I. M. Financial

04/10/2026

02/04/2026

Sweden stayed neutral for over 200 years.

Through two World Wars, the Cold War, and countless regional conflicts, they maintained their famous policy of non-alignment. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and suddenly neutrality felt a lot less safe.

Sweden stayed neutral until it determined that neutrality had become a threat to its security.

Sometimes the world changes around you, and neutrality becomes a choice you can no longer afford to make.

In retirement planning, neutrality often involves not committing to a strategy, incorrectly convinced that this equates to leaving all options open. It's assuming that conventional wisdom will be enough, that average strategies will produce the results you need, and that alternate strategies that may take time to develop will not be worth making an upfront commitment.

But average retirement planning creates average retirement outcomes. And average, in this case, often means risking running out of money, running out of options, or running out of time to enjoy what you've built.

You're going to end up on a side whether you choose one or not. The question is whether you want it to be the side that most people end up on by accident, or the side that's designed specifically for your situation and goals.

Livet leker – life is grand. But only if you plan for it to be.

Sweden chose neutrality to protect its own security, until it ultimately realized that picking a side was the better choice to accomplish that same goal: security. In retirement planning, you will likely confront the same realization...

01/28/2026

Legacy is commonly framed as something that happens later.

After retirement.

After a liquidity event.

When life finally slows down.

Toward the end of life.

That framing is misguided.

Legacy is not something you leave behind at the end.

It’s something you build, decision by decision, while you are still living.

For families, legacy is shaped in the present tense. It shows up in how time is spent, how money is discussed, and how values are modeled day to day. It’s reflected in how intentionally cash flow is managed, how risk is addressed, how debt is used, how taxes are planned for, how trusts are established and maintained, and how assets are structured across generations. It shows up in whether complexity is reduced into clarity, and whether important conversations happen early, when there is time, rather than late, when options are limited. It lives in the lessons taught and the examples set along the way.

What we see repeatedly is this:

When meaningful planning is delayed, clarity does not arrive later. Decisions become harder. Options narrow. Pressure builds. Conversations grow heavier...

Over the years, one pattern has become impossible to ignore in our work with individuals, families, and business owners alike: legacy planning is postponed far too often. Not because it lacks importance, but because it’s misunderstood.

10/22/2025

Don't let tax considerations hijack your primary objectives.

While tax efficiency matters, and all else being equal it's important to consider tax impact when assessing a decision, we never want to see people making suboptimal choices because they were hyper-focused on minimizing their tax bill above all else.

These situations come in a few common shapes:

• Waiting to sell something until the characterization changes from short-term to long-term, to save percentage points on the tax rate while remainin exposed to risk.
• Avoiding changing a risk-inappropriate portfolio, because selling out of gains to purchase a more appropriate portfolio would involve taxes.
• Making tax-first decisions about where to locate assets, such as in trusts or qualified retirement accounts, when real goals may call for more liquidity, access, and flexibility.
• Avoiding making critical business decisions until a tax-minimizing strategy reveals itself.
• Making suboptimal business capital allocation choices because of "the deduction."
• Avoiding income producing strategies when income and/or diversification would be appropriate or necessary, out of fear of generating taxable income.

The tax code creates both opportunities and pitfalls. The key is to harness tax advantages in service of your broader financial goals - not to let tax mitigation become your primary goal. Keep taxes in their proper place as one important consideration among many.