Meridian Resources

Planning for a secure retirement involves more than saving and investing. The documents, coverage decisions, and policy details that determine whether assets actually reach the right people often go unreviewed for years, and the gaps tend to surface only after something goes wrong. Protecting your assets requires looking at the full picture: the legal structures that govern what happens to your estate, the health coverage decisions that bridge the gap between employment and Medicare, and the personal insurance limits that may not reflect your current net worth.

Meridian hosts a semi-annual webinar on these topics for exactly that reason. In our most recent session, Meridian partners Nathan Gilbert and Sarah Irving brought together three specialists to walk through each area in depth.

The recording is now available on demand.

This post summarizes the most important insights from each panelist, including the specific action items every participant was asked to complete within the next 30 to 90 days.

Part One: Estate Planning — The Foundation of Any Protection Strategy

Panelist: Mark Hyson, Law Office of Mark Hyson

Estate planning attorney Mark Hyson opened with a clarification that shaped the rest of the discussion: estate planning is not a single event, and it is not only about what happens after you die. It covers two distinct periods, the planning you do while you are alive and the structures that govern how your assets transfer after your death.

The Documents You Need While You Are Living

During your lifetime, the two core estate planning documents are a general power of attorney and a medical power of attorney.

A general power of attorney designates someone to manage your financial assets and take legal action on your behalf if you become incapacitated. Without one, no one, including a spouse, automatically holds the legal authority to manage your accounts or sign documents on your behalf.

A medical power of attorney designates someone to make healthcare decisions for you if you are unable to make them yourself. If Mark had to identify a single starting point for a client with no estate planning in place, this would be it. “If I became incompetent for any reason, I’d want to make sure I was provided the care that I would want.”

Wills, Trusts, and the Step That Gets Skipped

For transferring assets, the two primary tools are a will and a living revocable trust. The right choice depends on your circumstances. For families with meaningful assets, a revocable trust offers a significant advantage: assets held in the trust can pass to heirs without going through probate, which is a court-supervised process that takes time and generates administrative costs.

The step that many clients skip is retitling assets into the trust after creating it. Mark described the failure to do this as buying a car and never putting gas in it. The document exists, but the assets were never moved into it, so the trust cannot function as intended.

For those without a trust, failing to update beneficiary designations on financial accounts, retirement plans, and insurance policies carries the same consequence. An outdated or missing beneficiary designation is a reliable path into probate court, with costs and delays that proper planning could have avoided.

When to Review Your Estate Plan

Mark recommends a review at any of the following events: a birth, a death, a marriage, or a divorce. A significant birthday also warrants a look, as does any situation where more than three to five years have passed without a review.

For people approaching retirement specifically, Mark notes that people typically revisit their estate plan around four points in life: when they first have children, when those children become young adults, when grandchildren arrive, and after the death of a spouse. The transition into retirement is one of the most consequential financial periods in a person’s life, and it is the right time to confirm that assets are titled correctly, beneficiaries are current, and the documents reflect the family and financial picture that actually exists today.

Part Two: Health Coverage — The Gap Between Your Job and Medicare

Panelist: Angela Windett, Steinlage Insurance Agency

Healthcare costs are consistently one of the largest unknowns in retirement planning. The coverage gap between leaving an employer plan and reaching Medicare eligibility at age 65 is both financially significant and easy to mismanage. Angela Windett of Steinlage Insurance Agency provides Medicare guidance to Meridian clients as a complimentary service, and she walked through the decisions people need to understand before making a move.

If you attended Meridian’s previous Medicare webinar, Angela is a familiar face. For additional context, our resource 5 Things to Know About Medicare to Avoid Retirement Mistakes is a good companion to this discussion.

Start Earlier Than You Think

Angela recommends beginning conversations about health coverage 12 to 18 months before any planned retirement or job transition. The options available change depending on age, employer size, and timing, and getting the sequence wrong can be costly. If you are under 65, coverage options include COBRA and the private health insurance market. If you are turning 65, Medicare eligibility triggers a separate set of decisions. For those working past 65, whether you can delay Medicare without penalty depends on the size of your employer, a detail that is easy to overlook and can carry significant financial consequences.

When COBRA Makes Sense and When It Does Not

COBRA allows you to continue your employer’s health plan after leaving a job, typically for up to 18 months. The trade-off is cost: you pay the full premium, including the portion your employer previously covered. Private market premiums have seen increases of approximately 25% in recent periods, which has made COBRA more competitive than it has historically appeared. The most important variable, however, is timing. If you are mid-year and have already been working toward your deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, switching to a new private plan resets that progress to zero. Staying on COBRA through the end of the year may be the more practical choice in that scenario.

A critical rule: If you are eligible for Medicare, COBRA cannot serve as your primary health insurance. Angela shared a situation where a client took COBRA without realizing they were Medicare-eligible, underwent a procedure, and received a bill for $125,000 because COBRA denied every claim based on the client’s age. This is not a technicality. It is one of the most costly mistakes in this area, and it is entirely avoidable with the right guidance in advance.

There is an important nuance for households where one spouse is Medicare-eligible and the other is not. COBRA can continue to cover non-eligible dependents and a non-eligible spouse as their primary insurance, while the Medicare-eligible person enrolls in Medicare. Understanding this distinction matters when navigating a job transition as a couple.

Medigap vs. Medicare Advantage: Knowing the Difference

This is one of the most common points of confusion for people entering Medicare, and the choice has meaningful long-term consequences.

A Medicare Supplement plan (also called Medigap) wraps around Original Medicare (Parts A and B) and covers most of the remaining out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. Coverage is nationwide, accepted by any provider who takes Medicare, and costs are more predictable. It is typically the higher-coverage option.

Medicare Advantage (Part C) replaces Original Medicare with a private plan that usually bundles medical and prescription drug coverage. It functions similarly to an employer health plan, with deductibles, copayments, and network requirements. For people comfortable with that structure and seeking a lower monthly premium, it can be a practical fit.

Angela’s process at Steinlage begins with a detailed intake form before any recommendation is made. Doctors, current medications, and health history all factor into which option is appropriate for a given person. The goal is to present both paths clearly so clients understand what they are choosing, rather than being guided toward a particular option.

Open Enrollment Dates to Keep on Your Calendar

Open enrollment periods are the windows during which you can change your coverage. Missing them means you may be locked into a plan for the next 12 months, even if your premiums increase, your doctor leaves your network, or your medication costs more under the current formulary.

• Under 65 (private market): November 1 through December 15
• Medicare: October 15 through December 7

Angela and her team are available to assist Meridian clients with these reviews at no cost, including helping clients determine whether their current plan still meets their needs or whether a change is warranted.

Part Three: Personal Insurance — Coverage Gaps That Go Unnoticed Until a Claim

Panelist: Tab Vollrath, Relation Insurance

Home and auto insurance are legal requirements for most households, but the liability limits on those policies rarely get reviewed against changes in assets, income, and real-world exposure. Tab Vollrath, a risk advisor at Relation Insurance who specializes in personal and property lines, walked through where the most significant gaps tend to appear.

Liability Coverage That Keeps Pace With Your Assets

A practical rule of thumb: personal liability coverage should be approximately equal to total personal assets. As net worth grows, coverage should grow with it. The primary tool for extending personal liability beyond standard policy limits is an umbrella policy, which sits above both homeowners and auto coverage and provides additional protection when a claim exceeds those underlying limits.

Umbrella policies are relatively affordable. The situations where they become relevant are more common than many people expect: teenage drivers, swimming pools, trampolines, boats, jet skis, second homes, and rental properties all represent meaningful exposure that a standard homeowners or auto policy may not adequately cover.

The Gap That Exists Inside the Umbrella

An umbrella policy requires minimum liability limits on the policies it sits over. If an umbrella requires $300,000 in homeowners liability but the underlying policy only carries $100,000, there is a gap. In a $1,000,000 claim, the homeowners policy pays $100,000, the policyholder owes the next $200,000 out of pocket, and the umbrella does not engage until after that. Tab recommends reviewing your homeowners liability limit first and, if it is below $300,000, asking your agent about increasing it. The cost of the adjustment is typically modest, and the umbrella can then sit on a solid foundation above it.

Auto Limits and the Uninsured Driver Problem in Virginia

Virginia’s minimum auto insurance requirement recently increased to $50,000 per person. Tab recommends carrying significantly more: 250/500 or higher, meaning $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence. Even $250,000 can be exhausted quickly in a serious accident involving emergency care, surgery, and lost wages. According to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, approximately one in ten drivers in Virginia does not carry auto insurance at all. Many others carry only minimum limits. If one of those drivers causes an accident that injures you or your passengers, a standard auto policy may leave you significantly undercompensated.

The solution is uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which can be added to an umbrella policy. Tab noted that the majority of umbrella policies he reviews do not include it, and it is not a standard offering from every carrier. Asking your agent specifically about this coverage is one of the most consequential questions you can ask during a policy review.

Second Homes, Trusts, LLCs, and Valuable Personal Property

Three specific situations warrant a closer look:

Second homes. Purchasing a property in another state and using a local agent for that policy can result in a second home not being listed on your umbrella. A standalone policy with no connection to your umbrella leaves a gap that only becomes apparent when a significant claim is filed.

Trusts and LLCs. Property held in a trust or an LLC should have that entity named as an additional insured on your homeowners policy. This step is especially relevant for clients who followed Mark Hyson’s estate planning guidance and have already moved assets into a trust.

Valuable items. Standard homeowners policies offer limited coverage for jewelry, art, instruments, and collectibles, with deductibles and exclusions that apply in many common loss scenarios. A scheduled personal property policy, sometimes called a valuable articles or inland marine policy, covers these items with no deductible and includes situations like mysterious disappearance that a standard policy excludes. Any item with a meaningful replacement value is worth scheduling separately.

For a broader look at financial tasks worth reviewing before a life transition, our post Your Financial Admin Night: 6 Tasks Worth Finally Getting Done covers several areas that tend to get pushed to the back burner.

Your 30-to-90-Day Action List

Each panelist was asked for one concrete action item every attendee should complete. The combined checklist is below.

Estate Planning (Mark Hyson)

• Pull out your estate planning documents and read them.
• Confirm that the people named as executor, trustee, healthcare agent, and guardian still reflect your current wishes.
• Verify that your assets are titled correctly, particularly if you have a living trust.
• Update beneficiary designations on all financial accounts, retirement accounts, and insurance policies.

Health Coverage (Angela Windett)

• Locate your health insurance summary of benefits and review what your deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, and provider network currently look like.
• Mark October 15 and November 1 on your calendar as the start of annual review periods.
• If you are within 18 months of a retirement or job transition, contact a health insurance specialist now, before you need to make a decision under deadline pressure.

Personal Insurance (Tab Vollrath)

• Locate your homeowners, auto, and umbrella policies and note the liability limits on each.
• Schedule a call with your insurance agent and, if your homeowners liability is below $300,000, ask about increasing it.
• Ask specifically whether your umbrella policy includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
• If you have a second home, confirm that its policy is listed on your umbrella.
• If property is held in a trust or LLC, confirm that entity is named as an additional insured on your homeowners policy.
• Ask your agent about cyber coverage, which is now available on some homeowners policies.

The full recording covers considerably more than this summary can capture, including the follow-up questions asked during the session.

Talk to the Meridian Team

Meridian Financial Partners is a fee-only, independent registered investment adviser based in Warrenton and Washington, Virginia, serving clients across the country. Meridian does not sell insurance products and receives no compensation from the panelists referenced in this webinar. The information presented is for educational purposes and does not constitute legal, tax, or insurance advice. Consult qualified professionals before making decisions about estate planning, health coverage, or insurance.