Solana Beach Financial Advisors: The 8 Possible Financial Consequences Of Divorce and How To Avoid Them, PART 2

This four-part article series explains the many financial pitfalls associated with divorce and how women can best avoid them through careful research and the right planning.

Welcome to the second installment of this four-part article series on the possible consequences of divorce and what women can do to avoid or at least offset them.

In our previous article post, Part 1, we explained the fact that divorce can often see even the more affluent of women becoming financially unsecure, which has a lot to do with the cost of divorce itself as well as simply being ill-prepared! This emphasizes the importance of doing thorough research into the assets both you and your (ex) husband have. This might require some digging and even the use of a forensic accountant, but you and your spouse have been a team until now and as such, everything should be fairly divided.

Let’s take a look at some more advice provided by Solana Beach financial planners:

Consequences of Divorce # 3: Losing or Not Having Your Important Documents

Before you even raise the subject of divorce, or soon after it has been raised (since these conversations are seldom planned and executed smoothly), you should shuffle through all of your household files and accumulate crisp copies of the following financial documents and records:

• Loan applications and documents,
• Tax returns,
• Trusts,
• Insurance policies and comprehensive inventories,
• Wills,
• Financial, brokerage and credit card statements,
• All banking information,
• Property deeds,
• Car registration papers,
• Copies of your spouse’s business assets (if you can get your hands on them),
• Any documents that can prove your ownership of assets and/or material items, gifts and inheritance from family.

Having up-to-date copies of all of the above-mentioned financial and legal documents will not only help your lawyer put together a watertight case far quicker (thus saving you money on legal fees), you will also be spared much hassle and frustration.

“No matter how desperately you might wish to exit a marriage, get your affairs in order first,” suggest Solana Beach financial advisors.

Consequences of Divorce # 4: Missed and Forfeited Assets

In most cases, half of everything you and your spouse have accumulated is yours, so be sure not to ignore, overlook or simply forfeit any assets! You may not want certain things, but their value can be traded for something you do want; half of which may belong to your spouse.

What You Should Do

Make a detailed inventory list of all the items owned by you and your husband, from the luxury yacht to the Jet Ski and bank accounts to safe deposit boxes. Review all of your insurance policies, investments and retirement plans as well as those pay stubs with the help of a Solana Beach financial planner. Even the cost of your spouse’s education, which you may have helped put him through, can possibly be claimed for. Expensive business equipment and hobbies should also be investigated. You may want to hire the services of a forensic accountant. All’s fair in love and war and in order to get what’s owed to you (50%) you need to be smart and you need to be thorough.

Stay Tuned for Part 3

Ignoring tax consequences and mixing money and your emotions… To read some more possible financial consequences of divorce for women, stay tuned for the third installment of this four-part article series.

Investment Advisor News, Del Mar: The 8 Possible Financial Consequences Of Divorce And How To Avoid Them, PART 1

This four-part article series explains the many financial pitfalls associated with divorce and how women can best avoid them through careful research and the right planning.

“50% of first, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce,” says Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.

-    Source: http://www.divorcepad.com/rate/

These may seem like terrible and depressing statistics, but they highlight just how important it is for women to make financial provisions in the event that their marriage too becomes another statistic. So, if you find yourself in a position where you are considering divorce, it is crucial that you begin making plans and doing the necessary research to equip yourself to face the impending and potentially rough financial times.

In this four-part article series, I explore, with the help of some investment advisors in Del Mar, the 8 possible financial consequences of divorce and how you can avoid them with the right planning.

Consequences of Divorce # 1: Empty Pockets

If you lamented the cost of living before, things are about to get a whole lot more expensive!

“You’ll likely find yourself dipping into your savings to foot the cost of your legal bills,” warn Del Mar financial advisors.

Then there’s the cost of moving out, getting a new place, seeing a psychologist and that exorbitant “accidental” retail therapy session at Oscar de la Renta. Divorce is not only a change of marital status; it’s a whole life revolution and money is needed to facilitate this change.

What You Should Do

If you foresee your marriage ending in divorce – whether it’s what you want or don’t want – do NOT sit about moping. You need to start squirreling away funds to sustain you through the expensive aftermath.

Consequences of Divorce # 2: Being Ill Prepared

Ending a relationship with a spouse is one thing: a single conversation that can take place in as little as an hour. It’s what happens afterwards that can take months and even years to sort out. This is why careful planning is so crucially important if it looks as though your marriage is going to end in divorce. Before you drop the figurative guillotine on your husband’s head, do some thorough research. Chat with a lawyer and your Del Mar financial and investment advisor about what you need to do and what you need to make provisions for.

Timing is also important. If your husband is due for a promotion, bonus, inheritance or raise, you may want to wait until he receives it so that you too can benefit. If you’re a few months away from the 10-year mark, patience and social security can reward you with your partner’s earning record. This may sound unscrupulous, but just as he has given up his time and energy earning that income, raise or bonus so too have you.

Whether you spent your time raising your family, tending to the house, in the office or all three, you are a team and all of your assets should be shared accordingly.

What You Should Do

Take the time to complete the things that need to be done before the financial and emotional turmoil hits at full force. While you still have access to joint funds, take the car in for a full service; perhaps get some new tires. Buy the kids the clothes they need and take them to the dentist. Book yourself a few appointments with a therapist, your financial advisor and perhaps a lawyer. This kind of planning can save you a lot of money and a lot of hassle post-divorce.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

Not sorting out your documents and overlooking assets… To read more about the possible financial consequences of divorce for women, stay tuned for the second installment of this four-part article series.

Financial Advisors in Rancho Santa Fe Explain Why the Right Financial Planning Is So Important for Women, PART 3

This three-part article series takes a look at the special financial needs of women and just why it is so important for us to make provision for our family and ourselves through smart planning and investments.

Welcome to the final installment of this three-part article series on women and finances. It has been the aim of this series to explain just why it is so important for women to be especially rigorous about making lifelong financial plans and investments.

In Part 1 and Part 2, I spoke to some financial advisors in Rancho Santa Fe who explained that it’s a consequence of the additional pressures women face as a gender that may require them to be especially careful with regards to financial planning, lest they are left without the security and stability they need to look after their families and themselves. These pressures include:

1.    Women tend to outlive men,

2.    Women tend to earn a lower lifelong income than men,

3.    More and more women are becoming business owners, and

4.    Women are almost always chosen as custodial parents.

So, typically speaking, not only do women need to survive for longer with less money, but also they are almost always responsible for the wellbeing of more than just one person. Let’s take a look at two more important reasons women should be financially careful and crafty and make a solid plan that will see them through.

5.    Women Are Working Professionals

According to San Diego financial advisors, more than half of the working population (57.5%) in professional occupations is female: think lawyers, doctors and real estate agents. These are typically financially empowered roles and with financial power comes much responsibility. It’s one thing to earn a decent amount of money, but if it isn’t managed carefully, you won’t enjoy much financial security should the unforeseen happen, for example: divorce, the death of a spouse or litigation. Asset protection planning can prove especially useful for female professionals, so speak to your financial advisor in Rancho Santa Fe.

6.    Women Have Wealth!

It’s true! Women may earn less than men over a lifetime on average, but three quarters of America’s financial wealth is owned by women, which holds an approximate value of $14 trillion worth of assets. Because of this, is it essential for women to get the right tax planning and investment advice. This wealth needs to be managed carefully throughout your lifetime and it needs to be distributed after you’re gone so that you can ensure the financial security and wellbeing of the family you leave behind.

Women are also compassionate beings. If you’re in a position of wealth, you might want to consider getting involved in some kind of charity by making monthly donations. It’s tax deductible!

In Conclusion

Women are special in an infinite number of ways and it’s because of their unique circumstances – emotional, personal, professional and financial – that it’s so important for them to become educated about finances. Whether you’re a powerful business executive, a respected medical specialist, a waitress or a stay-at-home mom, financial planning stands to benefit you and our children enormously. Consult with an experienced San Diego financial advisor about your estate, investments and finances so that you can plan the most secure, stable and successful future for yourself.

The Importance of Financial Planning For Rancho Santa Fe's Women Residents, PART 2

This three-part article series takes a look at the special financial needs of women and just why it is so important for them to make provision for their family and themselves through smart planning and investments.

Welcome to the second installment of this three-part article series on the importance of women making smart lifelong financial plans, provisions and investments. In our previous article installment - Part 1 - I talked about what some San Diego investment advisors had to say, which was that this can be the case because women tend to outlive men and earn a lower life long income. This means that women typically face the need to survive for longer with less money.

Let's take a look at the next two reasons that Rancho Santa Fe's female residents, from stay-at-home moms to affluent business executives, should be smart about their financial planning, irrespective of relationship status and income bracket.

3. Women Are Also Business Owners

Women are increasingly overstepping all historic convention and becoming entrepreneurs, ruthless executives and incredibly successful business owners, which is fantastic to see. Between the years of 2002 and 2007 alone, the percentage of female business owners in the United States increased by a staggering 20.1%. And so, in addition to the typical responsibilities of many women, which include raising a family, they are also managing and running their own enterprises.

To ensure professional and personal success, the right asset management and planning is essential as this will help to protect the long term financial security and success of their businesses and their families. You absolutely can't do it all on your own and so employing the services of experienced financial planners is really advised for San Diego residents: both men and women.

4. Women Tend To Be Chosen As Custodial Parents

When divorce happens, as it so frequently does, the children go home with the mother 84% of the time. And so, if you are a mother, whether you continue to work or have quit your job to provide your kids with full-time care, you need to have some kind of financial plan in place. A savings account, some carefully managed investments and accumulated assets can provide you with the financial pillow you and your family might need in the event of divorce or some other unforeseen circumstances.

You should also sit down and think about what instructions you would like to leave behind should tragedy befall you or your husband. How would you like your estate managed and divided between your children? If they aren't of age yet, who will look after their inheritance until they are old enough? What can you do to ensure that your children have access to everything they will need to become successful, even if you or their father isn't in the picture anymore?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, it is essential that you start thinking about it and maybe even speak to your investment advisor about it. Accidents are called accidents for a reason.

Stay Tuned for Part 3

To read more reasons why wealth managers and financial planners in Rancho Santa Fe urge women to make smarter financial plans for life, stay tuned for the final installment of this three-part article series.

Why the Right Financial Planning is so Important for Women, PART 1

This three-part article series takes a look at the special financial needs of women and just why it is so important for them to make provision for their family and themselves through smart planning and investments.

To say that women have special financial needs and can benefit enormously from careful planning is no sexist statement. There are many reasons that it is absolutely essential for us, frequently more so than for men, to make smart financial plans, provisions and investments.

In this three-part article series, I will be presenting what a panel of experienced Rancho Santa Fe asset management professionals had to say about this. So, if you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t need an estate plan because your husband is the one who takes care of all your family’s financial affairs, or you don’t need a solid financial plan because you’re a high flying business executive who makes a killing each year, think again!

It’s time to sit down and start making those plans – irrespective of your relationship status or income bracket – because you never know when tragedy might leave you and/or your family without financial security.

1. Women Tend To Outlive Men

According to statistics, the average Rancho Santa Fe female lives approximately five years longer than the average male. This means that women need to feed, clothe and support themselves for five extra years and presumably non-working years if they are retired.

If they are married, it also means that women are likely to outlive their husband and so may come into quite a bit of wealth when he passes away. This is when the right financial planning becomes so important, because it’s now up to them to make the last arrangements with regards to their estate and the distribution of wealth amongst their heirs.

Timely estate and financial planning well before a spouse passes can save you a lot of trouble and a lot of financial strife, according to Rancho Santa Fe asset management professionals. With a solid plan in place, the proceedings can commence and run unhindered, giving you and/or your heirs faster and less complicated access to funds.

2. Women Tend To Be Lower Income Earners

It’s a terrible shame, yet in spite of how far we’ve come as far as gender equality is concerned, women still earn approximately 20% less than men. In 2010, for every dollar men earned, women earned 81.2 cents. While this has absolutely nothing to do with capability, many business firms still prefer to hire men because they tend to be more career-focused and don’t get side-tracked by having families.

Women on the other hand, not only tend to earn less, they also work less than men and this is almost always because they need to take time off to have children and raise a family. With a lower life-long income, Rancho Santa Fe’s female residents can find it harder to save than men, and yet it is incredibly important considering they are likely to outlive their husbands. A good investment plan can help you build your financial nest egg.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

To read more reasons why wealth managers and financial advisors in San Diego urge women to make smarter financial plans for life, stay tuned for the second installment of this three-part article series.

Is Your Business Website Visible Online?

A ‘How To’ Guide to Using Social Media and Search Engine Marketing to Get Found on the World Wide Web

PART 1: Social Marketing Introduction

Millions upon millions of people around the world use the Internet every second of every day. The World Wide Web has fundamentally changed the way in which we interact with each other on a social level and with our colleagues, bosses and clients in the professional arena. It has also revolutionized the way the modern business appeals to its target audience and this is primarily because the Internet enables people like you and me to search for any product (from a garden hose to a high performance sports car) or service, be it a dentist or a hairdresser, simply by clicking through the virtual pages of this truly fathomless ocean of information.

Before the age of Information Technology, you would have to physically sift through the tissue-thin pages of some yellowed directory book for names, phone numbers and addresses. That or rely on the advice of a friend or a family member. Now, you are but a matter of mouse clicks away from not just the first, for example, florist it took you ages to find, but the best and closest florist to your doorstep! With a staggering 75% of all people globally going online to find information about the products and services they need, one thing has become exceedingly lucid about modern marketing principles: if you’re not visible online, then you are losing out on an incredible amount of business! Just ask the social marketing agency: all of these potential customers are hopping and skipping into your competition’s virtual retail store!

Social Media and Social Marketing Advertising: The Importance of Getting Found

With the uncompromised accessibility of the Internet, competition between businesses for this online visibility has become fierce, which means that strategies such as social media and social marketing have become indispensible. Without the right tools, strategies and investment of time and money, you may as well gift-wrap and hand all those potential customers over to your competition. So, what does all of this really mean and how can you, the business owner, increase the online visibility of your brand name and identity using social marketing?

There are three areas on the Internet that are important to target when designing an effective social media and social marketing campaign:

1. Search Engines: While this term may sound alien to you, you actually use them every time you browse the World Wide Web and are perhaps better known as Google, Yahoo! and MSN, amongst others.

2. Social Marketing in the Blogosphere: The realm dedicated to the written opinion and worded experience! Sites for social marketing include Blogger, WordPress and Bloggit.

3. Social Marketing in Social Media: The array of websites dedicated to promoting social interaction and media sharing (video, audio, photo, etc.), such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, YouTube and the 500+ more.

‘Being visible online’ means that the people who are searching for the products or services you sell must be able to find you in one or more of the above-mentioned spheres of the Internet. And when it comes to social marketing, the more the better!

Social Media and Social Marketing: Getting Found Online

It is the chief aim of any business website – with effective social marketing strategies in place – to provide information about the company, its brand name and identity, as well as its products and services. All of this information is presented in an engaging and attractive way so that web users will become convinced that they have found what they were originally looking for; not just the particular product or service itself, but a business brand they are willing to trust. So, how are all these potential customers supposed to find your website amongst the millions of companies and enterprises that sell similar, if not the same products and services? That’s where social marketing comes in!

Stay tuned for the next informative article in the series, PART 2: Getting Found on the Internet: A ‘How To’ Guide to Using Search Engines.

Social Media Marketing Service: The Statistics and Potential for Commercial Exposure

Social Media Marketing Service: The World-Wide Explosion

The past decade has seen the monumental explosion of Social Media Marketing Service websites onto the Internet. From Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to YouTube, Bebo and Hi5; the number of Social Media Marketing Service websites on the Internet is truly astounding and they are connecting people from every single city, country and continent on the globe. There is quite literally no limit to the reach of the Internet and this has facilitated immense social interaction. People can keep up to date with hundreds of friends, engage in conversation, share pictures, videos and music and reconnect with friends that they have long lost contact with. Where distances, obstacles and oceans once came in the way of communication and sharing, there are now literally hundreds of Social Media Marketing Service websites making connection and reconnection possible in a way like never before.

Social Media Marketing Service: The Statistics

Social media essentially refers to the myriad of Internet-based sites that facilitate and promote social interaction and networking. In order to truly appreciate the marketing power of social media, one need only consider the following statistics:

• 75% of the global consumers who go online visit Social Media Marketing Service websites.
• This figure has increased by a massive 24% since last year.
• Each visitor spends approximately 66% more time on Social Media Marketing Service websites than the previous year (from 3 hours per day to 6.5!)
• 22% of the all human time is spent browsing Social Media Marketing Service websites.
• In July of this year (2010), Facebook announced over 500,000,000 (million) users.
• LinkedIn currently has 60 million subscribers, which increased by 5 million in just 2 months.
• Twitter has 110 million users
• Myspace has 57 million users in the United States alone
• Yelp sees over 30 million viewers per month
• Tagged has 100 million registered users.

So, what does this all mean? Social media has captivated the world’s attention and the number of users and time spent per day by each user is only increasing with each passing month. And what does this mean for business?

Social Media Marketing Service

The explosion of Social Media Marketing Service websites on the Internet and the vast number of people who subscribe to any of the hundreds out there has provided businesses of all sizes with an incredible opportunity to cash in on the exposure they can afford. Consider Facebook; one of the biggest of all the social networking sites to exist in the virtual domain. Facebook has over 500 million active viewers: subscribers who login and spend time on the site every day. The business that has visibility on Facebook is therefore being seen by tens, if not hundreds of millions of users on a daily basis. It is this potential for incredible exposure and the subsequent accumulation of leads that has made social media the new medium for modern marketing and advertising. The statistics have spoken: the business that does not make the jump into social media as a means for spreading their brand image and name will literally be left in the dust of its competitors.

As a demonstration of WorldClass Search Engine Marketing, we have created a network of "Squeeze Page Websites" which are designed to provide WorldClass Search Engine Ranking for a Primary Keyword. Each individual Squeeze Website has been designed to be search engine optimized for one primary keyword.

These are brand new websites without any history, no backlinks yet and are completely fresh from an SEO perspective. We will periodically update this report to show progress in terms of search engine ranking.

WWW.WORLDCLASSSOCIALMEDIAMARKETING.COM (keyword “social media marketing”)

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WWW.WORLDCLASSSOCIALMEDIAMARKETINGSERVICE.COM (keyword “social media marketing service”)

WWW.WORLDCLASSSOCIALMEDIAOPTIMIZATION.COM (keyword “social media optimization”)

WWW.SOCIAL-MEDIA-GURU.COM (keyword “social media guru”)

WWW.WORLDCLASSSOCIALNETWORKGURU.COM (keyword “social network guru”)

WWW.SOCIAL-MEDIA-BROADCASTING.COM (keyword “social media broadcasting”)

WWW.WORLDCLASSSOCIALMARKETINGAGENCY.COM (keyword “social marketing agency”)

WWW.SOCIALNETWORKBRANDMANAGEMENT.COM (keyword “social network brand management”)

WWW.AUTOMATED-SOCIAL-MEDIA.COM (keyword “automated social media”)

WWW.WORLDCLASSWEIGHTLOSS.COM (keyword "weight loss")

WWW.GOOGLOPOLY.COM (keyword "googlopoly")

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If you'd like to talk with us about building you a network of WorldClass Social Media Marketing Squeeze Websites, please call 866.347.3321

You can also send us an Email Inquiry