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What’s inside:A Message from Jim Weddle

Take Control of Your Legacy

5 Tips to Help You Weather Tax Season

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ACCOUNT AGREEMENT CHANGES – PG. 4

Before winter arrived, many of us took the time consider how to best prepare our homes. We assessed everything that needs to be done: Perhaps repairing the roof, or possibly insulating the walls or replacing windows. Then we priori-tized the work.

Preparing for your financial future is a similar process: It starts by considering all your needs, goals and priorities. In this issue of Financial Focus we discuss some of the best ways to “weatherize” your financial strategies by planning for your legacy or making smart moves now to prepare for tax season in the spring.

Your financial advisor is also prepared to help get your financial house in order, helping to identify your needs and providing recommendations to help you address them. For example, a sound financial strategy can be derailed by unexpected events. Protecting your future through life insurance or long-term care insurance is one important need to consider. Perhaps you want to save for your children’s education, but you also need to save for retirement. Your financial advisor can help you set priorities and create a strategy to help you achieve your goals.

We follow a defined process to work with you. It starts as your branch team gets to know you personally in order to understand what’s important to you. This prepares your financial advisor to offer you choices and make the recommendations that are right for your situation.

We will review your goals and progress regularly, working together as part-ners to keep you on track. This process helps ensure that we can deliver the service and experience that meet your needs and preferences.

At Edward Jones, we strive to build a personal relationship with you and become your trusted financial resource. In all our work, we are guided by the unwavering belief that your interests, as our client, must always come first. Thank you for your confidence in selecting us as your financial-services firm. Our entire firm is working to help you achieve your financial goals.

Sincerely,

James D. WeddleManaging Partner

A Message from Jim Weddle

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Develop Your Estate StrategyIf you’ve never developed an estate strategy, you have a “strategy” in place by default – the laws of your state, which may not align with your desires. And if you have an estate plan but haven’t revisited it in some time, it may not have kept up with shifting goals and life changes.

Recruit a Trusted Team of Professionals Your professional planning team is similar to having a primary care physician to help direct your health care and a team of doctors and specialists to address specific health care concerns. While Edward Jones does not provide estate planning or tax advice, we believe it’s important to have a team of professionals working in sync toward this common goal.

Each member plays an important role:• The financial advisor provides investment, portfolio

allocation and protection advice and guidance. He or she serves as the relationship manager, helping you identify your estate-planning needs with respect to your investments.

• The estate-planning attorney works with you to identify your estate-planning goals and your options to pursue those goals. The attorney also drafts legal documents to support your estate plan.

• The qualified tax professional, typically a Certified Public Accountant or CPA, helps you determine income, transfer and other tax implications with respect to your estate plan.

• If your team includes a life insurance consultant, that individual can help you identify opportunities within your estate plan where insurance is an appropriate protection option.

Planning an estate strategy can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. And you don’t have to go it alone. Contact your financial advisor to start the conversation today.

1 Source: Money in Motion Survey, McKinsey, 2016.

2 Source: “Pain Points and Actions,” Investor Quantitative Database, Hearts & Wallets, 2016.

Take Control of Your Legacy Do you think estate planning is confusing? If so, you’re not alone: One in four older adults considers planning for his or her estate to be increasingly “difficult.”1 In fact, only slightly more than half of Americans have a will or trust in place.2

1. Get organized. This is not necessarily a difficult step, but it can be time-consuming. Our Tax Return Checklist can help you get your paperwork together.

2. Decide if you need help from a tax professional. Con-sulting a tax professional is a personal decision. He or she can bring expertise to the table, including knowledge of the ever-changing tax code to help find possible deductions and potential strategies to lower your tax exposure next year and beyond.

3. Make your 2017 IRA contribution. Making use of tax-advantaged savings opportunities is important, and one of the best is to fund your Individual Retire-ment Account (IRA) before the tax deadline, April 17, 2018. For 2017, the maximum IRA contribution you can make is $5,500, plus an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution if you’re age 50 or older.

4. Consider filing electronically. Because the IRS processes electronic returns faster than paper ones, you may receive your refund earlier. Visit www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-options for more information.

5. Reinvest your tax refund. Your financial advisor can help you identify investment options to benefit you and your family – your rainy day fund, a college savings plan or your retirement fund, for example. If you create a strategy for your refund now, you’ll be less likely to let that income slip through your fingers.

The closer you get to the April tax deadline, the busier your calendar may seem. Talk to your financial advisor today about what you can do to help make tax season less taxing.

5Tips to Help You Weather Tax Season

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Keeping you informed of account agreement changes is a critical part of our relationship and a responsibility we take seriously. We are making changes to the language of all Edward Jones account agreements. Please carefully read the below summary of the material changes that become effective Feb. 5, 2018.

What’s Changing?We have added language to all Edward Jones IRA Custodial and Client Services Agreements, Investment Advisory Client Services Agreements, Employer Retirement Plan Account Agreements, and the Brokerage Account Agreement concerning your right to add a Trusted Contact Person for your account. This means you will be able to identify a person, age 18 years or older, that Edward Jones is authorized to contact and disclose information

about your account to address possible financial exploitation, confirm the specifics of your contact information, health status, or identity of any legal guardian, executor, trustee or holder of a power of attorney. If you have questions, please contact your financial advisor.

We have also updated language about both Edward Jones’ and your responsibilities related to calculations of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) within the following agreements: Edward Jones and Edward Jones Trust Company IRA Custodial Agreements and the Edward Jones Retirement Account Agreement.

For a complete copy of your amended account agreement, ask your financial advisor or visit www.edwardjones.com/disclosures or www.edwardjones.com/ejtc/disclosures.

IMPORTANT INFORMATIONabout Account Agreement Changes

Time flies, especially when you’re facing a deadline. Here are five tips to help you achieve a less stressful tax season.

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