Blog

At Plancorp, we don’t wait for you to ask the right questions.
We take the initiative to offer insights and guidance — real enlightenment for real life.

Investing for Inflation

After years of inflation readings well below 2%, financial markets expect to see higher inflation in 2021. Read more…

What to Look for in a Financial Advisor

The potential value of a relationship starts with the person who will be guiding your financial decisions. You’re looking for someone with deep knowledge and experience to back up their advice, and you want to gauge whether that advisor is a good fit for your family’s needs. Above all, you want Read more…

My 401(k) Failed the Top-Heavy Test. Now What?

What is the top-heavy test? 401(k) plans must be tested annually to determine if they are top-heavy. The top-heavy test compares the account balances of “key employees” to those of “non-key employees.” If the sum of all key employee balances exceeds 60% of the total plan balance the plan is Read more…

The 8 Essential Elements for a Complete Financial Plan

Perhaps you’ve been told that you need a financial plan or you think you already have one. Either way, here are the essential sections a complete financial plan should cover. Many clients initially seek financial advice because they want help making smart investment decisions. But investments are Read more…

Important Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor

A productive working relationship with an advisor begins with trust and transparency. Even before you dive into the details of the advisor’s services, you want to understand key issues that reflect how they define and uphold their commitment to clients. This is true for any advisor, and is Read more…

Should You Refinance Your Mortgage Because Rates Are Low?

With mortgage rates near historic lows, it seems like all anyone who owns a home talks about right now is refinancing. If you own, too, you might wonder: Is now the time to refinance your mortgage? Read more…

If You Were to Fall Ill, Would Your Business Be Set Up for a Successful Transfer?

The business community has certainly felt the impact of the pandemic — so much so that the number of active business owners fell by 3.3 million between February and April 2020. That’s a 22% decline, the largest on record. Small businesses were hit the hardest, but nearly half have said they’re now Read more…

Self-Employed? Here’s What You Need To Know About Retirement Planning

In 2019, more than 16 million American workers were self-employed. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced even more Americans to become their own bosses. Read more…

How Hindsight Bias Can Impact Your Investment Decisions

“I said it would happen.” “It had to happen.” “I knew it would happen.” You’ve probably made statements like these at one point or another. That’s because once an event occurs, our brains immediately connect the new information from what happened to related knowledge stored in our memory. By making Read more…

Make the Most of Your New Hourly Role

The cruel irony of economic downturns is their tendency to disproportionately impact the populations least equipped to withstand them. The downturn caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is no different. Read more…