5 Financial Tips for New Parents

Major life events are often the impetus to begin comprehensive financial planning—and few events are bigger than welcoming a new child. Most people have not accounted for children in their financial plan before they have their first, so the happy event is also the perfect time to reassess your plan (or create a new one). Here are five action items to consider whether you are expecting, have just brought your newborn home or are playing catch-up:

1. Get your child a Social Security number. You’ll need this to add your child to your health insurance, claim them as a dependent on your taxes or to establish a college savings account in their name. Your hospital should provide you with the necessary paperwork for a newborn. For adoptees, your adoption agency should be able to help.
2. Add your baby to your health insurance. In all the excitement and stress that comes with growing your family, you won’t want to forget this one. Once your baby is born, you have a 30-day window to add the little one to your health insurance coverage. Notify your employer’s HR department or your insurer as soon as possible.
3. Review your other insurance coverage. Even if you already have life and disability insurance, you may need to update those policies. Disability insurance can help replace at least a portion of your salary if you are unable to work, and life insurance can provide for your loved ones’ futures if the unthinkable happens.
4. Begin budgeting (if you haven’t already). Baby budgeting means more than just adding diapers to the grocery list. Insurance, clothing, child care and education are among the other expenses that factor in. Consider saving for your child’s future education with a tax-free 529 plan. Finally, be sure you continue making regular contributions to your retirement and investment accounts. Here’s our Budget Worksheet to get you started.
5. Update your estate plan. As noted above, most new parents don’t have an estate plan that incorporates children before their firstborn arrives. Because you’ll want your child to be well cared for if something unexpected were to happen to you, you’ll need to update your will to reflect your wishes, designate a guardian and leave clear instructions for your child’s inheritance. After your baby is born, you’ll also want to consider updating your beneficiary designations to include your child on your various financial accounts.

This list is by no means exhaustive; for more, please read our Financial Checklist for New Parents. Of course, if you have any questions about your specific situation, please contact your portfolio team. We are happy to help.

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Adviser is a full-service wealth management firm, offering investment management, financial and tax planning, managed individual bond portfolios, and 401(k) advisory services. We’ve been helping individuals, trustsA legal document that functions as an instruction manual to how you want your money managed and spent in your later years as well as how your assets should be distributed after your death. Assets placed in a trust are generally safe from creditors and can be sold by the trustee in short order, avoiding the lengthy and costly probate process., institutions and foundations since 1994. Adviser Investments and its subsidiaries have over 5,000 clients across the country and over $8 billion in assets under management. Our portfolios encompass actively managed funds, ETFsA type of security which allows investors to indirectly invest in an underlying basket of financial instruments (these may include stocks, bonds, commodities or other types of instruments). Shares in an ETF are publicly traded on an exchange, and the price of an ETF’s shares will fluctuate throughout the trading day (traditional mutual funds trade only once a day). For example, one popular ETF tracks the companies in the S&P 500, so buying a share of the ETF gets an investor exposure to all 500 companies in the index., socially responsible investments and tactical asset allocation strategies, and we’re experts on Fidelity and Vanguard mutual funds. We take pride in being The Adviser You Can Talk To. To see a full list of our awards and recognitions, click here, and for more information, please visit www.adviserinvestments.com or call 800-492-6868.