Lifeworks Advisors

Lifeworks Advisors A modern RIA and technology firm delivering the Future of Advice®.

There are financial decisions you can revisit if you change your mind. These five aren't among them.Social Security timi...
10/15/2026

There are financial decisions you can revisit if you change your mind. These five aren't among them.

Social Security timing is permanent. The pension election is permanent. Missing Medicare enrollment triggers lifelong penalties. A beneficiary form that names the wrong person overrides your estate plan on day one. And pulling from the wrong account first in retirement creates a tax inefficiency you carry for years.

All of them are easier to address before retirement than after. Most people address them after.

10/14/2026

Your will is not the last word on your retirement accounts.

The beneficiary designation form you filled out — sometimes decades ago — overrides everything. Your will, your trust, every other estate planning document. Whoever is listed on that form gets the account.

An ex-spouse. A parent who's passed. A charity you no longer support. If your life has changed since you opened the account, the form probably hasn't.

It takes ten minutes to check. Most people never do.
Full breakdown: lifeworksadvisors.com/beneficiary-designations-explained/

A donor-advised fund lets you take the tax deduction now and decide which charities to support later.That separation is ...
10/13/2026

A donor-advised fund lets you take the tax deduction now and decide which charities to support later.

That separation is the whole point. Sometimes you might have abnormally high income in a specific year from a business sale, a Roth conversion, or a final year of high W-2 income. You want the charitable giving deduction in a high-income year, and you don't know yet which charities you'll support, or when, or how much.

A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) allows you to contribute cash, appreciated stock, or other assets and receive the full tax charitable giving deduction in the year you contribute. From there, your assets can be invested and grow tax-free inside the fund, giving you the flexibility to support any IRS-qualified charity whenever the time is right, with no deadline to distribute the funds.

The appreciated stock piece is especially underused. Contributing appreciated securities directly instead of selling and donating cash allows you to avoid capital gains entirely and deduct the full fair market value of the asset the day you donate.

DAFs are one of the most underused tools in charitable planning. For a full breakdown, check out our blog post on the subject: lifeworksadvisors.com/donor-advised-funds-explained/

Half of all married couples at 65 will have at least one spouse live past 90.Most retirement income plans are stress-tes...
10/12/2026

Half of all married couples at 65 will have at least one spouse live past 90.

Most retirement income plans are stress-tested to age 85.

A plan built for 20 years on a 30-year horizon isn't failing at the margins, it's failing structurally.

Longevity is the variable that makes every other retirement decision — when to claim Social Security, how much to withdraw, how to invest in your 70s — more consequential than people realize.

10/09/2026

Bringing this back as Q4 starts — it's the right time of year to think about it.

The gap between retirement and age 73 is one of the most underused tax planning windows available. After 73, the IRS controls how much taxable income you generate each year. Before 73, you do.

10/08/2026

The standard AUM model ties advisor income to investment management. Things like tax planning, estate strategy, insurance reviews, retirement income, and healthcare planning don't generate fees, so they rarely get the time they deserve.

Ron explains how Lifeworks approached this differently in 2018: a flat-fee membership that covers the full planning process, with investment management offered separately at below-market rates. You don't need to move any assets to get started.

A married couple has four Social Security decisions to make. Most households treat it as one.1. When does the higher ear...
10/07/2026

A married couple has four Social Security decisions to make. Most households treat it as one.

1. When does the higher earner claim? Each year of delay between 62 and 70 adds 6–8% more in benefits permanently.

2. When does the lower earner claim? They can claim a spousal benefit worth up to 50% of the higher earner's full retirement age (FRA) benefit.

3.What triggers the spousal benefit? The higher earner has to file first.

4.What does the survivor benefit look like? The surviving spouse keeps the larger of the two checks — whatever the higher earner's benefit was when they claimed. That number doesn't change. The surviving spouse lives on it for the rest of their life.

These decisions interact. Running them independently often produces a worse outcome than modeling the household together.

Full breakdown: lifeworksadvisors.com/optimize-social-security/

Most firms review this once a year. At Lifeworks, we believe that continuous monitoring finds what a Q4 review might mis...
10/06/2026

Most firms review this once a year. At Lifeworks, we believe that continuous monitoring finds what a Q4 review might miss.

Tax-loss harvesting: sell a position that's down, use that loss to offset capital gains dollar for dollar. If losses exceed gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 against ordinary income and carry the rest forward indefinitely.

The part most people miss is the wash sale rule. You can't repurchase the same or substantially identical security (like an option that gives you exposure to the same asset) within 30 days before or after the sale. If you do, the IRS disallows the loss entirely.

One of the few tax moves that doesn't require years of advance planning. It just requires paying attention to what's in your portfolio right now.

Full breakdown on the blog: https://lifeworksadvisors.com/tax-loss-harvesting-explained/

10/06/2026

Our best clients have done most things right. They've built real wealth and understand how investing works. They're not looking for someone to explain the basics.

What they want is coordination. A financial plan, a tax strategy, an estate plan, and an income strategy working together — with a team accountable to them and only them.

Coordinating all of that across a retirement that could last 30 years is more than most people want to manage alone. That's the problem we solve.
If that sounds like what you're looking for, let's talk.

10/05/2026

You’ve probably heard the advice: wait until 70 to claim Social Security.
For some people, that absolutely makes sense, but it’s not the right answer for everyone.

Your health, other sources of income, taxes, spousal and survivor benefits, and your spouse’s life expectancy can all change the equation. For married couples especially, the decision isn’t just about maximizing one person’s benefit, it’s about understanding how both decisions work together.

There’s no single “best age” to claim Social Security. The better question is what timing makes the most sense for your household and your overall retirement plan.

We take a closer look at the factors to consider in our latest blog: https://lifeworksadvisors.com/when-to-take-social-security/

Address

4095 Park East Court Ste. C
Grand Rapids, MI
49546

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

(616) 200-6512

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Lifeworks Advisors posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Lifeworks Advisors:

Shortcuts

Share