Are Your Family’s Finances a Team Effort?
Some of the stories from financial planners are heartbreaking.
A man in his late 50’s passed away after a two-year bout with cancer. Even though he was terminal, his wife never made the effort to understand the couple’s finances. Within a year of her husband’s death, she lost the family home and had to move in with her children.
Another man unexpectedly ended up in the hospital in a coma. When his wife called their financial advisor to get access their accounts to pay bills, the advisor told her he couldn’t even discuss the accounts with her. She was on the account as a beneficiary, but not as a joint account holder.
Rodney Brooks
An award-winning journalist, writer and author and my specialty is retirement planning and other personal finance issues. I have written for many national publications, including USA TODAY, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, AARP and National Geographic. I am available to speak on personal finance, financial literacy and the racial wealth gap.
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The author tells the history of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, how it grew much too quickly, why it failed and the impact on Black America. The Freedman’s Bank offered a safe depository for formerly enslaved people, expanded quickly and gained millions in deposits – mostly ranging from $5 to $50. But inexperience and corruption doomed it to failure, costing may of the small depositors their savings.
