Miller Wealth Management

July Series: Financial Caregiving | Pillar 7 — Family Stewardship

Most of a family's financial life now lives on a phone — banking apps, two-factor codes, password managers, photos of statements, logins to accounts no one else knows exist. When someone passes away, that phone doesn't just go quiet. It seals shut, and everything behind it goes with it.

There's a simple safeguard for this that most families have never heard of: a Legacy Contact. Both Apple and Google offer a built-in way to name someone trusted who can request access to your data after you're gone — no guessing passwords, no waiting on a court order, no locked-out grief. It takes about ten minutes to set up, and it's one of the easiest things you can do this week to protect the people who'll be left sorting through it all.

Here's how:

On an iPhone — Add a Legacy Contact

1. Open Settings, then tap your name at the top.
2. Select Sign-In & Security.
3. Tap Legacy Contact, then select Add Legacy Contact.
4. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
5. Choose a contact — you may be able to pick someone from your Family Sharing group.
6. Share the required Access Key with them via iMessage or by printing a copy.

The Legacy Contact will need that unique Access Key and a copy of the death certificate to access the account's data.

On an Android Device — Plan a Digital Legacy
1. Go to your Google Account on a phone or web browser.
2. Tap the Data & Privacy tab.
3. Scroll to the More Options or Tools section and tap Make a plan for your digital legacy.

June Series: Your Inner Circle: The Call That Saved My Client From a $40,000 Mistake| Pillar 3 — Asset Protection

A few months ago, one of my clients noticed something unusual — a deposit had shown up in her bank account that she hadn't made.
Then came the text messages.

"This deposit was made in error. Please return the funds by clicking the link below."

It felt legitimate. The money was sitting right there. And the instructions seemed simple enough — just send it back.
What actually happened was far more sinister.

Someone had opened a fraudulent loan in her name without her knowledge. The proceeds were deposited into her account. Then the scammers sent those texts hoping she'd click the link and wire the money directly to them — leaving her holding the bag on a loan she never took out.

She called me before she did anything.

That one phone call changed everything.

Because we were able to work directly with the bank, freeze the situation, and unwind the fraudulent loan before she lost a dollar of her own money — and before her credit took a hit she didn't deserve.

This is Tactic #48 in The One Process — Cybersecurity, Identity Theft & Fraud Awareness. But more than any single instance, it's a mindset. Financial fraud has become sophisticated, targeted, and frighteningly convincing. The scammers aren't sending obvious emails anymore. They're creating fake loans. Spoofing bank numbers. Manufacturing urgency.

You need someone in your corner who can slow things down when you feel pressured to act fast.

The best thing my client did wasn't anything complicated.
She just picked up the phone and called someone she trusted.
If something ever feels off — a deposit you didn't expect, a message asking you to move money, an offer that seems too easy — call your advisor first. Before you click anything. Before you wire anything. Before you respond.

June Series: Your Inner Circle: He Already Knew What I Was Going to Say | Pillar 3 — Asset Protection

One of my clients came to me with something he'd been sitting on for months.

He'd invested in a trucking company that was buying commercial vehicles and renting them to drivers. Nearly 100% annual returns. Income hitting his account like clockwork. He knew what I would say — so he didn't tell me.

Until one day he did.

I looked into it. The returns were mathematically disconnected from the underlying business. The income payments felt more like recruitment tools than actual yield. I told him plainly — I think this is a scam, and I think you'll be lucky to get your money out.
Three months later, the payments stopped.

Today it's an active FBI investigation into a Ponzi scheme perpetuated by another financial advisor.

I tell this story because of the part that keeps me up at night — he already knew. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was too good to be true. But the money was coming in, it felt real, and the fear of missing out is a powerful thing.

We've all seen the advertisements. The ones promising extraordinary returns on complicated vehicles — distressed debt, alternative income streams, lease-based structures — wrapped in the language of sophistication and exclusivity. They're engineered to sound credible. They're designed to make you feel like you've finally found what everyone else has been missing.

Here's what I know after years of doing this work: if the return is extraordinary, the risk is extraordinary — whether you can see it or not. The question is never just, is this real? It's what happens when it stops?

Your financial advisor may not always be able to tell you yes. In fact, because of the rules that govern our industry, we often can't give a green light to outside investments. But a great advisor absolutely should be able to tell you when something doesn't sit right. When the math doesn't add up.

That's not a limitation of the relationship. That's the value of it.

If you have a financial advisor, you truly trust, bring them everything. Especially the things you think they'll say no to. Especially those.

June Series: She Thought She’s Handled It | Pillar 5 — Legacy Planning

She added her daughter on the deed to her home. She thought she'd handled it.

It may have been the most expensive decision of her estate plan.
Joint tenancy — adding a child directly to the title of a home — is one of the most common do-it-yourself estate moves there is. It accomplishes the goal on paper: at DEATH, the home transfers automatically, bypassing probate. But "passing automatically" and "passing well" are not the same thing.

Here's what most people don't realize:

When property passes to an heir at DEATH, its cost basis steps up to fair market value on that date. Decades of taxable gain can vanish for tax purposes, likely benefiting the heir — legally, cleanly, by design.

Adding a child to the deed while you're alive converts half of that transfer into a gift. Gifts carry the giver's original cost basis. The stepped-up half? Gone. On a home bought for $150,000 and now worth $750,000, that one form can leave your child holding a $300,000 taxable gain they never had to have.

And the tax exposure is only the beginning. Once a child is on the deed, the home is now legally bound to their life — their divorce, their creditors, their financial risks. You've also surrendered unilateral control of your own property.

The instinct behind this decision is usually exactly right. The mechanism is where it breaks down.

A five-minute conversation before she signed would have changed everything.