10 Things I Know to Be True: Mickey O’Neill, On Retirement & Legacy Planning

Our featured columnist is Mickey O’Neill, founder of Retirement Answers, an organization dedicated to educating consumers and connecting them with local, qualified retirement-oriented professionals. As a marketer who has spent much of his career helping financial advisors craft their public outreach, Mickey brings a unique perspective to the retirement and legacy planning conversation.

10 Things I Know to Be True: On Retirement & Legacy Planning

1) The Internet has information. People have answers.

2) Asking good questions is harder than giving good answers.

3) The more highly credentialed the advisor, the less they can say in public. The most highly credentialed are even prohibited from publicizing endorsements from their own clients!

4) It’s the things you don’t know that you don’t know that will hurt you the most.

5) All other things being equal, there are only two kinds of retirement professionals: Those who put you first, and those who put themselves first.

6) Retirement is personal. Find an advisor who looks beyond your numbers and into your life as a person.

7) Everything gets more difficult as you age. Do it now. Later, when you’re battling the indignities of age, it will be much easier to adjust an existing plan than to start from scratch.

8) It pays to know your options. Get a second opinion.

9) Especially in times of emergency, such as unexpected death or disability, it pays to get qualified help. Mistakes made at this time reverberate across generations.

10) If the person you’re working with can’t explain their offering simply, they either don’t understand it well enough themselves, or they’re hiding something.

10 Things We Know to Be True is a series of posts sharing the accumulated wisdom of our partners, peers and colleagues, as well as members of the Investment Answers team.