Retirement Planning

Last week I turned sixty-five and realized that I am not far off being eligible for Social Security and Medicare. The problem is I don't feel old enough to be eligible for either, and I have no desire to retire. Sixty-five used to be the milestone that people kept in mind as the date when they got the gold watch and started drawing their retirement from their employers defined benefit pension. Very few of those exist anymore and most of them have been turned over to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) as part of a corporate chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Now for many of us it's just another birthday with no meaning greater than any other. This thought string got me thinking about lawyers and retirement generally.

The world has...

The past few years have been a bit rough in terms of the economy and there are few signs that things will dramatically improve anytime soon. The national debt continues to rise and there are still way too many who are unemployed or under employed. For those who went into this downturn living paycheck to paycheck, the past few years have been particularly hard. One lesson that can be taken from all this is the following. There is value in planning ahead in order to be financially prepared for the unexpected. So, how prepared are you? Not surprisingly, I see the failure of an attorney to appropriately plan ahead, not only as a financial misstep, but a risk management concern as well.

I constantly meet and work with attorneys who have done,...

Okay so it's a bad paraphrase, but it makes a point. At some point in life every lawyer realizes that the practice culture, practice rules, client demands and expectations have changed drastically from what they knew oh so may years ago, and for many not for the better. I think this probably holds true for most lawyers who entered the practice in the last century, but I suspect it applies more for those of us that started practice just before the beginning of the information age. Population growth and concentration, inflation, speed of communication, ease of research and economic expectations all played a role in the meteoric change. The future of the practice of law belongs to the younger generation of lawyers and they face a daunting and...

Some attorneys still ask about how to purchase a tail policy or tell me that they have purchased a tail policy to cover their retirement years. Truth be told, there is no such thing as a tail “policy;” and unfortunately, this type of confusion over what a tail is and what it isn’t can lead to serious repercussions down the line.   

Prior to discussing tail coverage, one must first understand a few malpractice insurance basics. All legal malpractice insurance policies are claims-made products. When a claims-made policy is purchased, the attorneys named under the policy will have coverage for claims that arise and are reported to the insurance company while that policy is in force. Further, and this is important, any act, error or omission...

ALPS understands that managing your career is about more than simply keeping up with the day-to-day duties of your practice. Yet often, it’s difficult to stop what you’re doing and really look any further into the future than next week. However, you may realize the distant future is not as far away as it seems, especially when it comes to financial planning and developing a retirement strategy. That is one of the reasons ALPS Financial Services was created - to provide attorneys with a resource for financial advisement from a company that understands the practice of law. We specialize in helping small businesses plan for the future by providing:

·   One-on-one relationship based service

·   Customized planning for your specific needs and...