Most Americans could use the help of a financial professional at some stage in their life. The time when this occurs is different for everyone of us based upon our level of comfort and experience dealing with our finances and the level of complexity we are facing. For many, the burdens of managing a career, a family, and unforeseen life events (a sudden death, a divorce, a financial windfall, college expenses, taxes, etc.) tells us that it is time to seek out help. When I speak with clients I tell them the appropriate time to speak with a financial advisor is when they have questions that they cannot easily answer themselves. Don't wait until you have a problem, but seek out help when you first notice it or notice that you aren't comfortable making a decision. Most Americans could benefit from working with an advisor at some point in their life.

We know that the values-based investing landscape is littered with buzzwords, acronyms and jargon that, quite frankly, can be very confusing. In order to help you better understand how we think about values based investing, which we take to include SRI, ESG and Impact investing, we have provided a short primer below.

The current level of the stock market is an enigma for many. Stocks appear to be reflecting rosy future growth projections and many large cap index funds are seeing their returns driven primarily by the growth of stocks like Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla, Microsoft and Amazon. For any new investor, this frothy environment represents a difficult starting point for their portfolio. The good news is that if you have a long term time horizon, namely more than ten year and up to 50 years depending upon your current age, the stock market is still a great tool for you to help grow your savings. Distortions within indices tend to be temporary and over the long term the index will readjust to reflect the performance of the index asset class.

I am blessed to work with a great group of clients. Unfortunately, many of them have been through the process of losing a spouse. Every situation presents itself differently, and every widow or widower I speak with has dealt differently with the grieving process. This is to be expected as we are all individuals and the relationships we are losing were all built upon very different foundations. Thus, when I am asked for general advice about dealing with finances after a major loss, I usually hesitate as there is no one correct answer for everyone. But, there is one piece of advice that I have heard consistently from widows and widowers, namely, that you have time.

As parents, we all want to help our kids develop great saving habits. One way to do so is to help your kids save for retirement. Starting early and saving regularly is a recipe for long term success. Here are three reasons why you should consider starting a Roth IRA for your child or children.

After losing a loved one, finances are the last thing you're worried about. However, taking care of their financial accounts and administrative tasks can keep their assets in good order.