Today marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In the years since, roughly 150,000 people exposed to the attacks and their aftermath have developed chronic illnesses and other lasting health problems, per the World Trade Center Health Program.

Congress created the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund just days after the attacks. The original fund operated through 2004, serving families of those killed and people injured on 9/11. It reopened in 2011, providing money to people who later developed illnesses linked to their exposure. Since then, it has paid $18.5 billion on tens of thousands of claims, and more than 750 new claims are still being filed each month.

For those applying today, one of the biggest challenges is proving they were there in the first place. “Don’t wait. If someone may have been exposed, start gathering documentation now,” said Cary Carbonaro, managing advisor at Ashton Thomas Private Wealth. “The process can be cumbersome, and it becomes much harder when you are trying to reconstruct decades-old information after a diagnosis.”

I Was There

Workers generally need verification from their employer or two witness statements to establish their presence in the disaster zone. But employers have closed, records have disappeared and witnesses can be difficult to find. The process can be even harder when a family member is filing on behalf of someone who has died. The VCF is also increasingly encouraging applicants to provide “primary proof,” such as pay stubs and attendance records, said Barry Salzman, a senior partner at Barasch & McGarry. “As we move further and further away from the event, the fund has gotten a little stricter,” he said.

Receiving the funds is critical as countless people returned to Lower Manhattan within days of the attacks, breathing in microscopic particles of cement, glass, asbestos and other toxic materials:

• The New York Stock Exchange reopened less than a week after 9/11. Many people living and working in the area later developed respiratory diseases, cancers or PTSD.
• Earlier this week, New York City released previously undisclosed records indicating that officials knew about toxic conditions in Lower Manhattan even as they reassured the public that the area was safe.

For those who receive compensation, the financial questions don’t end there. Salzman said his firm encourages clients to seek financial advice to manage awards that can range from roughly $90,000 to millions, depending on their illness and lost earnings.

“Many clients are walking away with a $225,000 award, and they’re thinking, ‘An advisor’s not going to be interested in this amount of money,’” he said. “We try to get advisors to accept people with smaller accounts. And if the person has a seven-figure economic loss award, they’re really primed to be in need of financial services.”

Now that we turn to our phones for everything from learning a new language to ordering a last-minute pad thai, employers who put 401(k)s easily in their employees’ pockets are getting ahead.

Workers who are the most satisfied with their retirement plans’ digital experience are likelier to have a more favorable view of their employer, according to a new study from JD Power. They’re also more likely to roll over savings from other retirement accounts and to keep their investments with their plan provider, even if they find a new job.

So what makes a good digital experience? It starts with foundational elements, like ease of logging in and finding information, plus speedy loading, said Eric McCready, senior director of digital solutions at JD Power. But “in recent years we’ve seen a shift in retirement apps that began as a simple place to check your balance, to something that more closely resembles a brokerage app, with better visualization of performance over time and asset allocation.”

Tap to Save

Friction points matter more than providers may realize, said Courtenay Shipley, chief planologist at consulting firm Retirement Planology. “Every extra click, every password reset, every ‘Where did they hide the beneficiary form?’ moment subtracts from engagement,” Shipley said.

Nowadays, checking a balance is table stakes, and a good app should give participants a reason to stay curious past that number:

• That could include a retirement income or gap projection for someone come age 65, or the ability to change a deferral rate or investment mix in one tap, Shipley said. It could entail beneficiary updates that don’t require a scavenger hunt in dropdown menus and connections to the wider financial picture, such as emergency savings, student loans or budgeting tools.
• Participants are increasingly expecting their 401(k) website and app to work like the consumer financial apps they use elsewhere, and that’s just going to accelerate with Gen Z and millennial consumers, said Rebecca Hourihan, chief marketing officer at 401(k) Marketing.

The Winners. JD Power found that Bank of America, including Merrill, ranked highest in both website and mobile satisfaction. Charles Schwab scored second place for both, tying with Fidelity Investments for mobile app satisfaction. Vanguard snagged third place for the web ranking. That may be pretty good news for those companies. Younger investors “won’t accept a bad interface,” Hourihan said. “They will simply leave and find a better client experience.”

People often spend decades preparing for retirement, and there’s a natural tendency to look at the end of one’s career as the finish line for financial planning. In reality, the first few years of retirement present a critical planning window, especially for clients who have a sizable estate. It’s a time when skilled financial advisors can shine, but only if they’ve put in the hard yards of building trust across generations of their clients’ families.

“One of the biggest misconceptions around estate planning is that having a will or trust drafted years ago means the work is finished,” said Sean Houghton, director of personal trust services at New Hampshire Shores Trust. “Most people will have experienced changes in family dynamics, changes in wealth, a move to another state or evolving wishes for beneficiaries. These are all reasons to revisit the plan.”

Building Trust(s)

The estate plan isn’t just a set of documents, Houghton said. Instead, it’s an ongoing process that has to keep pace with changes in the law, a family’s wealth, relationships, tax circumstances and more. So, while clients planning their estates during their 40s and 50s is a positive thing, that early effort also brings risks if the plan is allowed to go stale.

“A good review starts by reconfirming the estate plan still reflects the client’s wishes,” Houghton said. “Then you get more granular and review wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney and beneficiary designations.”

Other steps include:

• Making sure assets are actually titled the way the plan requires, as even a beautifully drafted trust will accomplish little if it was never properly funded.
• Periodically reconciling trust documents with account registrations, real estate holdings and other major assets.
• Determining which assets will fund retirement spending, taxes, charitable gifts and potential estate expenses and whether selling or distributing assets could undermine the intended trust structure.

It’s also critical to frequently revisit trustee and successor-trustee designations. Clients should ask directly whether the people originally named are still appropriate, willing and capable. If not, professional trust administration is worth considering, especially if familial conflict is a factor.

Estate Plans: Next Generation. The final key has less to do with dollars and cents and more with trust and human connection, Houghton said. “You’re going to be a lot more successful at helping the next generation inherit wealth if you’ve taken time to build a genuine relationship with them,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult to establish credibility if you’re just coming in at a moment of crisis only focused on technical things. If that’s your approach, the next generation is going to move on pretty quickly.”