As you probably know, actor Heath Ledger died tragically in January at the age of 28. And, you may have seen recent reports that Heath Ledger's will leaves nothing to his former girlfriend and their young daughter because it was drafted in 2003 (3 years before his daughter was born), and was never updated to include them after they became a part of his life. Instead, it appears that the will leaves everything to his parents and siblings. And though the Ledger family has stated that Heath's daughter will be taken care of, they may have no legal obligation to do so. In the end, Heath's former girlfriend may have to fight for their daughter's inheritance.

This story underscores the need to both make a will and keep it updated. If you care about what happens to your loved ones after you die, you owe it to them to do some estate planning. There are many tools you can use to achieve your estate planning goals, but a will is probably the most vital. Even if you're young or your estate is modest, you should always have a legally valid and up-to-date will. This is especially important if you have minor children because, in many states, your will is the only legal way you can name a guardian for them. A will can also allow you to:

• Name an executor to administer your estate according to your wishes
• Help minimize estate taxes and other costs
• Specify how estate taxes and.or other expenses should be paid
• Create a testamentary trust
• Fund a living trust

If you don't have a will, or haven't reviewed your will lately, don't put it off--it's just too important. If you have questions, or need help getting started, talk to a qualified financial professional.

If you qualify for an Economic Stimulus payment, and filed a timely 2007 federal income tax return, you've either received your IRS stimulus check already or you soon will (they're being issued through then end of July).

But what should you do with it?

Of course, the retailers want you to spend it, and many of them are coming up with enticing offers to get you to do just that. "Use your stimulus check to buy a gift card with us and we'll add an extra 10% to the balance." "Load your stimulus check onto our bank card and we'll waive the issuance fee."

Well, you could do that, but be aware that in doing so you're tying up all your money with one gift or bank card, and not all fees associated with them may be waived. So, before you leap into one of these offers, consider these other ideas for how to use your stimulus check:

• Cash the check and use the money where you want. By doing so, you aren't bound into spending all the money with one retailer, like you are with gift cards, or forced to leave a small balance remaining on the card because it's not enough to cover the cost of any merchandise the issuer sells. What's more, with cash you won't be subject to any maintenance fees or expiration dates, like you may be with bank cards.
  
  
• Pay (or prepay) a bill. The lump sum provided by your stimulus check may be just what you need to pay your real estate tax, car insurance, or dentist for that root canal. Or, you might start a prepayment plan with your home heating contractor to lock into a fixed fuel price for the coming winter.

• Start or add to your emergency fund. We all know we should have at least 3 to 6 months worth of living expenses in a cash reserve account. If you don't have a sufficient cash reserve, you might deposit your stimulus check in a savings account (or money market account or short-term CD) to create (or augment) that fund. You'll earn some interest on your deposit, and most such bank accounts are FDIC-insured.
  
  
• Pay off some or all of a high-interest debt. If you have outstanding credit card balances, give some thought to paying off some or all of those balances, starting with the balance that carries the highest interest rate. For example, if you apply $600 toward a credit card balance with an annual percentage rate (APR) of 14.9%, you could save almost $90 in interest charges over the course of a year.
  
  
• Invest in the future. You could start (or add to) a tax-advantaged vehicle such as a 529 plan, a Coverdell education savings account, or (if you're eligible) a Roth or traditional IRA.

In the end, the stimulus check is yours to do with as you wish. So, if you want to shop until you drop, you can. But consider this: We strongly recommend paying yourself first.

A central investing principle states that your portfolio's asset allocation should depend upon your time horizon, which is the length of time remaining until you will need to cash in your portfolio's assets. But how exactly you distribute your money between stocks, bonds, and cash? And how do risk tolerance and time frame affect your portfolio over time? And what if you want to totally avoid the hassle of ongoing rebalancing for your individual stocks, bonds, and mutual funds?

Set It and Forget It
A lifecycle fund--sometimes called a target fund--attempts to tailor your investing strategy to your time frame for a particular goal, such as retirement.

Let's say you plan to retire in 2040. You might choose a fund with a target maturity date of 2040. Between now and then, the fund will gradually shift its asset allocation between stocks, bonds, and cash. The closer the target date, the more conservatively (less stocks, more bonds) the fund would invest. A lifecycle fund with a target maturity date of 2040 would be likely to have a higher percentage of its assets in stocks than a fund targeted at 2010.

Advantages of Lifecycle Funds
Asset allocation is critical to your long-term returns, but if the idea of regularly rebalancing your retirement portfolio prompts an anxiety attack, then a lifecycle fund can help you simplify the process. The automatic asset allocation of a lifecycle fund may give you a better chance of achieving a long-term goal than if you tried to go it alone without investing experience or good financial advice. (Note: Diversification alone does not guarantee a profit or insure against a loss.)

Disadvantages of Lifecycle Funds
If you have other investments outside of the lifecycle fund, you may need help from a financial professional to achieve an appropriate overall asset allocation for your portfolio. Additionally, a lifecycle fund does not consider your individual financial situation, including tax concerns.

Don't Be Fooled By Look-Alikes
Just because a lifecycle fund targets a particular time frame doesn't mean your choice is a slam dunk. Even if they have the same target maturity date, lifecycle funds from various companies may have different approaches to achieving their goals. Most take a "fund of funds" approach, investing in an assortment of stock or bond funds from the same fund family. However, the number of funds used can vary widely.

An aggressive allocation for one portfolio with a 2040 target date may have a significantly greater percentage of stocks than another. Another important difference among funds is the way asset allocations are shifted over time, particularly after the target date has been reached. Some reach their most conservative allocation at the target date and then keep those percentages static. Others continue to become more conservative after the target date is reached.

You Can Do It!
With lifecycle funds, it's particularly important to take a long-term perspective. You do not want to jump in and out of the fund in response to daily market changes. Lifecycle funds' objectives are long-term, and your short-term selling typically undercuts the overall strategy.

Check your assumptions
Just because a lifecycle fund has a certain target date doesn't mean it's necessarily the right choice for you. People are living longer, and you may need a more aggressive allocation to provide a sufficient nest egg. A qualified financial professional can help you estimate your needs and gauge what strategy is most likely to work best for you.

For the 2006/2007 college year, the annual cost of attendance (known as the COA figure) for four-year public colleges was $16,357 and for four-year private colleges, $33,301. The COA figure includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses. (Source: The College Board's 2006 Trends in College Pricing Report.)

The trend of annual college costs outpacing inflation is expected to continue. There are many reasons why colleges find it difficult to hold down price increases from year to year. The main factors are continually increasing salary, maintenance, energy, technology, and recruiting costs, along with the goal of providing students with more sophisticated dormitories, dining halls, recreation and health care facilities, career centers, and campus security.

College savings options
It is important for parents to start putting money aside for college as early as possible. But where...and how? There are many possibilities, each with varied features. For example, some options offer tax advantages, some are more costly to establish, some charge management fees, some require parental income to be below a certain level, and some impose penalties if the money is not used for college.

Here is a brief list of options (which a qualified financial adviser can assist you in selecting).

• 529 college savings plans
• Coverdell education savings accounts
• Custodial accounts (UGMA/UTMA)
• Series EE bonds
• Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs
• Employer-sponsored retirement plans
• Employee stock purchase plans
• Options unique to business owners
  

There are several factors to considering options:

Tax advantages
Money saved for college goes a lot further when it's allowed to accumulate tax free or tax deferred. To come out ahead in the college savings game, it's wise to consider tax-advantaged strategies.

Kiddie tax
Many parents believe they can shift assets to their child in order to avoid high income taxes. This strategy works best if the child is age 18 or older. If the child is under age 18, the kiddie tax rules apply.

Financial aid
Whether or not a child will qualify for financial aid (e.g., loan, grant, scholarship, or work-study) may affect parental savings decisions. The majority of financial aid is need-based, meaning that it's based on a family's ability to pay.

Predicting whether a child will qualify for financial aid many years down the road is an inexact science. Some families with incomes of $100,000 or more may qualify for aid, while those with lesser incomes may not. Income is only one of the factors used to determine financial aid eligibility. Other factors include amount of assets, family size, number of household members in college at the same time, and the existence of any special personal or financial circumstances.

If a child is expected to qualify for financial aid (and most do), parents should be aware of the formula the federal government uses to calculate aid--called the federal methodology--because there can be a financial aid impact on long-term savings decisions. The more money a family is expected to contribute to college costs, the less financial aid a child will be eligible for.

Time frame
Is the child in preschool or a freshman in high school? Obviously, most college savings strategies work best when the child is many years away from college. With a longer time horizon, parents can be more aggressive in their investments and have more years to take advantage of compounding.

When the child is a toddler up until about middle school (sixth grade or so), we typically recommend putting more money into equity investments because historically, over the long term, equities have provided higher returns than other types of investments (though past performance is no guarantee of future results). Then, as the child moves from middle school to high school, it's usually wise for parents to start shifting a portion of their equities toward shorter-term, fixed income investments.

If the time frame is only a few years, parents will be limited in their choice of appropriate strategies. For example, if the child were in high school, equities normally would not be a preferred strategy due to the short-term volatility of these investments. Similarly, parents would not have enough time to build up cash value in a life insurance policy.

Amount of money available to invest
The amount of money parents have to invest at a particular time might affect their savings strategies. For example, if parents have only a small amount of money to invest, trusts probably aren't the best option because they are typically more costly to establish and maintain than other college saving options. In this case, a Coverdell ESA may be more appropriate.
Control issues

Generally, when parents give money or property to their child, they lose control of those assets. Such a loss of parental ownership can take place immediately, as in the case of an outright gift of stock certificates, or it may be delayed, as in the case of a custodial account or trust. In any event, parents must assess their personal feelings about relinquishing control of assets to their child. Some children may not be mature enough to handle such assets, whereas others can be counted on to use them for college costs.

Discussing a college funding plan with your child
As college expenses continue to rise relative to the means of the average family to pay such costs in full, parents may find it helpful to sit down with their older children and discuss ways to pay for college. For example, parents may want to discuss:

• Whether they intend to fund 100 percent of college costs or whether they expect their child to contribute and, if so, in what amount. For example, parents might convey their expectation that their child contribute a certain percentage of all earnings from a part-time job or a portion of all gifts.
• Whether the child will play a role in the savings strategy. For example, parents who want to gift appreciated stock to their child should convey their expectation that the child will apply all of the gains to college costs.
• Whether any money will need to be borrowed, and if so, how much and in whose name the loan(s) will be obtained. The amount that needs to be borrowed may affect the type of college the child applies to (e.g., public or private, top tier or middle tier).
• Whether there will need to be shared financial responsibility during the college years. For example, the child may need to participate in a work-study program or obtain outside work during the college years.

Communicating these expectations ahead of time can prevent unpleasant surprises and help parents and their children better plan for the expenses that lie ahead. Also, an open discussion can give children an increased awareness of the financial burden their parents may be undertaking on their behalf.

Dilemma of saving for college and retirement
For many parents, especially those who started families in their 30s and 40s, the problem of saving for college and retirement at the same time is a nagging reality. At Lightship Mutual, we generally place retirement planning ahead of college planning for the simple fact that parents have no alternative-financing options for their retirement. On the other hand, their children can potentially earn scholarships, grants, and even take out student loans to self-finance their education.

If saving for both goals is a priority to the client, then we emphasize determining specific time frames and liquidity needs for each goal. This process can be daunting for individuals and typically becomes more manageable with the assistance of a financial planner.

In a word: Yes. The IRS has long permitted employers to automatically enroll employees in 401(k) plans. These are sometimes referred to as "negative enrollments" because you have to opt out of participation.

Employer Liability
Some employers have shied away from automatic enrollment plans because they were concerned that automatic payroll deductions might not be permitted under state law. Others were concerned that the default investments they chose for employees might be found to be "imprudent," resulting in fiduciary liability for any investment losses incurred by those employees. In order to address these concerns, and to encourage retirement savings, Congress included provisions in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that make automatic enrollment plans more attractive to employers.

You Must Get the Paperwork...and Then Read It
In general, your plan administrator must provide you with a notice that explains the plan, notifies you of your right to reduce or stop the contributions, and to change the default investments that have been chosen for you. Your plan may also provide a 90-day period in which you can opt out of the auto-enrollment arrangement and receive a refund of your contributions (plus any earnings).