Miguel Acevedo, financial advisor at Baystate Financial, helps Latino communities plan for their future

HOLYOKE - Ever since Miguel Acevedo learned the importance of health and finances when he was studying at university, the desire to become a “doctor of finances” was born within him in order to help people establish better futures for themselves and their families through financial planning.

Acevedo has been a financial advisor and planner for Baystate Financial in Holyoke for the past 20 years and works with clients to help them financially plan for their future through different services provided by the corporation.

Acevedo said financial planning 20 years ago was very different from what is offered today.

“The laws keep changing and ... the opportunities are much more than what we had 20 years ago,” he said.

Both, the laws and the opportunities that the IRS allow today are “different concepts that in the past were not available to be able to save money for the future,” Acevedo said.

Baystate Financial offers a variety of services including providing life insurance, long-term care, disability insurance, business overhead expense protection, fixed and variable annuities, business income continuation, succession, and estate planning strategies, and much more according to its website.

“Where you save money is actually more important than the money you are saving,” said Acevedo.

Acevedo said that everyone must save for a purpose and for that they must first create a foundation, and that foundation begins by protecting oneself to cover the whole family, he said “You have to plan just in case you don’t make it home one day, your family will not be affected financially.”

His first recommendation is to have a life insurance and then disability insurance. He said, “You have to think that sometimes you get hurt and you don’t die, but you can’t work and the bills keep coming in and the cost of living keeps going up,” so having disability insurance provides that security of being able to continue receiving an income."

As he explained, 70% of people who buy life insurance buy it to replace their salary. 30% of people buy it for final expenses ... and/or to pay taxes.

There is no right age to purchase life insurance. Acevedo said that the younger the person invests in life insurance, the cheaper it costs the monthly payment since to acquire life insurance you have to qualify.

His third recommendation is to have a reserve of money for emergencies. “If your monthly expenses are $2,000 or $ 3,000 per month, the rule of thumb is that you should have saved at least 3 to 6 months of monthly expenses, saved in the bank,” he said.

Despite the fact that many people live “paycheck to check,” Acevedo said that having permanent life insurance serves two purposes. In the event of sudden or tragic death, the family acquires the benefit and/or savings for the future, without having to pay taxes.

It is Acevedo’s desire to be able to offer workshops, either through Zoom or in person, in order to inform the Spanish-speaking community of this type of information. Acevedo also provides his client with a weekly magazine with financial tips and information.

“I want to share with my people the knowledge of how they can prepare for the future," he said.

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