By Sara Mannix

Artificial Intelligence can make your business more efficient, smarter, and more productive, giving greater value to your customers. At Mannix, we started small and progressed through clear, manageable stages..

Stage 1: Search Engine AI | Ask, Learn, Act

Skip Google and use AI. ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s Gemini have become our go-to tools for quick answers and deeper research. Instead of searching, we now ask AI-specific, actionable questions like:

“Act as a marketing expert and research the fitness app industry. Identify five leading companies, analyze their products, and summarize the unique selling propositions, pricing structures, and provide web links.”

“We currently use [X product] for analytics, but we’re looking for a tool that can also do [Z feature]. What are five alternatives, and what makes them superior to our current tool?”

“We’re considering a patent for [X]. What are the steps we need to take, and what should we be aware of in the process?”

Instead of spending 15 minutes reading through websites, we get the answer in 15 seconds. This is search engine AI. It’s the easiest entry point and results in time savings.  

If you haven’t used AI yet… start with this: Replace some of your Google searches this week with an AI prompt. If you don’t get the right answer immediately, provide more detail, as if you were talking to an assistant.

By David Kopyc

For many married couples, turning 50 brings retirement into sharper focus. With children grown or nearly grown and roughly 15 to 20 years until traditional retirement age, it’s time to take stock, make adjustments and ensure you’re on a solid path forward.

Gone are the days when retirement rested on a three-legged stool of Social Security, a pension and personal savings. Today’s couples must balance 401(k)s or IRAs, brokerage accounts, other investments and, in some cases, part-time work. Coordinating finances with your spouse is no longer optional—it’s essential.

Two incomes, two retirements, one plan

Each spouse often has a separate career, savings history and retirement timeline, but you’ll share one household budget. Whether you retire together or years apart, align your spending expectations, investment strategies and lifestyle goals. A mismatch can create unnecessary friction or financial shortfalls.

Longer lives, longer retirements

Advances in health care mean today’s 50-year-olds could spend 30 to 40 years in retirement. Plan for decades of expenses—including inflation, health care and possible long-term care—on a fixed or semi-fixed income.

Health care costs

Fidelity Investments estimates a healthy 65-year-old couple retiring in 2025 will spend more than $350,000 on medical costs over their lifetimes, excluding long-term care. Review Medicare options, consider a health savings account (HSA) and evaluate long-term care insurance.

By Brian M. Johnson, MBA, CLTC

For many working-age adults, planning for the future often centers around saving for retirement, managing debt, and building wealth. Yet an often-overlooked component of a well-rounded financial strategy is life insurance—specifically, 10-pay whole life insurance, a permanent life insurance policy paid up in just 10 years.

While frequently seen as a tool for wealthier individuals or older adults, 10-pay whole life insurance plays a significant role in both estate and long-term care planning, offering unique benefits for those who begin earlier in life.

Understanding 10-pay whole life insurance

A 10-pay whole life insurance policy is a type of permanent life insurance with guaranteed death benefits, fixed premiums for 10 years, and a cash value component that grows over time.

Unlike term life insurance, which provides coverage for a set number of years, whole life covers the insured for their entire life, assuming premiums are paid.

What makes the 10-pay version distinctive is the compressed payment schedule—premiums are paid over just 10 years, after which the policy is considered “paid-up.”

This feature is attractive to individuals who want to pre-fund a long-term asset during working years while minimizing obligations in retirement.

Tax-free wealth transfer

One of the most recognized uses of whole life insurance in estate planning is its ability to transfer wealth in a tax-efficient manner.

The death benefit is typically income tax-free to beneficiaries and, when structured properly, can also be excluded from the taxable estate.

For families with significant assets—or those with modest estates and legacy intentions—this can help preserve wealth across generations.

By Deb Verni

The perfect time to put together an estate plan is before you need it.  Unfortunately, most people think about creating an estate plan when a close friend or relative must be placed in a nursing home or when a family member dies and the kids are fighting over assets because there is no Will. 

I joke with people and say if you don’t have a “Will”, you have a “Won’t”, I won’t die or become ill and go into a nursing home. My kids won’t fight over my money.  My minor children won’t be raised by my evil sister.  My children won’t blow their inheritance on fast cars and gambling.   My daughter’s husband won’t take half of my hard-earned money when they get divorced after I pass.  

A Last Will and Testament is just the beginning of an estate plan.  Although a Will is important, it is only one of the documents in your estate plan.  A comprehensive estate plan should include a Will, a Health Care Proxy Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney and in most cases a Trust.  Does everyone need all these documents? It depends on your assets and your family dynamics.  

For those of you that never considered family dynamics, I can assure you that if your children do not get along while you are alive, they will not get along after you pass.  If you are concerned about your money going to in-laws and out-laws after your death, then you need to plan for that.  If you want to make sure money goes to your grandchildren, or you have a child or grandchild with special needs, you need to plan for that too.  

Now that your head is spinning and you are thinking a “won’t” is not such a bad idea and you are looking around every corner for greedy relatives, remember, you can establish an estate plan now and leave all your worries behind, literally.  So how do you go about setting up an estate plan? First you need to figure out who will be in charge and where you want things to go. Estate documents are easy to establish but you need to do your homework.  Let’s go through an estate plan step by step.