Andrew Lavoie, Financial Advisor

02/05/2026

The retirement planning landscape changed forever in the early 1980s, and many people today have limited awareness of what we lost in the process. Before that time, for a much larger percentage of the population, the story was clear: you worked for a company, they promised you a pension, and when you retired, checks showed up in your mailbox until you died. Period. In this situation, the company bore all the investment risk. The company handled longevity risk. The company dealt with sequence of returns risk.

Following the passage of this act, the percentage of private wage and salary workers who received a "defined benefit" pension was cut nearly in half. What filled the gap? The 401(k) – originally designed as an executive compensation supplement, not a replacement for actual retirement security. And of course, in fact, the Economic Policy Institute described 401(k)s as “a poor substitute” for the defined benefit pension plans many workers previously relied on.

What happened here might well have been among the largest transfers of financial risk in American history – from institutions with professional management and deep pockets, who were able to pool retirement risk across thousands of employees, to individuals fending for themselves, with no risk pool, and armed with nothing but a handful of mutual fund options and a quarterly statement.

Suddenly, regular people had to become investment experts. They had to figure out asset allocation, rebalancing, and withdrawal rates. They had to predict their own lifespan and hope the market cooperated during their specific retirement window...

The retirement planning landscape changed forever in the early 1980s, and many people today have limited awareness of what we lost in the process. The Economic Policy Institute described 401(k)s as “a poor substitute” for the pensions...

02/03/2026

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.

01/27/2026

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...

11/12/2025

Everyone wants certainty with their money. Nobody wants to pay for it.

I have this conversation three times per week: "I want my investments to be safe, but I also want high returns, and I need complete liquidity just in case."

Pick two, at most.

The financial world operates on trade-offs, not magic. Want guaranteed returns? You'll likely sacrifice growth potential. Want maximum liquidity? You'll likely give up yield. Want high returns? You'll probably have to accept uncertainty.

But here's what most people miss: You can buy certainty. It just costs something.

Insurance companies will guarantee your income for life. Treasury bond ladders will give you predictable cash flows. Even bank CDs will work to protect your principal.

The question isn't whether these tools are "good investments" compared to stocks. The question is: What's it worth to you to stop worrying?

I've seen people stress about market volatility for years, losing sleep and making emotional decisions that cost them far more than the "expensive" products they were trying to avoid.

Sometimes the best investment isn't the one with the highest expected return. It's the one that lets you think about something else.

The wealthiest people I know have figured this out. They buy as much certainty as they need, then use the rest of their money for growth (and fun!!).

Simple math: Peace of mind has a price. So does flexibility. So does growth potential.

What are you willing to pay for, and what are you willing to live without?

11/04/2025

"I *am* a business owner" vs "I own a business."

That one shift in language changes everything.

More than one business owner I know works 60+-hour weeks.

When the business is your identity, you take calls on vacation. Can't delegate major decisions because "nobody knows the business like I do."

They've built something impressive. They've also built a prison.

Here's the paradox: Most entrepreneurs start businesses for freedom but end up more trapped than employees. They become the highest-paid worker in their own company.

The real question isn't "What's my business worth?" It's "Can my business survive without me?"

Because if the answer is no, you don't own an asset. You own a job that you can't quit.

The businesses that create real wealth – the kind that funds retirement, pays for kids' college, gives you actual choices – these businesses run without their owners being indispensable.

This isn't just about exit planning. This is about life planning.

Every decision you make to become less critical to daily operations is a decision to become more valuable as an owner.

The goal? Get to the point where your business could operate for three months without you, and the only thing that would suffer is you'd miss being there.

That's when you transition from working in wealth to owning wealth.

Simple question: Could your business make money next month if you disappeared tomorrow?

10/31/2025

10/28/2025

2026 Planning is upon us, and success is rarely linear. As a business owner, it’s important to both acknowledge that fact and create plans that can provide short-term results while allowing for long-term impacts.

Here are four areas in which strong planning and realistic goals can position you to achieve more success in the coming year, all while building your business's value.

1. Building strong management teams: Strong management teams implement your tactics and strategies, which determine your success and often, your company’s value. Frankly, when buyers purchase a company, they’re often buying the management team foremost. Having a strong management team is the mother of all Value Drivers.

2. Having documented systems and processes: When you document your systems and processes, you provide your management team (current and future) and potential buyers with a playbook for your success. This often means you don’t need to reinvent the wheel with each new initiative, which can increase efficiency and create more time to innovate.

3. Creating a business continuity plan: Remember: The most valuable businesses are those that have a dispensable owner. In other words, if your business relies on your presence, it may not have as much value as you hope for without you. While being needed might provide an ego boost, it also can make it challenging to control your business destiny. Business continuity instructions can serve a dual purpose. Most obviously, they provide guidelines for how to keep the business running in your unexpected absence. But just as importantly, they can create measures and processes that make the business less reliant on youeven if you’re never unexpectedly absent.

4. Using success to beget more success: If you successfully implement the three elements above, it could give you more time to create a more well-balanced personal balance sheet. That could increase your access to additional resources, which you could then use to supplement business performance or other interests, creating a virtuous circle of personal and business successes that play off one another.

10/27/2025

The highest-paid people I know are often the worst at spending money. Sounds backwards, I know.

But for some people I've gotten to know, a major source of financial stress is deciding whether to buy organic groceries. These are people who analyze complex business problems all day, but agonize over spending an extra $30 at Whole Foods.

Here's what I see constantly: High earners who've become so good at accumulating wealth that they've forgotten how to actually use it. They'll research a $200 purchase for weeks but make decisions with long-term multi-million-dollar consequences on gut, family patterns, or habit. They'll stress about subscription services and high-yield savings account interest rates, but they'll avoid conversation about some of the most impactful decisions a person and household can make.

The problem in these cases isn't the money; it's strictly the mindset.

Many financially successful people on paper got that way by being disciplined savers. Every dollar spent was a dollar not invested. Every purchase was evaluated against opportunity cost.

That mindset may serve you well on the way up, but it can also trap you once you've arrived.

When you've got substantial assets and high income, it's likely your objectives should change. The goal shifts from accumulation to utility and outcomes. From scarcity thinking to abundance management.

Most haven't investigated or learned much about how to make that transition.

Why aim low by building significant wealth but living like you're still building it?

The happiest clients I work with have learned that money that never gets used (spent, given, or otherwise) never improves your life.

They've figured out how to separate money that's meant for security (don't touch) from money that's meant for living (spend intentionally).

They buy experiences that matter to them without guilt. They invest in things that save time or reduce stress. They spend money to solve problems instead of enduring problems to save money.

Most importantly, they've realized that perfect optimization is the enemy of actually enjoying their success.

Sometimes the best financial decision is the one that makes your life better, even if it's not the most mathematically efficient choice.

If you won the financial game, what would change about how you spend money?

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, I 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.

10/20/2025

I've seen too many high earners torture themselves chasing an extra 2% return while sacrificing everything that makes wealth actually worthwhile, like time with family, sleep, mental clarity, the ability to make decisions without constantly second-guessing themselves.

The most successful people I know have figured out something counterintuitive:
sometimes the best strategy is just the one you can stick with when everything feels uncertain.

They've built lives and circumstances that let them sleep well and live well, regardless of what the market does tomorrow.

You're not trying to beat Warren Buffett. You're trying to fund the life you actually want to live.

What good is an x% return if achieving it requires you to become someone you don't want to be? Or to feel unsettled half or more of the time?

Would you rather have a setup that makes you the most money, or one that lets you enjoy the money you already have?

10/20/2025

Status quo bias is a cognitive bias which results from a preference for the maintenance of one's existing state of affairs. A large body of evidence shows that status quo bias frequently affects human decision-making.

In understanding decision making, one option that has to be considering is to do nothing;to keep the status quo - this is also called Status Quo Bias.