By M. Kotch

Many of us greeted the new decade with resolutions. For some, losing weight and leading a healthier life were at the top of the list while for others it was about spending less and saving more. For the assiduous among us, a new year may have even included a review of our finances and legal documents.

Regardless of where you find yourself, the following information may prove helpful in end of life planning. Here are the top questions to ask in 2010:

•    Estate taxes will be repealed for the year of 2010—how will that affect my family and I? Speak to your estate planner, accountant or attorney about what that could mean to beneficiaries this year and next.

•    What exactly is palliative sedation? End of life sedation should be part of any discussion with your family and doctor before drawing up a living will. Making your wishes—be they for or against this type of sedation—perfectly clear is the best way to ensure your wishes are respected.

•    Where is my life insurance money? In what can be described as ‘Mortgage Crisis Redux’, some Wall Street investment banks are bundling life insurance policies to resell and trade for profit.

•    Rethink Roth. Now may be the time to convert dwindling investments into a Roth IRA account. The reason? There will be no more limits on these accounts (which previously had a cap of $100,000), allowing you to create a Roth IRA account that is taxed only once (before the account is created) and that can grow tax free.

•    Who is my financial planner—really? The Madoff debacle made one thing abundantly clear, you should never blindly trust an advisor. While the majority of financial advisors are ethical individuals, the bad apples may still linger out there. There is never a guarantee when it comes to investing your money, but you can conduct some research: ask for many references, check the advisor’s or company’s standing with state financial regulators and above all remember that anything that sounds too good to be true probably is.

•    Health quiz: Heart disease is still one of the leading causes of death in this country, is there one thing I can do to improve my heart health? Yes: stretch. A recent study in the Journal of Heart and Circulatory Physiology found a link between poor trunk flexibility and arterial stiffening. So does that mean you’re in heart trouble if you can’t stretch like a seasoned yogi? Absolutely not.  Research suggests a simple test of sitting on the floor with your legs straight and reaching for your toes from your hips. If your trunk is flexible, i.e. you can reach your toes without bending your knees, then your arteries are probably flexible too.

Simple questions, smart research and a little stretching. Just a few resolutions to consider in 2010.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Pre-need. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.