The 1960’s changed the cultural fabric of America. All eyes focused on the youth of America. Change was in the air. The 70 million children born post-World War II (hence the phrase “baby boom” and ultimately the name “boomers”) became teenagers and young adults. I thought before we discuss our book “Cruising Though Retirement,” it might be fun to take a moment to look back at the wild ride of the 1960’s as shared by my co-author Katherine Motley. The 60’s brought us the peace symbol, the smiley face and “Have a Nice Day,” Twister, the miniskirt, the Etch-A-Sketch, pantyhose, the first Super Bowl, and flower power. Did you know that G.I. Joe came on the scene in 1963, but due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, the military figure was discontinued in 1969 and an “adventure series” was launched in 1970?  The military figure did not return until 1982. The hippies wanted to “Make Love, Not War,” and young people decided to go to California to “find themselves.” Our hair went from bouffant to teased-up beehives to long and straight. Our music was all over the place – rock and roll, R&B, soul, California surfin’ songs, and Motown. The 60’s saw the end of “rock and roll” and the beginning of just plain “rock,” with the British invasion of the Fab Four, and that eventually led to “hard rock.” We were introduced to the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Emerging in the 60s were such groups as the Beach Boys, the Dave Clark Five, the Supremes, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Mamas and the Papas, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Temptations, the Drifters, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Three Dog Night, and such performers as Neil Diamond, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel – and the list goes on. For the most part, our music pointed to endless summers, young love, and dancin’ in the streets. At the movies, we saw The Apartment, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Easy Rider, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Doctor Zhivago, Mary Poppins, Psycho, To Kill A Mockingbird (my favorite), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (I still don’t get this one!). The hills were alive with The Sound of Music, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Hello Dolly. Disney brought us 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio. And fans enjoyed six James Bond films! Many of the books and films of the 1960s were among the most acclaimed in history and continue to be considered classics. On television, we were watching The Andy Griffith Show, The Flintstones, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Dragnet, The Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Big Valley, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Th Jetsons, American Bandstand, Gilligan’s Island, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, and Route 66. We saw great things happen in the 60’s. The Peace Corps was created by President John F. Kennedy. Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech. John Glenn became the first man to orbit the earth, and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. the Freedom Riders and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came on the scene. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs, setting a record that would not be broken for 37 years. There were a total of six Olympic games in the 60’s (winter and summer 1960, 1964 and 1968) and such names as Muhammad Ali, Wilma Rudolph, Carol Heiss, Otis Davis, Bob Hayes, Don Schollander and Peggy Fleming took home the gold, just to name a few. We saw great things invented, including the first computer mouse (1963), the first hand-held calculator, the first cash dispensing machine (ATM), and the first artificial heart. Other inventions included acrylic paint, permanent press fabric, non-dairy creamer, bar-code scanners, the halogen lamp, AstroTurf, audio casse!es, and compact discs. And what about ARPAnet, the grandfather of the internet! What were we driving? Most of the cars were American-made from the Big Three. Chevy brought us the Corvair, and Chrysler the Valiant. There were the Mercury Comet, the Rambler Classic, and, of course, the VW Microbus (not American-made). We had the Ford Mustang, Falcon, Thunderbird and Galaxie; the Plymouth Road Runner, Fury and Barracuda; the Dodge Charger; the Chevy Camaro and Corvette; the Pontiac GTO, Firebird and Catalina; and the Cadillac DeVille, Fleetwood and El Dorado. The cars of the 1960’s, like the movies, are truly classics. In the 60’s “bad” became a good thing, a “blast” was a really good time, “crash” meant going to sleep, “far out” was not a measure of distance, and “cruising” sometimes indicated looking for girls or guys. Life in the 60’s was too large to be explained and too remarkable to be fully appreciated in a few paragraphs. But let me say, I believe you’ll find answers in our book “Cruising Through Retirement” that will “blow the doors off” other books on the subject of planning for your retirement – and that it will keep you cruising (though not for chicks) through retirement. Far out! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.

By Senior Estate Planning Attorney Rick Law of Law Elder Law in the suburbs of Chicago

None of us wants to be out of money during our lifetimes…When we are out of money, we are out of options.  Making income last a lifetime is a critical financial function in retirement planning, and we often receive questions regarding the “immediate annuity”.

You can buy immediate annuities in many different forms. The most common forms are:

• Life-only annuity – This type of annuity is for the life of the annuity owner. The income paid from the annuity expires at the death of the annuitant. With this type of contract the annuitant assumes a portion of the longevity risk, but also has significant gain if his/her lifespan far exceeds the norm. To illustrate, we’ll assume our annuity buyer is an 82-year-old male. The 1980 Commissioners Standard Life Expectancy Tables establish his typical mortality to be 6.18 more years. If this 82-year-old male lives to be 100 – 12 years beyond the standard life expectancy stated in the Commissioners Table – chances are very good that no other investment could even come close to the guaranteed yield the life-only annuity would provide him. Conversely, if he died within three years from the date of purchasing the annuity, he would have received monthly income in return, but the monthly income paid out would be less than the amount funded into the annuity – obviously not the outcome we are looking for. The longevity risk of a life annuity is certainly a gamble. You may win big, but you may also lose – it just depends on how long you live.

• Period-certain annuity – This type of annuity pays out for a specified period of time. For instance, you can buy a period-certain annuity that is paid out over a 5-year term. That annuity will pay out in equal installments over 60 months. The payout is not affected by the stock market, interest rates, CD rates, etc. – it is guaranteed by the issuing insurer to remain at the exact payout amount agreed upon at the issue of the annuity contract through the final payment. So if you own a 5-year certain annuity for a monthly benefit of $1,200, you would get $1,200 per month for 60 months and $0.00 from month 61 going forward.

• Life with installment refund immediate annuity – This is a hybrid of the two annuity types described above. With this type of annuity the payments are guaranteed for life, just like the life-only annuity. The twist is, if you die prior to all of your money being paid back, the insurer guarantees that the annuity will continue to pay out until you or your beneficiary (after your death) receives at least the initial invested amount.

If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 630-585-5200 or 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now.

Sincerely,

Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees.

Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  

By Rick Law, elder law attorney and senior advocate in Aurora, IL Social Security is our government’s income solution for the aging American. The idea behind Social Security was fabulous: providing money on a monthly basis to help our senior community during their golden years. The reality is that with costs on the rise, Social Security goes only so far financially, and standalone Social Security is not enough these days. Living off a dual Social Security income in a married situation isn’t easy without other income, such as a company pension or interest and dividends from savings and/or investments. Things can, and often do, get much worse after the death of one spouse. When you lose your beloved spouse, the government’s rules place you into what I call the “Social Security shuffle.” This isn’t a fancy new dance step, but the beginning of the loss of income. Uncle Sam sends you a letter explaining they will now discontinue one of the two Social Security checks; you do get to keep the larger one.  Here is an example: Beth and Roger are a married couple. Roger gets $1,300 of Social Security income and Beth gets $525. If Roger dies before Beth, what happens? Beth “inherits” Roger’s Social Security check of $1,300. However, she does not retain her own Social Security check of $525. She gets the larger of the two; therefore, the household income drops at Roger’s death by her Social Security amount ($525 per month). But it gets worse. Let’s also assume that Roger had a pension from his industrial job. His defined benefit pension was $1,100 per month. We are frequently surprised at how few people can accurately describe what happens to their pension income when they die! Typically, one of these scenarios applies: • Straight life pension – The pension dies when the participant dies. So in this scenario Beth will get $0.00 per month. • 75 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent, or some other percentage of the pension income – the surviving spouse is named as a percentage beneficiary, but the monthly pension benefit is a percentage of the original pension, even while Roger is alive. So, for Roger, a 50-percent pension for his wife may have resulted in his pension check being reduced from $1,100 to perhaps $980 while he was alive to collect it – and a 50-percent survivor pension benefit for Beth would mean her new pension income would be 50 percent of Roger’s $980, or $490 per month. • Survivor – Here the spouse would get 100 percent of the spouse’s pension amount. With this option Roger’s pension would have been significantly reduced from the straight life pension amount of $1,100. An educated guess might be $780 per month. Again, we can only guesstimate these figures because each defined benefit plan is built differently, and the plan’s actuarial assumptions define these figures. So the numbers above are just to give you an idea of what different pension amounts for Roger might look like. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at or 630-585-5200 or 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 630-585-5200 or 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

Many times, non-attorney professionals do not understand the great value in encouraging their clients to do estate planning. Here is a common story in my office. Just the other day, I got a call from a prospective client.  His family situation is one that I have heard repeatedly over the years.  With sadness and concern, he said, “I need to get my ducks in a row and do my estate planning.  But my biggest problem is that one of my adult children has some issues.  He has really messed up.” Often, when we meet with clients it becomes clear that many seniors are still writing checks to help out—or bail out—loved ones who are vulnerable  to manipulation or who have destructive lifestyles.  It may be a child who’s been disabled either physically or mentally since birth; such a child may be living at home or in a group home setting.  It may be a child who is currently in an abusive relationship.  It may be a child who has never been able to—and likely will never be able to—handle money.  It may be a child that had (or still has) an addiction. Whatever the reason, these parents have a vulnerable adult child who will need continual care and support.  The role of the capable estate attorney is to be able to protect the assets left to the child within a trust wrapper. The trust is the rule book that governs payouts of proceeds for needed expenses. The rule book encourages good behavior and does not fund the bad habits.  That trust can include controls that help to pay for rehab, or keep the assets protected from an abusive spouse.  There are as many ways of creating that wrapper as there are circumstances that cause a client to need to create a distribution lockbox for that adult child. If you want more information on this type of Love and Protection Trust, please contact my office at 630-585-5200. Sincerely, Rick L. Law