Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
How We Help
Virginia Financial Advisory
Inflation, market crashes, and sector shifts are just a few things that can dismantle a portfolio’s worth, and this is true for even the most prepared investors. As economic news debuts and we all adjust to the headwinds, a financial professional can be the key to securing your income before you retire.
Peak Financial Services
Life Insurance
Most people understand that life insurance is a support system for their loved ones. In some cases, the coverage is relatively minimal and has a firm cut-off date.
Retirement Income Planning
Just as you don’t expect your savings to pay for your monthly expenses today, retirement income planning works to replace the income you normally get from your job.
Long-Term Care
Long-term care insurance could be thought of as a supplement to your healthcare insurance, but its terms and conditions can get confusing if you’re not familiar with what the plan covers.
Maximizing Social Security
Social Security is a program in America that has been around for nearly a century. Over the decades, its reputation has taken some major hits along the way.
Tax-Free Retirement
When you think about your taxes during retirement, you may have a vague understanding of how your income, such as pensions or IRAs, will be taxed.
Healthcare
From tests to specialists, you need a strong handle on what’s covered and how different health events impact your larger portfolio.
Life Insurance – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
Life insurance policies are a helpful way to cover the most important people in your life from major expenses down the line. Your beneficiaries can use the payouts to avoid making difficult decisions during a grieving process.
But the life insurance industry is more bloated than it’s ever been before, and you might be surprised to learn how many pitfalls there are when it comes to finding coverage — especially if you have a strong portfolio going into the whole operation. With the right financial professional, you can discover how the market works and how you can use it to your advantage.
Why Invest in Better Life Insurance?
Most people understand that life insurance is a support system for their loved ones. In some cases, the coverage is relatively minimal and has a firm cut-off date. For instance, a term life insurance policy provides your kids with modest financial support until they reach the age of 18. If they don’t use the policy by the expiration date, it expires for good.
Term insurance is a very popular option because it’s relatively affordable and it’s practical. If you’re only planning to cover minors until they come of age, it can be the best option. But permanent life insurance also offers perks that retirees may not realize can help them if they need it for unexpected emergencies. Not only do these policies never run out, making them an invaluable comfort for spouses and other loved ones, some offer retirees a savings component that is just as comforting to the policyholder as it is to the beneficiaries.
At Apex Financial Group of VA Inc., Anthony C. Epps can give you more information about how and where insurance bolsters your portfolio (and, by contrast, how and where it harms your holdings). Some carriers and coverage offer far more than they take, but it often takes a financial professional to see through the promises and apply the clauses to both the people you love and the estate you’ve worked so hard to build.
Retirement Income Planning – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
Retirement income planning is a time-tested way to retire with a stable financial foundation. Just as you don’t expect your savings to pay for your monthly expenses today, retirement income planning works to replace the income you normally get from your job. If you’re interested in how to make this happen, the right financial professional can give you the roadmap you need to make more conscientious decisions both before and during your golden years.
What Is Secure Retirement Income?
Secure retirement income refers to revenue that you can count on throughout the year, whether it’s per month, per quarter, or a lump sum at the end of the year. Typically, a financial professional will encourage you to diversify your revenue, which may mean taking a harder look at your assets.
For example, you might work to maximize your Social Security, so you’re reaping as much as you deserve from the long-standing program. Or you might purchase a few more rental properties to ensure that you have additional rental income pouring in every month. From part-time jobs to stock dividends to pensions, you can spread out your retirement income in the same way you spread out your investments across your portfolio.
If you’re wondering, “How much do I need to retire?”, the answer is more complex than a stock figure or a percentage of your current yearly income. At Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc., you can learn more about managing money from financial professional Anthony C. Epps. By the time you reach your retirement age, whether it’s five or 15 years from now, you’ll have all your ducks in a row.
Epps doesn’t just show you how to plan your retirement income, though — he helps you account for both personal and financial upheavals. So whether Social Security is underfunded for a year or one of your rental properties needs extensive repairs, you can replace lost income or work around the losses. Regardless of what the economy throws at you, secure retirement income is the key to staying afloat.
Long-Term Care – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
Long-term care insurance could be thought of as a supplement to your healthcare insurance, but its terms and conditions can get confusing if you’re not familiar with what the plan covers. The right financial professional can give you more information about the benefits of this policy, why it’s not for everyone, and what you can expect if you go down this road.
Is Long-Term Care Insurance Right for Me?
Long-term care insurance doesn’t refer to a healthcare policy. With a healthcare policy, you can expect medical care to be covered, whether that’s surgeries or physicals. What healthcare policies won’t cover are the expenses that you’ll need during your recovery. If you’re unable to cook your own meals, run errands, or dress yourself in the morning, long-term insurance provides you with more resources so you’re not sacrificing even more of yourself after a severe illness or injury.
As the population ages, long-term care has gained some traction in recent years, primarily because people with this policy can end up spending six times less than those without it. Plus, there are carriers that may offer a savings component to the plan if you don’t use the policy. But this isn’t the only side to the story. As carriers have had to cover big bills, this insurance sector has sustained big changes to cover their own bottom line. This has led to less comprehensive policies and, in the worst-case scenarios, inconsistent or nonexistent payouts.
If you’re looking for expert advice about protecting your portfolio from these unexpected costs, the team at Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc. is here to help. At a boutique retirement firm, you can start to see how everything from Social Security to insurance supports your long-term goals. Even the best long-term care policies can be an expensive addition to shoulder, but they may be worth it — especially if you have a long line of hereditary diseases in your rearview. When even short-term injuries and illnesses can cost more than we think, better insurance policies can set everyone up for success.
Maximizing Social Security – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
Social Security is a program in America that has been around for nearly a century. Over the decades, its reputation has taken some major hits along the way. Once considered a relatively reasonable retirement plan, especially if you put in your fair share over your career, the program’s worst critics may call the benefit packages little more than a joke against the rising tides of the economy. But despite its many criticisms, this program does offer rewards when you know how to work the system.
What Does It Mean to Maximize Social Security Income?
Maximizing Social Security income essentially means taking a fine-tooth comb to the program. So, instead of accepting an online estimator’s suggestion, you work with a professional who understands the 2,600 pages that comprise the Social Security Act.
At Apex Financial Group VA, Inc., you’ll work with financial professional Anthony C. Epps to better understand this social safety net and how you can use it to your advantage during your retirement.
If you’re wondering how to maximize Social Security, it’s typically more than making baseline calculations. Your share depends on not just how much you put into the system, but also your career path, retirement age, capital gains, and inflation. So, even if you have a friend, neighbor, or family member who receives a paltry check every month, that doesn’t mean that you’re in for the same fate.
A good financial professional will use Social Security to support your financial well-being during retirement, though they would never advise you to rely on it as a sole means of provision. Ideally, you’ll build a half dozen additional monthly revenue streams to cover your basic expenses, whether that’s from a part-time job or rental properties.
No matter how much you can earn from Social Security, it will never be enough to sustain a full retirement in Virginia. At Apex Financial Group, you can tackle each component of your retirement at a boutique firm, so you’re fully prepared for whatever lies ahead.
Tax-Free Retirement – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
When you think about your taxes during retirement, you may have a vague understanding of how your income, such as pensions or IRAs, will be taxed. But consider the local, state, and federal tax codes for your area in Virginia — there are likely far more factors at play than you realize. If you’ve heard about people retiring tax-free and wondered how they managed to do it, the truth is that they probably have a financial professional working in their corner.
What Does It Mean to Retire Tax-Free?
It can be easy to assume that a tax-free retirement is little more than a marketing buzz term in the financial industry. After all, no one ever really gets away from taxes unless they’re playing the wrong kind of game. But tax-free retirement is a real possibility for many people — it just takes some time and effort to unravel your finances to see where to make the best changes.
So, whether you’d prefer to keep investing during your retirement, you’re open to setting up a charitable foundation, or you want to look into the pros and cons of trust funds, you can work with a professional who understands how your larger goals “fit” with your current portfolio. At Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc., Anthony C. Epps has spent decades educating his clients about how to have a tax-free retirement.
Tax-free retirements aren’t about pulling the wool over the government’s eyes, they’re about using the current laws to your advantage wherever and however possible. Moving yourself into a different bracket, using 1031 exchanges to defer taxes, and setting up tax-free non-profits are all options to give more to the causes and the people that mean the most to you.
At a boutique retirement firm, you can develop a relationship with your financial professional instead of having to work with several staff members at a larger firm. With a real partner at your side, you might be surprised at just how much easier it is to make it through tax season.
Healthcare – Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc.
Healthcare in the US is more than just finding the right general practitioner in your area. From tests to specialists, you need a strong handle on what’s covered and how different health events impact your larger portfolio. Finding the right insurance in a sea of carriers and plans has everything to do with how you answer key questions.
Why Consult a Financial Advisor About Healthcare Policies?
It’s not easy to find a consensus on how many Americans are in medical debt, but even the most conservative statistics stretch well into the millions. The truth is that an unexpected health crisis can quickly cripple a family, and this is true even for families with a thick financial cushion. In addition, if you have a concerning family history of debilitating diseases behind you, your odds only go up from there.
The right financial professional can educate you about how different plans function in different scenarios. While Medicare can certainly cover plenty of a retiree’s expenses, it’s not always as simple as signing up for the most popular option. At Apex Financial Group of VA, Inc., you can get a better sense of how you can protect holdings if you go through a lengthy recovery period. You’ll work with Anthony C. Epps, a financial professional who helps his clients sort out the complex clauses and restrictions.
Consider how health can impact not just your wallet, but the people around you. You may need additional help, whether it’s running errands, getting dressed in the morning, or counting out your medications. If you want to take some of the pressure off your loved ones, you may need supplemental policies that pick up where traditional healthcare leaves off. This way, you can safeguard everything you’ve built without having to sacrifice your comfort or the comfort of those around you.
It’s not always easy to understand healthcare if you’re on the outside looking in. Even experts struggle with the rug being pulled from under them with every new law. The best thing that you can do for yourself and your family is to go into it with both eyes open. And, if you want to have the best retirement in Virginia, work with a financial partner who can steer you through the inevitable shifts in the (often inefficient and frustrating) healthcare system.
If you’re looking for real honesty and integrity, it pays to think smaller. Epps has the experience and expertise to break down the key components for his clients:
Savings Plan
1. Settle on how much you want to save every month.
Trusted Advisor
2. Allow your financial professional to manage a portion of your wealth to grow your portfolio.
Enjoy Life
3. Sit back and enjoy the retirement you worked so hard to get.