The VanDusen Epstein Group - RBC Wealth Management

An empowered approach

Our goals-based wealth planning approach is designed to ultimately help you achieve your vision and live empowered. Working together, we identify strategies to help grow your wealth, fund your lifestyle today and tomorrow, protect what's important to you and create your legacy.

Our approach features four financial pillars to help guide you through your life stages:

Accumulate and grow your wealth

Working toward tomorrow, define your goals, plan, save and invest. Review your finances regularly. Build and maintain an emergency fund of at least six months of expenses.

As you approach retirement, take advantage of catch-up contributions and align investments to offset inflation.

In your encore years, review and understand the probable outcome of your wealth plan and consider consolidating accounts to simplify your financial life.

Fund your lifestyle

In the early stages, avoid or eliminate unproductive debt. Fund but defer health savings account spending until retirement.

Approaching retirement, create a retirement plan for your paycheck as well as a budget for your expenses.

In your later years, plan for your distributions and manage your spending to cover your needs.

Protect what's important to you

At first, evaluate and consider your options for various types of insurance, ranging from health, disability, life and long-term care insurance.

Closer to retirement, re-evaluate your insurance needs and use credit strategically.

Enroll in Medicare at 65 and claim Social Security at 70. Avoid selling assets in down markets. Discuss your care wishes with your loved ones.

Create your legacy

Establish a will, power of attorney, health care directive and revocable trust. Check your beneficiary designations. Consider a charitable giving plan that aligns with your values.

Near retirement, revisit your estate planning documents and beneficiary designations. Have plans for housing and care needs.

After retiring, check that your estate plan aligns with your wishes. Understand your estate and gift tax thresholds.

It all starts and ends with you

Client Strategies Team

The Client Strategies Team is a resource to help support you in your wealth planning goals, developing a strong understanding of your personal financial objectives, gathering valuable information and addressing complex financial and wealth strategies issues. Explore the bios below to learn more about the team.

Bruce Crepea

Wealth Strategist

Bruce serves as a resource for your financial advisor in determining and developing wealth transfer strategies for high-net-worth clients in areas including estate strategies, lifetime giving, personal trust planning, charitable giving, concentrated equity position diversification and employee stock options. In this role, Bruce partners with financial advisors to meet with individual clients and their attorneys and/or accountants, as well as present at client seminars.

Cathy Walker

Trust Consultant

As a trust consultant, Cathy specializes in personal trust planning and assists in the movement of client trust assets, provides educational and technical guidance relating to personal trusts and advises clients on opportunities with third-party professional trust partners.

Liz Jacovino, CPWA®, CFP®, CTFA, CRPC®

Echelon Wealth Strategist

As an RBC Echelon wealth strategist, Liz partners with financial advisors and their ultra-high-net-worth clients to understand what is most important to them and to help develop appropriate strategies that address the client’s objectives and concerns. Liz serves as a knowledgeable resource in the area of complex wealth, including planning strategies for corporate executives, trust and estate planning services, concentrated stock options, business succession planning and philanthropic planning. She also coordinates solutions and external professional services tailored to RBC Echelon clients' needs.

Steve Vitale

Wealth Management Consultant

Steve spearheads the collaborative efforts of the Client Strategies Team support for your financial advisor. He is part of a multi-disciplinary group of professionals who provide guidance on investment management, estate planning services, credit solutions, insurance and annuity strategies, professional trustee services and trust consulting, retirement solutions, capital markets engagement, banking solutions and more. Called upon for support at various times throughout your wealth management journey, Steve works diligently to address clients’ unique situations.

Disclosures

Christopher VanDusen, NMLS # 1278658, and Blake P. Epstein, NMLS # 1282403 through City National Bank, may receive compensation from RBC Wealth Management for referring customers to City National Bank. Banking products and services are offered or issued by City National Bank, an affiliate of RBC Wealth Management, a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC and are subject to City National Banks terms and conditions. Products and services offered through City National Bank are not insured by SIPC. City National Bank Member FDIC.

Investment products offered through RBC Wealth Management are not FDIC insured, are not guaranteed by City National Bank and may lose value.

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