How to Appeal Your Property Taxes
Property taxes can be a meaningful expense for homeowners and real estate investors. If your local government assesses your property at a value higher than it may be worth, your tax bill may be higher than necessary. An appeal gives you a chance to challenge that assessed value. At True North Wealth Management, we believe […]
How the SECURE Act 2.0 Changed RMDs
In the final days of 2022, Congress passed the SECURE Act 2.0, a broad retirement law designed to expand savings opportunities and give retirement savers more flexibility. It followed the original SECURE Act of 2019, which also changed several long-standing retirement rules. Together, these laws affect many areas of retirement planning, including required minimum distributions, […]
How Often Should You Update Your Estate Plan?
Creating an estate plan is an important first step. Keeping it current matters just as much. Your estate plan should reflect your life as it looks today—not the way it looked five, ten, or twenty years ago. Relationships change. Assets change. Laws change. Family responsibilities change. If your documents do not keep up, then your […]
How Insurance Deductibles Work
An insurance deductible is the amount you, the insured, pay before any claim is paid by your insurance carrier. Depending upon the type of insurance, a policy may set the amount of deductible. Alternatively, it may offer you the ability to select a deductible amount. Deductibles serve a dual purpose: they save the insurance company […]
How the Federal Reserve Works
Have you ever taken a close look at paper money? Each U.S. bill has the words “Federal Reserve Note” printed across the top. Many people know the Federal Reserve exists, but they may not know why it issues currency or how it affects the broader economy. For investors, business owners, and families, understanding the Fed’s […]
How Income Taxes Work
Income taxes can feel complicated, especially when forms, deadlines, deductions, credits, and changing rules all come into play. But at a high level, the process follows a fairly simple structure. A tax return starts with income. From there, certain adjustments and deductions may reduce the amount of income that is actually taxed. After tax is […]
How Financial Professionals Are Compensated
Understanding how a financial professional gets paid can help you make better decisions about the advice you receive. Fees are not automatically good or bad. What matters is whether you understand the cost, the services provided, the potential conflicts of interest, and whether the relationship fits your needs. At True North Wealth Management, we believe […]
How Boomers and Millennials Differ on Money
Families are entering one of the largest wealth-transfer periods in history. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion will transfer through 2048, with $105 trillion expected to pass to heirs and $18 trillion expected to go to charity. Baby boomers and older generations are expected to account for most of that transfer. That shift is not […]
Helpful Retirement Strategies for Women
Retirement planning can look different for women. Women often balance careers, family responsibilities, caregiving, household finances, and long-term planning all at once. Those responsibilities can affect income, retirement savings, Social Security benefits, career advancement, and confidence about the future. Recent research from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving found that 3 in 5 family […]
Healthcare Costs in Retirement: What Should You Expect?
Healthcare can become one of the most significant and unpredictable expenses in retirement. Yet many workers have not estimated how much they may need. In a 2025 retirement survey, only 41% of workers reported calculating how much savings they would need for retirement healthcare expenses. At True North Wealth Management, we believe healthcare belongs at […]