Chris Balcerowiak

10/17/2026

Today, I’m wearing pink for a reason.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m setting aside my usual office attire to share a message of support.

We honor those facing breast cancer, celebrate survivors, remember those we’ve lost, and recognize the families, friends, and caregivers walking beside them.

But support should be more than a color we wear.

Check in on someone. Offer a meal or a ride to an appointment. Listen without worrying about finding the perfect words. Sometimes, the most meaningful thing we can do is simply show up.

Please take a moment to watch my message. Let’s carry that care and support beyond October.

10/16/2026

Fidelity's 2025 wealth transfer study found that roughly 67 percent of parents age 55 and older have never told their adult children what they will inherit, or whether they will inherit anything at all.

About 33 percent would prefer the kids are kept in the dark about the amount.

Their reasons should feel familiar:
✔️ Worry that a specific number will dampen a child's drive
✔️ Discomfort talking about money at all

The same study found:
Most adult children say they are ready to handle whatever they inherit and would rather shape things while their parents are still around to explain the "why" behind decisions.

Families who have inheritance strategies share some similar habits:
💬 Kids know who the financial professionals are and how to reach them
💬 Everyone knows where the estate documents are
💬 They try to manage any surprises well ahead of time

So, do you tell your children or not?

There's no single right answer here.

Sharing exact numbers isn't necessary, but most families find that a broad discussion can help with priorities and expectations.

10/14/2026

A mother in California picked up the phone and heard her daughter's voice, panicked, saying she'd been kidnapped and needed money immediately.

What she'd heard wasn't her daughter. It was an AI-generated clone of her voice.

In a 2025 study, scientists found that when people heard a cloned voice, they correctly identified the voice as AI-generated only about 60 percent of the time.

The FBI attributed more than $890 million in 2025 losses to AI-enabled fraud, and voice cloning is one of the main drivers behind that number.

It is not only older adults being targeted. Younger family members get these calls too, often framed as a sibling or friend in trouble. Older adults just tend to lose the most per incident.

Two ways to protect your family.

🔐 Agree on a private code word or question with the people a scammer is most likely to impersonate (kids, parents, spouse)

📞 If a call like this comes in and you have not set up a code word yet, hang up, then call the real person back

When in doubt, slow down and verify.

Check out our handy guide on Identity Theft Recovery here: https://www.creativeretirementsolutionsgroup.com/client-checklists

10/12/2026

A surprise $90 deposit is landing for some Medicare enrollees this week. For roughly 40 million others, nothing is coming.

The payments are going to people in traditional Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits, outpatient care, and preventive screenings. Medicare Advantage enrollees, people who pay income-related premiums, and those who already receive premium assistance are not eligible. Most deposits arrive through the Social Security Administration, while some beneficiaries will get a paper check later in October labeled “Medicare Improvement Fund Payment.”

📌 The standard Part B premium is $202.90 in 2026 and is expected to reach $209.50 in 2027.

That context matters. Some analysts note the $90 helps but won’t fully offset rising premiums, and healthcare costs remain a top financial concern across age groups.

For now, the payment is a welcome bit of relief. The bigger question is how coverage costs keep pace over time.



Read More:

Millions of seniors are getting $90 direct deposits from Social Security this week, prompting questions about the source of the money.

10/12/2026

For some, the second Monday in October marks Columbus Day, a commemoration of exploration and its role in shaping American history.

For others, it's Indigenous Peoples' Day, a time to honor the cultures, histories, and contributions of Native communities.

Both observances point to something worth sitting with: how differently history can be remembered and how many perspectives make up a single story.

10/10/2026

⚠️ Money is one of the most consistently cited sources of stress in America.

For caregivers, that weight often increases! 😮

Having a clearer picture of where things stand can help ease some of the uncertainty that makes financial stress feel heaviest in the first place.

There's no clean solution to money stress.

Most of it is caused by the unknown. The uncertainty.

World Mental Health Day recognizes just how deeply finances can impact our well-being (and vice versa).

If financial stress has been sitting in the background of your life this year, a conversation with a professional can go a long way, be it a mental health professional or a financial professional. Pursuing comfort, understanding, and compassion is a team sport.

10/09/2026

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity to prioritize health.

Early detection through regular screenings is one of the most effective tools we have in the fight against breast cancer.

Here are a few small things we can do this October:

✅ Schedule your annual screening if you haven't yet

✅ Educate yourself and others on risk factors and preventative lifestyle habits

✅ Support research and organizations dedicated to advancing breast cancer prevention and care

Taking charge of your health today makes all the difference for tomorrow. 🎗️

10/07/2026

There's a reason so many women business owners half-joke that their real title is "everything."

More women than ever are starting and running businesses, and they're doing it at a faster clip than the market overall.

Census data show women now own more than 14 million businesses nationwide, a number that's grown 26 percent since 2012, compared with 19 percent growth for businesses as a whole.

A lot of that growth is happening online, where women-owned businesses tend to be more digitally integrated than those owned by men.

It also means millions of women are managing key decisions from scratch:

💼 How income gets paid (salary, distributions, or owner draws) and what that means at budget time

💼 Which retirement vehicle fits, and how much room there is to contribute

💼 How healthcare, disability, and other insurance get sourced without an employer default

💼 How the business gets valued, and what a sale or transition would actually look like

💼 How personal finances stay untangled from the business's finances

Wearing a tall stack of hats doesn't make entrepreneurship harder than it's worth. Plenty of women running these businesses would say the trade-offs are part of the deal. But it does mean the hats keep stacking up, one on top of the other.

This month is a good time to tip our own hats to the women doing it all at once.

10/05/2026

Cyber criminals pay extra attention to accounts tied to money.

A 2026 FBI study found that over 12,400 of those victims lost more than $100,000 each, and the average reported loss across elder fraud victims that year was $38,500. Here are a few habits to fine-tune your digital security this month:

🔐 Turn on multi-factor authentication everywhere it's offered. Yes, it's annoying, but according to a 2026 CISA report, using it makes an account roughly 99 percent less likely to be broken into. It only takes a minute to set up.

🔐 Give every account its own password. Reusing one password means one leaked login unlocks everything else. A password manager handles this without requiring you to remember dozens of them.

🔐 When you go to the dentist, put a reminder on your calendar to also change your passwords. Changing passwords often makes your accounts just that much harder to reach.

🔐 Pause before clicking. Phishing remains the most commonly reported cybercrime in the country, more than any other category the FBI tracks.

🔐 Check statements regularly, and turn on account alerts. Catching something small and wrong early is a lot easier to unwind than catching something large and wrong months later.

🔐 Consider freezing your credit if you're not actively applying for new credit or loans. This takes 15 minutes, one time.

None of this requires becoming a security expert. Pick the one or two that you've been putting off, and do it this week.

Check out our handy guide on Identity Theft Recovery here: https://www.creativeretirementsolutionsgroup.com/client-checklists

10/02/2026

What's one financial decision you've made that helped you feel more prepared for your future?

For many of the people we work with, it's not a single investment or product; it's taking the time to create an overall strategy.

🗓️ October is Financial Planning Month—which is all about how the pieces of your financial picture fit together to help pursue your financial goals.

It's about putting together a comprehensive approach that manages your investments and retirement, provides for your loved ones—all while staying flexible enough to adjust as things change.

💡 If you've been meaning to update your strategy or to create one for the first time, it's never too late to start.