Category: Wisdoms

  • How to Minimize Capital Gains Taxes

    Selling real estate is one of the most impactful financial decisions you make. Understanding taxes, especially capital gains, can make the difference between simply selling a property and creating a lasting legacy. When you sell your property for more than you paid for it, the profit is called a “capital gain.” If the property was…

  • Minimizing Estate Taxes

    Hawai‘i’s estate tax exclusion remains at $5,490,000 per person, with tax rates as high as 20%. While this may seem like a high threshold, many Hawai‘i residents can exceed it quickly—especially when factoring in the value of a primary residence, inherited assets, life insurance proceeds, retirement accounts and investment portfolios. Minimizing exposure to Hawai‘i’s estate…

  • Is Travel on Your Retirement Agenda?

    One of the great benefits of retirement is having the freedom to pursue new interests and hobbies at your leisure. For many, travel is at the top of their retirement bucket list. The key question is how to make sure your retirement savings can keep up with your travel ambitions. The following considerations can help…

  • A Hui Hou

    All good things must come to an end, or so they say. This is the last article by this author that will appear in this publication. I wish the Generations team and readers all the best in every way. I hope that over the past 15 years, you have gleaned from this column how important…

  • Finding a Trustworthy Financial Advisor

    Thinking about investing? You’re not alone. According to Gallup, 85% of Americans are actively seeking financial guidance—but BBB finds that too often, people lose money to bad advice and fraudulent “investment gurus” posing as experts. BBB’s 2024 Scam Tracker Risk Report found that investment scams are the riskiest in North America, with the highest susceptibility…

  • The Good & Bad News About Estate Tax

    The One Big Beautiful Bill, now a law, “permanently” increased the maximum lifetime exclusion amount that any US citizen or resident can use to shelter gifted assets or assets passing at death from the federal gift or estate tax. The new estate and gift tax exclusion beginning in 2026 is $15 million per US citizen…

  • Managing Aging Parents’ Finances

    Making financial decisions takes time, attention and energy at any age. In the case of elderly adults, it may become increasingly difficult to manage finances, particularly if their health is declining or they’re experiencing a cognitive issue. If you’re providing support to aging parents—or plan to in the future—here are some tips on how to…

  • Documenting Your Hopes & Values

    Parents have their own unique perspective on how to raise their children, and what values and lessons to instill. They also have personal beliefs about how their children should manage money. Most parents would prefer that an inheritance serve to enrich and support their child’s life rather than replace the need to work or find…

  • Will a Will Do What You Think It Will?

    Most people think of a last will and testament as the cornerstone of an estate plan. For most of us, however, it’s a lousy cornerstone. Your will is often simply a safety net that helps make sure your overall estate plan is going to work as it was designed. Your will is like the spare…

  • Protecting Your Child’s Assets

    Consider creating a trust to hold your child’s inheritance. Whether you are married or a single parent, consider how to ensure that your hard-earned assets are used properly for the benefit of your child, and not misused or taken away. Minor children cannot own assets, so if a minor is named as a beneficiary of…

  • DIY Estate Planning

    The problem with do-it-yourself estate plans is they often don’t work in the real world. An effective plan involves far more than a set of documents—even very well-drawn documents that would stand up in any court in the land, as they say in the commercials. But why would you want your estate plan to have…