Insights
Articles and downloadable guides to help you navigate your retirement planning and retirement.
Watch the full Medicare 101 webinar recording and download the presentation slides.
Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medigap, drug coverage, enrollment windows, and how Medicare fits your retirement income plan. Presented with Ash Brokerage.
An overview of why every family needs an estate plan and the core documents that make it work.
A primer covering wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and the consequences of leaving an estate plan undone.
A one-page checklist of the documents and decisions every estate plan should address.
Printable. Use it to organize your own plan or as a starting point for your next attorney meeting.
How to give to family and individuals during your lifetime in a way that aligns with your estate plan and tax picture.
Covers annual exclusion gifts, lifetime exemption, 529 funding, and common gifting mistakes to avoid.
A short, plain-English overview of how life insurance fits into a financial plan and when it's actually needed.
Covers term vs. permanent coverage, common pitfalls, and how to evaluate the policies you already own.
A step-by-step worksheet for sizing how much life insurance your family actually needs.
Walks through monthly expenses, future obligations, existing savings, and debts to estimate your coverage gap.
How to recognize the seven most common online scams targeting investors — and the steps to take if you become a victim.
Covers romance, sweepstakes, government impersonator, tech support, real estate wire, business email compromise, and investment (pig-butchering) scams, with red flags, prevention steps, and questions to ask yourself.
A one-glance reference for 2026 brackets, standard deductions, retirement contribution limits, and key thresholds.
Print-ready. Keep it next to your planner during tax season and year-end conversations.
The moves worth making before December 31 — Roth conversions, charitable giving, harvesting, and RMDs.
A short checklist of the planning decisions that have to happen this calendar year.
The once-a-year review every household should run on cash flow, beneficiaries, coverage, and goals.
Use it on your own or bring it to your next review meeting.
Savings rates, emergency-fund sizing, debt rules, and the milestones that keep a plan on track.
Useful for younger savers and as a sanity check at any age.
Your four options when you leave an employer — and the tax traps that catch most people.
Covers rollovers to an IRA, leaving it with the old plan, moving it to the new plan, and cashing out.
Required Minimum Distributions in plain English — ages, calculations, penalties, and QCDs.
What to expect the year you turn 73, and how to plan the years before.
Filing ages, spousal and survivor strategies, and the trade-offs most break-even charts miss.
A reference to bring to your filing-age conversation.
Original Medicare vs. Advantage, Part D, Medigap, IRMAA — the four decisions that follow you for life.
Our most-requested handout. Read before your initial enrollment window opens.
The documents, beneficiaries, and conversations every estate plan should cover.
Use it to audit your current plan or as a starting point for your attorney meeting.
A guided worksheet for thinking through medical decisions before you need to make them.
Print and fill out together with your spouse, agent, or family.
Beyond the will: the practical, emotional, and logistical work of leaving things in good order.
A longer-form piece for clients thinking about legacy as more than a document.
How much coverage you actually need, for how long, and which kind.
Cuts through the jargon with simple sizing rules and red flags.
What term insurance is, what it costs, and when it's the right tool for the job.
A one-pager you can read in two minutes.
Your paycheck is your biggest asset — here's how to insure it.
Group vs. individual coverage, own-occupation language, and benefit periods.
The four ways to fund care — insurance, self-funding, hybrid policies, and Medicaid planning.
Cost ranges, policy features to look for, and the timing window that matters.
When a $1–5M umbrella policy is the cheapest planning move you can make.
Coverage sizing, underlying limits, and what umbrella does (and doesn't) cover.
How 529 plans work, who should fund them, and the new rules around leftover balances.
Includes state tax considerations and the Roth IRA rollover provision.
A short guide to the conversations most couples avoid — and the questions that make them easier.
Useful before a planning meeting or as a stand-alone exercise.
A guided worksheet for clarifying what your money is actually for.
We use this in first meetings. Bring it filled out, or don't — both work.
The beliefs about money you inherited — and how they shape the decisions you make today.
A short reflective exercise. No right answers.
A short exercise for ranking what you most want your money to do.
Pairs well with the "What Matters to You" worksheet.
Our planning philosophy in one short piece — the foundation, walls, and roof of a financial plan.
A two-page overview of how we approach the work.
What missing the best 10, 25, or 50 days has actually done to long-term returns.
Short, visual, and useful when nerves run high.
What to do — and what not to do — when headlines turn red.
Keep it on hand for the next correction.
The long view on volatility: history, behavior, rebalancing, and the moves that actually help.
Our most complete piece on weathering market turbulence.
A reflective piece on the news cycle, the things you worried about, and what actually happened.
Short. Worth a re-read every year or two.
The research, the premiums, and the design choices behind the portfolios we build.
Plain-English overview of evidence-based investing.
Why you own bonds, how they actually behave, and what to expect across rate environments.
Demystifies the part of the portfolio most clients ask about.
Dimensional's overview of how research informs portfolio design.
A short introduction to the firm's investment approach.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How active, index, and systematic funds have actually delivered over long periods.
Annual industry study comparing fund performance across strategies.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What missing a handful of the best trading days does to long-term returns.
Short visual research note.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What 1, 3, and 5-year returns have looked like after market drops of 10%, 20%, and 30%.
Useful context when markets fall.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How focusing on known premiums can improve retirement outcomes.
Research piece on portfolio design for retirees.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
The historical return premium of small companies and what it has meant for long-term investors.
Research note on the size premium.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Why country-picking is a losing game — and what global diversification actually buys you.
Research note on international diversification.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What the data says about checking your portfolio less often.
Behavioral research on attention and returns.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What really drives index-fund returns — and the hidden activity inside passive vehicles.
Research note on index methodology.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What index investors expect, and what they actually get over the long run.
Research note on tracking, costs, and reconstitution drag.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Why deviating from a benchmark is sometimes the smarter choice.
Research note on systematic implementation.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How systematic investing differs from both active and passive approaches.
Short overview of Dimensional's middle path.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What makes Dimensional's model portfolios different from a typical fund-of-funds.
Research note on model portfolio construction.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How the models balance tax efficiency with active trading decisions.
Research note on implementation and turnover.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Nobel laureate Robert Merton on where value really comes from in portfolio management.
Interview-format research piece.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How a systematic approach can deliver higher expected returns in bond portfolios.
Long-form research piece on fixed income.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
The evidence for term and credit premiums and how to capture them.
Research note on bond premiums.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Variable maturity strategies designed to adapt to changing yield environments.
Research note on flexible bond strategies.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How variable-maturity bond strategies have behaved across rate cycles.
Research note on rate sensitivity.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Whether yield premiums revert — and what that means for portfolio positioning.
Research note on fixed income premiums.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
What actually explains returns across developed-market government bonds.
Long-form research piece on sovereign debt.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
The conventional wisdom on retirement allocations — and what the research actually shows.
Research piece on retirement portfolio design.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
How inflation, rates, and equity risk interact across a retirement timeline.
Research piece on retirement risks.
Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors
