The Difference between a Will and a Trust

Signing an agreement
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Having overseen insurance and annuity agents in Tennessee and Florida, Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana now serves as a 403(b)/457 agent and financial consultant at Appreciation Financial in Tennessee. Historically, he has presented workshops on retirement planning for federal employees and nurses. Moreover, Chester Pacana has extensive experience advising high-net-worth clients on conservative wealth management strategies.

One of the most important estate planning steps you can take is writing a will, which allows you to determine important details, such as how your property and assets will be divided and distributed, who will serve as the will’s executor, and who will serve as guardians of any minor children. If you neglect to make a will, these decisions will fall to the court system, and your assets will be tied up in a lengthy probate process.

Everyone should have a will, but not everyone needs a trust. While trusts are similar to wills in allowing you to dictate the division of assets, they also allow you to avoid probate and outline your vision for long-term asset and property management. While trusts can be useful for high-net-worth individuals to manage and distribute assets, the tax laws and requirements surrounding trusts are complex and usually require the guidance of a wealth management planner.

Trains Through Appalachia Take Travelers Back in Time

As vice president of sales and recruitment and a conservative wealth management planner with the insurance product and wealth planning firm DeRosa and Associates in Jamestown, Tennessee, Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana offers conservative wealth management options to clients in Florida and Tennessee. Chester Pacana is also an enthusiastic participant in the sport of rucking and loves to travel. In his home state of Tennessee, one of the most enjoyable ways to experience the natural beauty and rich history of the nearby Appalachian region is by train.

Tennessee’s railroad system dates back to the 1840s. Today, these same railroads continue to offer travelers stunning scenery marked by vivid contrasts: the sweep of farms, grazing lands, and green hillsides alternates with the rush of rivers and a series of soaring mountain passes.

Most of the commercial railroads that offer tourist travel in the Appalachians today focus on historic small towns and mining camps in the mountains and on providing a look at spectacular expanses of greenery like the Daniel Boone National Forest. Some tours even use old-style steam locomotives, but travelers should check carefully in advance, since many others have transitioned to diesel.

Urban “Rucking” Takes Fitness to a New Level

Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana currently serves as the vice president of sales and recruitment at DeRosa and Associates in Jamestown, Tennessee. As a conservative wealth management planner, he focuses on helping clients safeguard their principal investments and secure their retirement. Away from the office, Chester Pacana enjoys traveling, hiking, and the lesser-known sport of rucking.

Rucking is an activity that involves purposeful walking with a rucksack or backpack strapped to one’s back. While rucking through mountain terrain is just hiking, rucking in cities simply goes by the name of “rucking.”

As a sport that improves cardiovascular fitness, it does demand a degree of energy, endurance, and commitment. It can burn as much as three times the calories that walking does. But because the weight of the backpack can vary, rucking is accessible for people of all ages and degrees of fitness and strength.

By increasing the weight of the backpack, a person can experience increased resistance in the shoulders and back, promoting an increase in strength without the addition of unneeded physical bulk. Increasing the pace of movement speeds up these gains even more. People experienced in the art of rucking point out that walking with a weighted pack is actually a core exercise for United States’ military special forces team members.

Popular Hikes in Tennessee

Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana, a conservative wealth management planner primarily focused on securing retirement and protecting principal for both government employees and private clients, serves as the vice president of sales and recruitment at DeRosa and Associates in Tennessee. Outside of work, Chester Pacana enjoys hiking.

Home to everything from short, easy hikes to multi-day backpacking trails, Tennessee offers plenty of activities to outdoor enthusiasts. Below are several of the state’s most popular hikes:

Chickasaw Park Loops
A round-trip trail, Chickasaw Park Loops is a 3.3-mile-long trail. It’s located in the middle of the Chickasaw State Forest in Henderson, Tennessee, east of Memphis, and is great for hikers seeking an easy-to-intermediate experience. Within the park, hikers can also enjoy other activities, including boating, horseback riding, and park events.

Starr Mountain
Hikers typically spend about one to two hours completing the 2.1-mile trek to the top of Starr Mountain, located between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Along the difficult trail, there are no switchbacks to provide hikers with a place to rest, but the views are often worth the effort. At the top, hikers are rewarded with fantastic views of the Ocoee State Park, Hiwassee River, and nearby mountains.

Alum Cave Bluffs
This 4.6-mile hike in the Great Smoky Mountains is best for experienced hikers. It takes roughly three hours to finish and guides hikers through an arch rock and several areas of elevation. Those who want a longer trek are free to continue on the trail to the state’s highest peak, Mt. Leconte, but reaching the mountain is another 2.8 miles.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retiring

A conservative wealth management planner and the vice president of sales at DeRosa and Associates, Chester Pacana has been helping civilian and federal employees protect principal and secure retirement for more than 10 years. In addition to this role, Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana serves as a nursing retirement specialist for Retirement4Nurses and a retirement planner for Gov-Benefits.

Many people think they will retire sometime in their mid-60s. While this is typical, figuring out the best time to do so isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision. Below are several questions to ask yourself before retiring:

Do you want to stop working?
Despite how appealing the idea of not working may seem, it’s not uncommon to feel aimless once your work responsibilities are gone. To make sure you are ready to not work every day, take an honest look at the pros and cons of continuing employment once you retire.

What’s your ideal retirement?
Everyone’s image of retirement is different. For some, it’s volunteering or working part-time, while for others it’s being retired for 30 or more years. Regardless of your ideal lifestyle, knowing what your perfect vision is gives you a more accurate idea of how much you need to save to make dreams a reality.

Who is most important to you?
Friendships, particularly work-based ones, often fade once you retire because you either move, aren’t in the office as much, or are busy with other things. Consider whom you want to maintain a relationship with after you retire and create a plan for accomplishing this. Further, start strengthening the relationships you want to keep before you fully retire.

What’s your backup plan?
During your retirement, you will likely encounter some road bumps. These include getting sick or becoming disabled. As you plan for retirement, set up a safety net for handling these issues so you aren’t caught completely off-guard.

Did I Save Enough for Retirement?

Tennessee-based finance professional Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana serves as a managing agent and conservative wealth management planner at DeRosa & Associates Inc. As such, Chester Pacana manages annuity and insurance agents in Tennessee and Florida and maintains a strong working knowledge of varying retirement strategies and savings plans.

Figuring out what you need for retirement is complicated and involves the honest evaluation of your total income and monthly expenses.

To start, add up the total amount of money you bring in each month. This income may be in the form of your after-tax pay from work, investment income, and other income sources. However, you must remember that certain income sources are removed once you retire. Work income, for example, will stop after retirement, but Social Security income will begin.

You must also add up the total amount of money you spend on bills and other debts every month. Don’t forget to include monthly estimates for food and entertainment, among other things.

Once you have an idea of how much you need each month, take into consideration your retirement goals and normal increases in salary and inflation. On average, you can expect that your salary will rise by about 2 percent annually. The inflation that will affect your expenses, by contrast, will increase by about 3 percent annually. Considering such increases will give you a better idea of how much you’ll need when you actually retire.

Further, you must consider changes in your lifestyle once you retire. For instance, if you plan on traveling for several weeks or months at a time, your expenses in retirement may be higher than at present.

Studies Show Reading Increases Empathy

As a conservative wealth management planner with DeRosa & Associates in Jamestown, Tennessee, Chester “C. Edziu” Pacana works with high-net-worth individuals, medical professionals, federal employees, and other clients to develop long-term financial strategies. Outside of his professional life, Chester Pacana pursues a diverse range of hobbies that includes hiking, traveling, and reading.

Reading has numerous benefits in addition to simply being an entertaining and informative way to spend leisure time. Besides improving brain function and decision-making, research suggests that reading a specific type of fiction can actually increase the capacity for empathy.

In 2013, researchers at The New School conducted a series of tests that measured subjects’ abilities to interpret the emotions and thought of other people, one of the hallmarks of empathy. After dividing the test subjects into several groups, the researchers assigned each group a different kind of literature to read, including nonfiction, genre fiction, and literary fiction. After the subjects read the assigned literature, each took a test that measures empathy.

The study results indicated that readers of nonfiction and genre fiction, such as books by Danielle Steel or James Patterson, scored much less impressively on the empathy test than those who read literary fiction, which is often defined as fiction that mimics reality and explores character psychology and emotion more than plot. Experts who have examined the test results suggest that readers of literary fiction develop emotional and psychological intelligence through their mental interactions with the characters on the page, and that this can be applied in the real world.