• ABOUT ESTATE PLANNING:  Most millennials and many other adults wrongly ignore the importance of planning in event of life changes (like marriage, divorce, births, deaths, financial changes) which impact their assets and priorities upon personal incapacity or death.  Beyond saving potential taxes, protection from creditors and legal challenges, important factors can include: (1) Care of minor children; (2) Behavior criteria for adult children; (3) Distribution of personal property (jewelry, artwork, collectibles, vehicles, etc.); (4) Transition of digital assets & accounts or social media; (5) Support for religious or charitable organizations; (6) Avoiding potential lengthy and costly legal Probate proceedings; (7) Best ensuring financial stability and execution of intentions; (8) Best avoiding beneficiaries estrangement – since a very critical factor is selection of the Trustee to oversee and administer the Plan. Trustee alternatives typically  involve banks/ attorneys/ business partners/ family friends/ eldest child. However, there are very often expectations of beneficiaries (especially kids from more than one marriage) which regrettably result in disputes and claims against the Estate and Trustee, particularly when related to disposition of Life Insurance Trust proceeds. DCG have decades of expertise in helping individuals and families protect their goals & objectives with guidance in strategic estate planning. Call Dennis, who also serves many as Trustee or Co-Trustee, for courtesy consult in best avoiding that circumstance. 
  • A.I. TECHNOLOGY IS CERTAIN TO HAVE A SEISMIC IMPACT on the world economy, culture and jobs. The Gig economy already includes four-in-ten U.S. workers and, according to a Harvard Business study, will dominate 50% of the global workforce by 2027. Generative A.I. is replacing roles traditionally held by white-collar professionals, particularly in analysis, auditing, reporting, and recruiting technologies – currently screening 70% of all U.S. job applicants, and Google having cut 10% of its white-collar management teams for greater productivity and efficiency. “Along with tariffs/ outsourcing/ stock market volatility/ high interest rates/ federal lawsuits targeting tech & financial companies, the American white-collar jobs market isn’t just shifting, it’s suddenly and radically changing to what may become a White-Collar Recession.”  [CHARLATAN MAGAZINE]
  •  SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS DELUSIONAL THINKING IN PEOPLE AT HIGHER RISK OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. “Especially with people who already exhibit delusional tendencies toward their self-image, the technological innovations in social media like eye-contact features/ 3D perspectives/ avatars can enhance the realism of online interactions and intensify their disorders by disrupting ability to perceive reality accurately. Those online who effectively live in a vacuum isolated from real-life social interactions can experience impact which promotes development of psychiatric disorders including paranoia, narcissism, body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia and psychosis.” Newest research found ‘feedback loops’ which worsen delusional thoughts and even, for some users, “erotomania – feeling convinced that a person of higher status, such as a celebrity, has romantic feelings for them after interacting online.”   [EPOCH TIMES HEALTH]
  • “AMERICA IS PASSING THROUGH AN EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT IN HISTORY that has great similarity to conditions 80 years ago, when coming off the Great Depression and WWII – with political passions extremely high, the country polarized around seriously differing perspectives of the future, and dramatically different technological and economic forces. Starting 1945, fundamental restructure was implemented to avoid mistakes of the old system which had led to huge wealth inequalities, the financial crash, a Recession, and which successfully allowed a post-war boom including buildout of a new public infrastructure in the form of an interstate highway system, suburbs outside central cities, and expansion of schools & universities to accommodate the Baby Boom. Today, America could be at another historic juncture with A.I. signaling the beginning of an age of intelligent machines, and technologies allowing the ability to bioengineer all living things. The country has actually gone through three historic junctures like what we’re witnessing today, with each happening on an uncanny 80-year cycle.” A fascinating analysis: https://bigthink.com/the-past/america-is-going-through-its-every-80-year-reinvention/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4bd845d78644b3a9cb35b

 

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

  • Latest DOGE findings include federal funding through Nat’l Institutes of Health related to the approximate one million (3.3%) of U.S. high school students who identify as transgender, along with an indeterminate number of foreign individuals, in amount of: $1.3M for a Trans-Health Guide to Drive Equity; $700K for Black & Latino Bisexuals at Risk of Substance Abuse; a $620K Pregnancy Program for Transgender Boys; $574K to study HIV in Transgenders; $182K for Adolescent Depression in Mozambique; $158K to investigate Effects of Climate on Violence in Kenya; and $101K to study Sexual Health among Latinx LGBTQ+ in an agricultural community.  [NEW YORK POST]
  • Two bills that aimed to preserve female spaces in schools and ban males from competing in girls’ and women’s sports were voted down by California’s Democrat-controlled legislature this week. The bills failed to proceed out of committee by a 2-7 party-line vote, with Assembly Democrats committed to allowing biological boys into girls’ sports competition   and locker rooms rather than protecting females from risk of physical danger and shame of moral principles.
  •  “Every life is a journey from innocence to wisdom, as innocence is chipped away (often gently but sometimes brutally), by what happens to us transformed to experience, and we begin to understand who we are, how the world is, and what matters most to us…  Every moment of our lives is a work in progress, right to our final breath. The only moment that we can ever have choice about is this one. Even then, we cannot choose our circumstances, only how we respond: by rejoicing in the good things, being intrigued by the unexpected, and then can inhabit our own emotions – from joy to fear to sorrow – as part of our experience of being fully alive.”   [THE GUARDIAN]