Note From the Editor: June 2026
As a certified Baby Boomer (I feel compelled to add that I’m at the younger end of the generation), I’ve noticed more friends and colleagues are announcing their retirements. Each has their own reasons for doing so and different plans for how they want to spend their retirement years. And many assume that financial advice is all they need before taking the leap. But that’s not all there is to retirement planning. As Bonnie Treichel and Jamie Hopkins (co-authors of Your Retirement Sketchbook) explain in their article “Three Blind Spots in Modern Retirement Advice,” p. 60, today’s retirees struggle with a very different set of risks that go beyond finances. To address these risks, advisors need to recognize three blind spots that appear in the advice they give clients, which are an obsession with accumulation at the expense of decumulation planning, a narrowing of advice to numbers rather than lived experience and a failure to account for the client’s expanding digital footprint.
This month’s issue includes another topic that may run counter to established assumptions: the use of portability. In “Pondering Portability,” p. 11, James I. Dougherty, Megan Jones and Elizabeth Pedley acknowledge that although this can be a powerful transfer tax planning tool, it’s rife with complications. Practitioners must use it carefully to avoid an adverse impact on the surviving spouse and potential liability.
Finally, I’d like to welcome a new advisory board member. Sara Barba of Integer LLC is joining the Philanthropy Committee, taking the torch from Sandra Swirski, also from Integer. Sara has written for Trusts & Estates on philanthropy and on legislative updates from Washington, D.C.