- And good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial adviser, back with you this evening.

Hopefully, you are a loyal viewer.

Hopefully you follow us week by week.

And if you miss a week, don't worry, you can always catch that on our website, MoreThanMoneyOnline.com, and of course, through the PBS website as well.

So all of our shows are always accessible to you.

For the loyal viewers out there, for folks just joining us, you're saying, hey, I heard there was some good stuff.

You're absolutely right.

You heard correctly.

Your friends and family have directed you to the freshest financial show on television, and you'll find out why here in a moment.

Bottom line is, for all of you, we welcome you.

We are here to serve.

The next half hour goes very, very quickly.

Any entertaining value you may sense in the show, I assure you, is purely accidental.

Bottom line for us is whatever questions you have in your financial life, we wish to answer for you.

Gene@askMTM.com is the ticket to use.

E-mail address extraordinaire.

Gene@askMTM.com.

We accept questions about retirement and investments, about Social Security and long-term care, reverse mortgages, RMDs, IRAs, 401Ks.

The list goes on and on.

Whether you're just starting out in your planning for your family or your first home, or whether you're planning for your golden years and wish to make sure that that has a lot of peace of mind embedded throughout those decades of retirement, you've reached exactly the right spot on your television dial.

Do they have dials any more?

I suppose not.

Right spot tonight on the TV line-up.

So we answer every single e-mail question back to you.

Every single one.

We have a tremendous team, tremendous staff, always there to help.

Not every single one gets it to... gets on air.

We simply don't have enough time.

And sometimes, talk about freshest show on television, we're not here telling you what we want you to talk about or think about.

We're here to answer the questions that you're already thinking about.

And as literally I walked in today to this event, we received a question, I think a really important one, one that will apply to a lot of you out there.

The economy being what it is has spawned a tremendous resurgence in self employed individuals.

Some call them entrepreneurs.

And perhaps if you're starting a small business and intend it to grow, I think that's a pretty good term, entrepreneur.

For others, it's I'm self-employed, I work on my own.

Whether that's full time or as a side hustle, as a side gig, as something, a supplement to your income, there are a lot of questions for folks who are relatively new to being self employed and how that impacts them, particularly with income taxes.

So one of the questions that we got literally moments ago was, if you are self employed, is there a way to move some of your income into a 529 plan, an educational funding plan, and not pay income taxes?

Fascinating question.

The answer is...kind of.

It won't be as good as you're hoping, but it won't be as bad as, no, you can't.

If you are a resident of the state of Pennsylvania, and there are lots of other states that do this as well, and lots that do not, if you make contributions to your 529 plan, and it can be for a child, it can be for a grandchild, it can be for yourself, that income, that contribution is income tax deductible on your Pennsylvania State return.

It is never deductible on your federal return.

It would be great if it were.

Now tongue-in-cheek, I might suggest you take out a loan for the amount that you're going to put in the 529 and then just have it forgiven.

But that's tongue-in-cheek.

We're talking about funding your college experience, educational experience.

529 Plans can be used for everything from preschool to post-graduate, so the opportunities to get tax advantaged funding for education are very, very real using a 529 plan, but the tax deductions are quite limited.

You will save that 3.5% or so in Pennsylvania, but you will pay tax on your federal.

If you're looking for the maximum tax advantage, look at either an IRA, depending on the income that you're generating, or an individual 401(k).

But those are topics that were not part of the original question.

So if you want to expand the question, send me that e-mail - Gene@askMTM.com.

We have a fistful of e-mails for you this evening and as always, we turn to our financial correspondent for our very first question, and that would be Megan.

Megan, where do we start?

- Hi, Gene.

Our first question is also about taxes.

It says, in Pennsylvania, are you exempt from property taxes at your residence if you bury remains on the property?

- Right.

Um...

I don't know.

And it kind of concerns me that you're asking the question.

Are we talking about...remains?

I've been in my home well over 30 years and we've had lots of pets and they all stay with us even after they have departed.

So I have remains.

Are we talking human remains?

Are we talking legally interred and interned buried remains?

Or are we talking about...?

I don't know.

I simply don't know.

I think that's a fascinating question for about 100 reasons.

And if anyone out there watching has an answer to that very specific legal question, please send me that in an e-mail - Gene@askMTM.com.

If you think I'm mildly amused by the question, I am, but I'm also morbidly curious.

We'd love to know the answer.

I wasn't even clear that it was legal to bury a loved one on your own property.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

This house has four bedrooms, two and a half baths and two graves.

For some folks, I think that would be pretty attractive.

For most folks, I'm not so sure.

Let me know.

Megan.

Not...not the most traditional start to our show, but maybe we'll dig in and get a little more middle of the road with our next question.

- Yes, definitely switching gears here.

This is a longer question.

There's quite a story here.

It says, recently, both my parents passed away.

The most recent leaves pretty much everything to me.

Both of my half sisters have passed away as well, but my parents wanted something to be left for their grandchildren.

As with most families, there's a lot of history that led to the most recent version of the will.

When my sisters were alive, the estate was split 50% for me and 25% for each sister.

Over the years, both my sisters borrowed 20,000 to 30,000 from my parents time and again.

We didn't talk about money too often, but during the few times we did, when I had money troubles, I refuse to take my parents' money.

I lost about $60,000 selling my old house with all the required repairs.

It took me a few years to dig out of that hole, but I took that gamble on the old house and there was no reason to put that on my parents.

Where this story gets more complex is the inheritance itself.

My mother passed away quickly after she learned that she had stage four lung cancer.

She was the one who did all the books, and we never got a chance to talk about her retirement savings.

So when I tried to help my father out, I was truly surprised to find around $130,000 in their bank account.

I was so happy for Dad.

Just a few years ago they had less than 20,000 saved for retirement.

Sadly, my father passed away about four weeks later.

I'm just starting to account for their estates, but looking at the detailed books Mom had in 2014 before their house burned down, there was about $40,000 saved.

Mom had worked hard in the last few years at building up their savings, so the actual amount is closer to 400,000 now.

If you account for the house, cars and furniture, it is probably closer to $800,000.

There are six grandchildren to share a portion of my parent's inheritance.

My heart is heavy about what to do and what is fair.

The grandchildren did not return my parents' calls, nor did they come visit.

Christmas presents from the previous year were left unclaimed under the Christmas tree.

And during those four weeks after my mom died, they did not come visit my dad or call him.

They wrote the will so that I don't have to disclose the final amount after all their debts are settled, so this leaves me conflicted.

I truly wish they had written an amount into the will.

Before I learned of the grandchildren not contacting Dad nor returning my mother's phone calls for over a year, this all seemed easier.

This was also much easier prior to learning that the final inheritance is close to 800,000.

Do you have some advice that may help me with all of this?

Thank you.

- First of all, our prayers go out to you, your entire family.

I wish I could say this is unusual, that we've never bumped into situations like this before, but that's silliness.

Human beings are very complex.

Family dynamics... You put two people into a situation, the dynamics are exponentially more complicated.

You put three, four or five, a dozen, it's...

There are no combinations, no results of those combinations that would surprise me at this stage, after 780 years being a financial advisor.

The answers that you're looking for will not come easily.

But I think I can give you some guidelines that might be acceptable.

You're the ultimate decider of what is acceptable or not.

You have received the entire estate.

You have the control of over 800,000.

Your sisters are gone.

There's nothing that mentions a specific dollar amount for the grandchildren, just that they wished, your mom and dad wished them to be remembered.

Well, In every situation the value of remembered is very, very different.

If they are of a mind that Grandma and Grandpa were not that important to us, they might have had a house, they might have had a couple of bucks, who cares, then a $10,000 gift...

It's coming from you, it's not coming from your mom and dad.

You've already received this money.

So a 10,000 gift to each of those six grandchildren would, in most families, particularly under the circumstances you describe, where they were not close to your mom and dad, would be considered to be an extremely pleasant surprise.

And it might be, as I'm reading between the lines of your question, it might be worth it to you on two levels.

Number one, the "I feel better about honoring my mom and dad."

And number two, feel better about maybe surprising these young people who were not deserving, and putting both of those things to rest.

And the fact that you don't have to reveal the dollars involved, that it was 800 - 10,000 versus 800 sounds pretty small.

10,000 versus 100,000 is a lot.

60,000 in total.

So that that's kind of where I would lean if I were in your circumstance.

It doesn't sound like you're carrying a lot of anger, just disappointment.

Anger is one thing.

Disrespect or abuse in some way, shape or form, your sisters were abusive of your mom and dad's relationship, of continuously borrowing money and not paying it back.

I don't know that we'll ever know exactly what those dollar amounts were.

If they had never done that, at least the guideline would be 400,000 to you and 200,000 to each of them, and that would drop to their children.

I don't see a reason to do that in any way, shape or form, but that's the upper limit.

The bottom limit is zero.

Just to write them off and say if at some point in the future they mature, they wish to establish a more mature relationship, and they come to you and you happen to have a block of this 800 still available, maybe you then choose to help them in the future, depending on their contrition, depending on their attitude towards the entire process.

Considering how their parents, your sisters, handled their financial relationship with their parents, your parents, it would not surprise me that they show up knocking and expecting.

I would be tempted to at least give it some time.

Give it some time for you to settle down.

You lost both parents within a very short period of time, four weeks.

It's very, very difficult.

You've been given a lot of pressure and responsibility.

I would certainly put it to rest.

I would make a decision, jot it down, put it in a drawer, and then revisit that in a month or two or three, and then kind of let that play out to see how this all unfolds before making your final decision.

I realize these are not... typical financial issues, they're more emotional and family dynamic issues.

But...780 years.

I've seen a lot.

Megs, what have I seen that might help our next e-mailer?

- Our next e-mail is another executor estate question.

It says, I have named executor of my mom's estate and met with her attorney to get briefed on what I need to do.

The attorney seems very nice, but I left and realized we never talked about what he will charge for his services.

I'm wondering what is the typical fee for the attorney settling an estate?

- Well, interestingly enough, it's my understanding...

I'm not an attorney.

And we'll put all those jokes aside.

I'm not an attorney.

I've worked with many, many attorneys over many, many years.

And I have seen all manner of fees, fee calculations, fee justifications, fee not so justified.

Fees not so justified.

So it is very much, in my opinion, it is very much both dependent on the complexity of the estate, how much work needs to be done, and the attitude, the business model of the attorney.

The attorney may very well be... ..kind of old school.

They do it as a percentage of the estate, a small percentage for non probate assets, a larger percentage for probate assets.

That's not... ..not typical.

It's a fairly typical arrangement.

And for those attorneys, they feel comfortable because it's an amount that is identifiable right up front.

And whether there's more questions or more calls or more concerns, it doesn't affect the fee.

Other attorneys believe quite the opposite, that they should charge per hour, and particularly with simple estates, it's going to take just a short period of time.

Charging per hour could end up being a very, very efficient way, very cost efficient way.

You will, of course, have to put up with the potential annoyance of getting an invoice about every month or so, every 30 days of, hey, you had a phone call for 3 minutes and they billed you, hey, you sent them a note.

Just sign here, send it back.

They billed you.

And some folks find that more annoying than the value of the cost savings.

So my number one piece of advice, get clear.

Follow back up, find out what the fee is going to be and whether in your mind it seems to be appropriate.

We've had scenarios where it was not.

We've seen situations, one a number of years ago, with a large dollar amount estate, but very, very simple, where the attorney had quoted a 60,000 fee.

And when it was all said and done, the legal fee for that estate was $3,800.

So these are negotiable.

You might want a cost comparison.

You might want to do some comparison shopping.

Not all attorneys do these things in exactly the same way.

Just make sure you're comfortable with how you're being billed.

Excellent.

Very, very good.

We seem to have a theme here, but let's see if the theme continues.

Megs, what's next?

- Our next e-mail says, my fiance and I plan to get married next year.

I have been working and saving for 22 plus years.

I own a small house.

I've reached 25% equity and I have $240,000 in retirement savings, some liquid savings and a full time job with benefits.

He is self employed, makes as much as me, but has higher costs and does not have as much saved.

We're thinking about keeping finances separate, but opening a joint account for mutual costs like bills, vacations, mortgage, etc.

We're wondering if this sounds like a good plan and should I consider doing anything else?

Many thanks.

We both love your show.

- Well, that's very kind of you.

I would suggest a very good first step would be to sit with a trusted, experienced financial advisor.

I think that's a very good first step.

It may end up being actually the last step, but it's a very good first step because having a third party... ..gauging the financial attitudes of each of you, I think could be very, very helpful.

And here's why.

On the surface, the question almost suggests that you're very disciplined, you're very financially responsible and he may not be, but your phrasing is pretty soft and not accusatory at all.

So I'm very interested, I would be very interested, if I were doing the interview, to gage his...whether it's an attitude of money doesn't mean that much to me, or is it an attitude of I don't know enough about how to properly handle my money to do it well, I would if I knew more, I just don't know enough, or hey, I like exactly what she's been doing, I want to do exactly the same thing.

And at this moment, we don't know.

We don't know.

You have worked very hard.

Congratulate yourself.

You should be very, very proud.

You've accomplished as a single woman a tremendous amount, a financial life that's very, very admirable.

That's a wonderful result that we can't jeopardize.

So if his financial attitudes are very different, then keeping your finances separate might very well be a very wise thing to do.

Might be.

But the reality is that we simply don't know until we know what his attitudes are.

We don't know until we know what the opportunities are for combining or keeping separate, the pros and the cons.

So a trusted experienced financial advisor, good first step.

Will you also need as you progress a trusted experienced estate planning attorney?

Obviously.

You're combining households.

You have families of some form.

You may have different beneficiaries.

You've got to get that package done correctly - not just the will, but a medical directive, powers of attorney - all of the good stuff so that you're well protected, each of you is well protected from an estate planning standpoint, and making sure that should one of you predecease the other, that what happens is what you want to have happen.

You may also very well wish to have a trusted, experienced tax professional as well, whether it's a CPA, an EA, someone who has that experience, that registered with the IRS kind of... ..position, so that you understand the pros and cons of keeping your income tax returns separate or not.

The fact that you're getting married next year is excellent.

Not because next year is better to be married than this year, but because you've got time.

You've got time to explore all these things.

And in that exploration, I think you're going to learn more and more about your fiance, about his attitudes.

And hopefully we bring you closer and closer together, because in the ultimate, if you can have the same approach, the same philosophy, and combine your finances, as long as it's to everyone's benefit, that's a great way to go.

Wonderful question, and good luck.

Our blessings go out to you.

Meg, an excellent question.

Let's have another uplifting question.

- OK.

This one says, I have a fidelity investment and I need to have a professional look at it and give me peace of mind that it is sound or if I need to move it a bit to hold its value.

I'm 59 years old and I can't afford to lose any of it at this point in my life.

I'm self employed with about $150,000 in investments.

I need an investment adviser.

- It's a wonderfully appropriate... what, inclination, intent to get a second opinion.

Second opinions, I understand why some doctors might get their feathers ruffled when you say, well, I appreciate that you say this, but I'd like to get a second opinion.

They might get themselves, their knickers in a twist.

But as a financial adviser, we counsel a lot of folks on a very regular basis that are coming in for exactly that experience.

"Please look at what I have.

"Here's my objective.

"Does what I have meet my objective?

"Is it appropriate for me?

Is the right thing for me?

"Is it the best thing for me?"

In some cases it's fine, but could it be much better?

In other cases, it's dreadful and it's got to be fixed immediately.

And in some rare cases it's quite a wonderful result to have a second opinion meeting where the answer is, it's perfect.

It's exactly what it should be.

You've been working with somebody you like, stay with them and go forth with our blessings.

That's a wonderful result as well.

So whatever the result of a second opinion meeting, it is useful.

It's valuable.

Most quality financial advisors will provide second opinion meetings at no charge.

That initial consultation, that exploratory consultation, is typically done without charge.

If you bump into an advisor perhaps you've been referred to or perhaps you've found through your research that does indicate that a second opinion meeting is something they would charge for, if it's a modest charge, I might consider it.

If it's anything other than modest, I would simply say no.

And the reason I would simply say no is that there are so many quality financial advisers all across the country who will provide you with that feedback at no charge.

I don't know why you would spend money up front, and I understand the business model that says I want to charge you, but I also understand that from the standpoint of most financial advisers, it's an opportunity to see if they can be of value, see if that connection with you would be a profitable one for you and for them.

And for them.

Our More Than Money advisors use a pretty simple litmus test.

When they meet with a prospective client, the question is, do we see ourselves successfully working together for at least 20 years?

That's a long-term relationship and that's our objective.

Most quality financial advisors, whether they express it exactly that way or not, are in this process for exactly the same reason - to get a quality relationship for the long term that benefits both the client and the company.

So that's what you're looking for.

Peace of mind, of course.

You make it sound like, gosh, I'm getting up there in years and I've got to be super safe.

That may be true.

That may absolutely be true.

But keep in mind that if you do it right, you might be retired for longer than you've been working.

You might retire at 60 and be retired for 40 or 50 years.

God's blessing.

That's fantastic.

So it isn't something that's going to happen tomorrow and then end the day after.

It's a long-term project and make sure you're working with someone that you trust.

Folks.

Great questions.

Fantastic questions.

That's why it's the best show.

Not because of me.

My 780 years of experience help, of course, but it's your questions, and you set the agenda so beautifully.

If you have questions that you would like to see explored on a future show, Gene@askMTM.com works very, very well.

We can't answer every question on air, but we do answer every single question back to you.

All the questions, even the silly ones.

So my thanks to you for spending part of your evening with us.

My hope for you is that you learn something that will be of value to you in the future.

And the future includes returning to us next week as we return to you on More Than Money.

Goodnight.