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SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)
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Vanguard Balanced ETF Portfolio (VBAL)
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iShares Core Balanced ETF Portfolio (XBAL)
I sent in a question but it must have gotten lost over te weekend. A member recently said that if he should become incapacitated he left instructions for his wife to sell all stocks and buy vbal, as she was not interested in stocks and this would be a solution.
There are probably many of us in this situation. But,i wonder if one would not be better to sell gradually while alive and capable. After all, you will bot get the big tax hit. Also, in case of the death of one partner, it maybe better to start selling earl, even though it involves capital gains. Because the tax on the one remaining spouse , without the benefit of income splitting will be very high.
One problem i have with this plan is that i have a lot in US dollars. And i want to keep them. One solution i thought woul be to put much more in berkshire. But I don’t know of any US etf that works like vbal. Would you have suggestions on this?
Thanks
Our queue was up to date as of Tuesday; sometimes a long question will 'time out' for security reasons. Selling over time can work, particularly if one spreads out the gains over multiple years to reduce total income and thus taxes. Of course, selling now before June 25 will also save taxes. Estate planning is very tricky, and we are not experts here. Insurance strategies can also help in some circumstances. VBAL is 60/40 stocks/bonds. In the US, AOK is 30/70 and includes some global allocation. AOM is 42/68. We would be quite comfortable with either of these. One can also 'create' their own balanced fund with an equity ETF such as SPY and a bond ETF such as GOVT in whatever allocations they wish (admittedly this of course is not one stop shopping).
Authors of this answer, directors, partners and/or officers of 5i Research and/or affiliated companies have a financial or other interest in SPY.