry also talks about the fish fry at his local parish and the record they recently set&helli...

Heidi Ricken-Provost and Gerry Ricken put a cap on this series on tax diversification. Gerry and Heidi quickly break down ten of the many tools that they help people with in their quest to try to minimize taxes in retirement. They also emphasize that everyone’s tax plan is different and the laws are constantly changing, so people should not try to come up with these plans on their own. Ge...

Gerry Ricken & Heidi Ricken-Provost discuss one last tax diversification tool in this series: index universal life insurance policies. Heidi and Gerry explain how IULs work and how they can be used for tax-free money growth. They share how life insurance policies can actually help people during their lives, but also how they can be a tool for the future generation, too. And they pay tribute to a beloved family member they recen...

Heidi Ricken-Provost & Gerry Ricken define installment sales and how spreading the income from a property sale over time can help lower the tax burden. Gerry and Heidi also explain cost segregation and some lesser-known ways that owners of rental properties can get tax write-offs. And they share about serving at the Ronald McDonald House and how that place helped them when Mary Beth was sic...

Gerry Ricken & Heidi Ricken-Provost discusses what tax loss-harvesting is and how people can use it to minimize the taxes they pay on capital gains. Heidi and Gerry also explain the kinds of accounts this works and does not work for and how losses can be applied across a portfolio to offset gains. Then they share the tax pros and cons of municipal bonds and why people need an advisor to walk them through these helpful, but tric...

Heidi Ricken-Provost & Gerry Ricken discuss how capital gains and net unrealized appreciation can actually save money in taxes. Gerry and Heidi define what each is and explain how moving or using money within these accounts can cost less in taxes than traditional income taxes. They also define the different tax brackets and parameters for tax savings in each instance. And they talk about the tedious task of picking paint colors...

Gerry Ricken, Heidi Ricken-Provost, and co-host Doug Turnbull talk about non-qualified accounts and how they can be very beneficial in tax planning. Heidi and Gerry define what Roths, HSAs, and 529s are, the parameters and limits for each, the ways funds can be converted to and from those accounts, and how they potentially can lighten a tax burden. The Rickens also talk about losing their Chiefs Super Bowl bet to fellow advisors in...