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You have around 500 passwords, thousands of photos in the cloud, and a phone that opens with your face. Niki Weiss joins Bri Conn, CFP® with the part most people have never considered: your will does not override the privacy agreements you signed with the platforms. Meta owns your data. Spotify owns your account. A digital legacy thanatologist who went from hospice bedsides to project management, she treats end-of-life planning like any complex project with stakeholders, risks, and a timeline, and she's blunt that having kids makes none of it simpler. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why estate planning is one piece of end-of-life planning, and how the four domains and three scenarios fit togetherWhat platform privacy agreements mean for your accounts after you die, including Meta's AI patent for accounts of people who have diedHow to set up legacy contacts on your phone, and why one person is not enoughWhat a letter of instruction and a crucial document box should actually containWhy old documents create probate problems, and why same-sex couples should not wait on thisResources: Recommended next listen: Who Handles It All When You're Gone? Death, Legacy, and Planning for a Solo Life with Marni Blank, Ep. 138 https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-138 Episode Guest: Niki Weiss is the Founder and CEO of ENDevo and a Digital Legacy Thanatologist. Both her parents were gone by the time she turned 50. A former hospice clinician with a background in project management and risk analysis, she started asking a question most people avoid, which is what happens to your digital life when your physical one ends. She built ENDevo and My Final Playbook to answer it, a four-pillar approach to end-of-life planning across legal, financial, physical, and digital, designed for individuals and for employers who want to offer it to their teams. She calls the plan a love letter. Her tagline is "Live fully ~ die ready." Connect with Niki Weiss: LinkedIn: Niki Weiss, Digital Thanatologist Website: endevo.life Website: finalplaybook.com Episode Host: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

For a lot of Childfree people, the question isn't whether they have time and energy to give, it's where to point it so it actually means something. Lemon Price has an answer. A civic leader who's been in these rooms since she was ten, she joins Maddy Roche to demystify the path from casual volunteer to the seat where decisions actually get made. She's honest that the work itself is refreshingly unglamorous, it's governance, not glory, and she makes the case that showing up with intention is what turns your passion into real influence in your community. The conversation also lands somewhere freeing: your cause doesn't have to be your forever, and giving yourself permission to evolve is part of designing a meaningful life. In This Episode, You'll Learn: The real difference between volunteering and board service, why a board's actual job is governance, and what's expected of you once you have a seatHow to "volunteer with intention," name your skill set so the right people can tap you, and learn an organization's strategic plan and gaps before you ever ask to joinThe tactical things every prospective board member should know, from the fact that nonprofit boards are unpaid and carry fiduciary responsibility, to why you want liability coverage and accurate minutesHow to build a reputation that opens doors, why leadership is a whole-life practice, and how to network your way toward a board seat without awkwardly asking for oneWhy your passions are allowed to shift over time, how to find the "through line" that connects the causes you care about, and why you're never married to a single missionResources: Recommended next listen: Finding Friendship and Community as a Childfree Adult, Ep 201 https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-201 Episode Guest: Lemon Price is a civic leader, ICF-trained leadership coach, and certified public speaker whose work sits at the intersection of institutional influence, intentional living, and women's leadership development. She hosts the Well Lived Society podcast, ranked in the top 2 percent of podcasts globally, and has been featured twice in Forbes for her work in leadership development. She's the founder of Civic and Board Fellowship, a six-week experience helping accomplished women enter the rooms where decisions are made, and she currently serves the Junior League of Savannah and as a legislative liaison for the Georgia State Public Affairs Committee. Connect with Lemon Price: Website: lemonprice.co  Podcast: The Well Lived Society  LinkedIn: Lemon Price Episode Host: Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Giving gets complicated fast when you start asking where your time and money can make the most impact. Bri Conn, CFP® and Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® explore how Childfree people can give with more intention, whether that means volunteering, donating to causes, supporting friends and family, or creating meaningful experiences. They also cover giving while you are alive, vetting organizations before making larger commitments, and setting boundaries so generosity does not turn into obligation. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why deciding who you want to impact comes before deciding how much to give.How to choose between giving time, money, skills, services, or a combination that fits your life.Why giving while you are alive can help you see the impact, test organizations, and adjust your plans over time.What to consider before making a large gift to a small local nonprofit that may not have the systems to manage it.How paying for education, services, experiences, or specific needs can create healthier boundaries when helping friends and family.Mentioned in this episode: Ann Patchett TEDx Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBx86QE4k3s Episode Hosts: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

You pay more for healthcare than almost anyone on earth, and it keeps getting harder to actually get the care you're paying for. Jordan Grumet, MD, the hospice doctor known as Doc G, returns to explain why, and his answer is blunt: the system isn't broken by accident, it's built to pull money out of the middle and away from the patients and the people caring for them. He and Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® get honest about what that means for Childfree people especially, who can't assume a family member will be there to advocate or provide unpaid care. In This Episode, You'll Learn: How the modern healthcare system shifted from a public good to a business, and why Americans pay roughly double per person while so much of that money never reaches actual careWhy the "divide and conquer" dynamic pits doctors and patients against each other, and how that keeps the people who could demand change too busy fighting each other to see what's happeningWhat concrete steps individuals can take right now, from direct primary care and concierge medicine to asking for generics, appealing insurance denials, and seeking out doctors who still own their practicesWhy long-term care is an especially hard road for Childfree people, since standard plans quietly assume a family member available for unpaid caregiving, and how to plan around thatWhy Dr. Grumet stays hopeful despite it all, how past movements turned public outrage into real reform, and why building enough financial freedom to cover the basics is what lets you live a purposeful lifeMentioned in this episode: Finding Purpose Beyond Financial Independence with Doc G, Ep 120 https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-120 Episode Guest: Jordan Grumet, MD (Doc G) is an internal medicine and hospice physician, currently an associate medical director at Unity Hospice, and the host of the award-winning Earn & Invest podcast, which won the Plutus Award for Best New Personal Finance Podcast. He is the author of Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor's Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life, The Purpose Code, and his newest book, The Healthcare Heist: How Physicians and Patients Can Unite to Transform Healthcare. After his own burnout in medicine, he turned toward writing and speaking about financial independence, purpose, and living a meaningful life. Connect with Jordan Grumet, MD: Website: jordangrumet.com  Podcast: Earn & Invest  Books: Taking Stock, The Purpose Code, and The Healthcare Heist Episode Host: Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

The entire estate and long-term care system runs on one assumption: that you have kids who will make your decisions, provide your care, and inherit what's left. For Childfree people, that quietly turns standard legal documents into a liability. In this deliberately nerdy solo episode, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® pulls apart the 6,000-word article he wrote for financial planners at Kitces and turns it into a plan you can actually use, from the trust language that should put your care first to the net worth buckets that decide how you pay for it. It's technical, honest, and built on one blunt truth: the system won't protect you, so you have to build the plan that will. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why the standard estate planning system breaks down for Childfree people, and why the goal is a plan for both paying for care and naming decision-makers in place by your mid-40sHow traditional HEMS trust language limits your own care, and why "exhaustion for care" provisions that put your comfort first are essential in a Childfree trustWhy naming a relative who also inherits creates a conflict of interest, how it opens the door to elder financial abuse, and what the alternatives are, from state-licensed fiduciaries to a nationwide serviceWhy a pet trust matters, how to fund one so your animal is genuinely protected, and why pets are the number one reason Childfree people finally complete their estate paperworkHow to actually pay for long-term care using the net worth buckets, why Medicare doesn't cover it, and how the single tax makes care more expensive when you're on your ownResources Mentioned: The full Kitces article: Childfree Trust Planning: A Lifetime Care Defense https://www.kitces.com/blog/client-childfree-trust-planning-lifetime-care-defense-estate-ltc-insurance/  Childfree Trust: https://childfreetrust.com/ FreeWill, free estate paperwork: https://www.freewill.com/ The NOKBOX (Next of Kin Box): https://www.thenokbox.com/ Recompose: https://recompose.life/ Episode Host: Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is the trusted education hub for people who are Childfree or permanently Childless. It provides guidance on finances, estate planning, relationships, and life decisions for adults without children. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®, supporting long-term planning for people living without kids. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Money is one of the top reasons couples split, and almost half of us dodge the conversation entirely to keep the peace. Bri Conn, CFP® and Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® make the case that avoiding it is the actual risk, and they get refreshingly personal about how to do it well, chicken nugget meltdowns and all. They dig into why the fight is almost never about the dollar amount, how a 20 dollar argument and a 100,000 dollar one are the exact same issue wearing different clothes, and why every couple needs a safe pocket of no-judgment "fun money." Along the way they share the specific structures that actually work: the credit report date before things get serious, weekly money dates dressed up with a little life and gratitude, and a single code word that can pause a hard conversation before it boils over. It's honest, funny, and built for anyone designing a shared life on their own terms. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why the argument is almost never about the dollar amount, how a small purchase and a six-figure one can be the identical communication issue, and what to address insteadHow to set money boundaries as a couple, what to share and what stays private, and why the boundary around what you tell family and friends matters just as muchWhy the person who manages everything solo is setting up a crisis, and how to build a backup so a death, disability, or illness doesn't become an administrative disasterWhy every couple needs a pocket of no-judgment personal money, and how "fun money" protects the relationship from guilt and controlThe concrete tools that make hard talks easier, from the credit report date to weekly money dates to a code word that calls a timeout before things escalateMentioned in this episode: Business Insider Article: I'm a childfree and a millionaire. I rent my home, have no plans for full retirement, and want to spend all my money before I die.Episode Hosts: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Nobody wants to picture the version of later life where their mind or body stops cooperating, so most people file long-term care under "deal with it later." Jesse Vickey built a whole company on the belief that later is exactly the wrong time to start. The founder of Long Term What? joins Bri Conn, CFP® to make one of the most avoided money conversations feel clear and even a little hopeful, walking through what long-term care actually is, the four ways people pay for it, and why roughly 70 percent of adults will need it while the average long-term care bill already runs about $129,000 a year. For Childfree adults especially, who can't assume an adult child will step in as the default caregiver, the planning window and the health that lets you qualify for coverage are everything. The throughline is one Jesse comes back to again and again: the best time to plan is while you're still healthy enough to have all your options open. In This Episode, You'll Learn: What long-term care actually means, the two triggers insurers use to define it, and why 70 percent of adults will need care while costs climb around 5 percent a yearThe four ways people pay for long-term care, from relying on family to Medicaid to insurance to self-funding, and how to think through which fits your lifeWhy insurance can act as a psychological "permission slip" to actually accept care, when self-funders often deny it to themselves to preserve their savingsWhy a health pre-screen before you formally apply is critical, how a single recorded decline can follow you across insurers, and why your healthy window is the time to actWhat to look for in a policy, from benefit length and cash versus reimbursement to rate-increase risk and the new coverage that finally follows you abroadEpisode Guest: Jesse Vickey is the founder of Long Term What?, a company built on the belief that long-term care is one of the biggest untold stories in America. After graduating from Duke and beginning his career on Wall Street, he left banking to found two mission-driven companies, one using humor to teach college graduates the life skills school never covered, and another connecting busy families with in-home meal prep. Through Long Term What?, he now helps people cut through the confusion of long-term care, learn their options, talk with their families, and build a plan, guiding them through insurance when it's the right fit. Connect with Jesse Vickey: Website: longtermwhat.com  YouTube: Long Term What? Episode Host: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

The worst tax stories aren't about criminals, they're about ordinary people doing what they thought was allowed and stepping into a trap. Bri Conn, CFP® reads a string of real-world cautionary tales while Maddy Roche reacts and Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® explains what actually went wrong, from the influencer myth that your whole life becomes a write-off, to the unpaid tax bill that can revoke your passport at the airport, to the rent your unmarried partner pays you that the IRS counts as income. The throughline is one every Childfree person building a life outside the standard script needs to hear: the tax code has sharp edges around staying single, filing unmarried, and living abroad, and ignorance of the rules is the one excuse the IRS will never accept. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why "I post about my life, so my life is a write-off" is a myth, how the IRS separates a real business with a profit motive from a hobby, and what actually happens when you never show a profitHow unpaid taxes can get your passport revoked, why the IRS can lien your home or garnish wages after the fact, and why a payment plan keeps you current and protectedWhy chasing a lower tax bill by moving states or obsessing over brackets can cost you far more in happiness than it saves, and how to weigh the real tradeoffsWhy getting legally married often works against Childfree couples on taxes and student loans, and how filing unmarried, gift-tax limits, and estate-tax cliffs quietly reshape the mathHow an ordinary foreign bank account can trigger FBAR reporting and life-altering penalties, and why your CPA and financial planner can only protect you if you tell them everythingEpisode Hosts: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Most mainstream tax advice runs on autopilot, and the autopilot assumes you're married with kids, funding a 529, and leaving an inheritance behind. When none of that describes your life, following it can cost you a fortune. Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® and Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC start from a blunter premise: the tax code is built to reward having children, so Childfree people are never going to get those breaks, and the smarter move is to design your own. The throughline is the opposite of chasing a lower bill this year. It's using taxes as one more tool to fund the life you actually want, paying the IRS what's owed without leaving a tip, and knowing when the strategy some influencer swears by simply doesn't fit a life without kids. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why the tax system is intentionally pronatalist, how that shapes everything from the child tax credit to head-of-household status, and why designing your own tax breaks matters when the built-in ones were never meant for youWhy the popular "become a landlord for passive income" advice often breaks down for Childfree people once you factor in the lost step-up in basis, and how a charitable remainder unitrust can turn an appreciated property into lifetime income plus a charitable benefitHow to think through the pre-tax versus Roth 401(k) decision, why your tax bracket, your state's income tax, your student loans, and any dream of moving abroad all change the answerWhy the Roth conversion and backdoor Roth strategies the financial press pushes every November are so easy to get wrong, and when the paperwork simply isn't worth itWhy paying zero tax in a given year is not always the win it looks like, how donor-advised funds let you time your giving for maximum benefit, and why coordinating a CFP® professional and a CPA protects you over a lifetime rather than a single AprilResources Mentioned in this Episode: Early Retirement Tax Planning with Cody Garrett, CFP®, Ep 166: : https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-166 Get Dr. Jay's book "The Childfree Guide to Life and Money" here: https://childfreewealth.com/childfree-guide/ Learn more about Childfree Wealth:  www.childfreewealth.com Learn more about Childfree Trust: https://www.childfreetrust.com  Episode Hosts: Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth®, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and permanently Childless people, and Childfree Trust®, the first of its kind next of kin representation service for Childfree people. He is also the author of The Childfree Guide to Life and Money. Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC is an Associate Advisor at Childfree Wealth® and the go-to expert for long-term care strategies and tax planning questions. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Most people first hear the words guardianship and conservatorship in a moment of crisis, when an accident, illness, or cognitive decline has already taken the decision out of their hands. Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW has spent years inside that court system, conducting the capacity assessments that decide whether someone keeps the right to manage their own life or a court steps in to decide for them. She joins Bri Conn, CFP® to pull these intimidating legal terms apart and draw a clear line between the reactive path and the proactive one: guardianship and conservatorship are what happen when no plan exists, while a power of attorney set up ahead of time keeps every medical and financial choice in your hands. For solo adults who may not have a default next of kin to name, they talk through how to build that safety net on purpose and how Childfree Trust® can step in when there is no obvious person to list. In This Episode, You'll Learn: The real difference between guardianship and conservatorship, why guardianship is best understood as reactive, and how a court process gets triggered when no plan is already in placeHow a guardian or conservator actually gets chosen, who can file the petition, what the two-professional assessment involves, and how the role can fall to a stranger or the state when no one you know is willing or able to serveWhy guardianship is so difficult and costly to reverse once it is granted, and what the ward has to go through to try to reinstate their own rightsHow a power of attorney for both medical and financial decisions keeps your choices in your hands, why it never requires a court, and why naming a backup is just as important as naming your first choiceWhat belongs in your care documents, from doctors and billing details to your wishes on treatment, facilities, who to notify, and even who cares for your pet, and how Childfree Trust® can serve as the power of attorney when you have no one to name by defaultExplore Childfree Trust: Explore Childfree Trust & start protecting your future today: https://childfreetrust.com/ Episode Hosts: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW  is a Senior Advisor at Childfree Trust® with three decades in social services across child welfare, public schools, and guardianship and probate. She is also one of the nation's first Certified Veterinary Social Workers, with deep expertise in the legal and emotional terrain that vulnerable individuals navigate. She has conducted guardianship and capacity assessments within the court system for many years. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

There's a particular kind of quiet worry that comes with being Childfree, the suspicion that everyone else received some piece of wiring you're missing. Dr. Amy Blackstone spent her mid-30s certain she was broken as a woman, and she went looking for the research to explain what had gone wrong with her. What she found became her life's work. There is no maternal instinct waiting to switch on, and the majority of Childfree people she interviewed had opted out for a reason that genuinely surprised her: they watched their parents do it well, understood exactly what good parenting asks of a person, and chose to put their energy somewhere else. She joins Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® for a conversation that runs from the political noise around falling birth rates to what the research actually says about regret, and lands on the thing that reframes everything. If you feel wrong, it may be because you've been measuring yourself against the wrong population. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why there is no scientific basis for the maternal instinct, and how the absence of that supposed pull leaves so many people convinced something is wrong with themThe biggest surprise in Dr. Amy Blackstone's research, that most Childfree people she interviewed had good childhoods and opted out precisely because they saw how much good parenting requiresWhat the research actually shows about regret, why the distinction between Childfree and Childless matters so much, which group does report unhappiness later in life, and how that compares to the share of parents who regret having kidsWhy measuring your life against the standard life script guarantees you'll feel like you're doing it wrong, and how comparing yourself to the right population changes the entire pictureHow stigma around the Childfree choice has shifted over the decades, what today's pronatalist politics and policy fights look like, and why roughly a quarter of the country remains almost entirely underservedResources Mentioned:  Laura Carroll, Childfree author and advocate who revitalized International Childfree Day: https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-74/  Marcia Drut-Davis, author of Confessions of a Childfree Woman: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marcia-Drut-Davis/author/B08429L4CL  The Childfree Path to a Healthier Planet | Jay Zigmont, PhD, MBA, CFP® | TEDxWilsonPark: https://youtu.be/ltZpfHCpHPg?si=38LrZlkf4oMGWyE8  Episode Guest: Dr. Amy Blackstone is a public sociologist who studies and writes about reproductive justice, population trends, workplace sexual harassment, activism and other forms of civic engagement, power and politics, and any other topic that strikes her fancy, hits the news, or gets myopic dingdongs with too much power riled up. In recent years, much of her focus has been dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic and what's been left in its wake: a silent but no less crushing aftershock, an illness known as Long COVID, that has claimed millions, snatching her from public life, while the world carries on as if nothing has happened. Her book, CHILDFREE BY CHOICE (Penguin Random House) enraged pronatalists the world over, a career highlight. Dr. Blackstone worked as a professor of sociology at the University of Maine for a quarter century and she now looks forward to a future of retirement and troublemaking. Connect with Dr. Amy Blackstone: Website: amyblackstonephd.com Instagram: instagram.com/a.maria.blackstone/ Childfree by Choice by Dr. Amy Blackstone https://www.amazon.com/stores/Amy-Blackstone/author/B07T7TM4DT  Episode Host: Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® (he/him) is the Founder of Childfree Wealth, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping people simplify their finances so they can live an amazing Childfree life. Dr. Jay is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, Childfree Wealth Specialist, and author of the book "The Childfree Guide to Life and Money." About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

When you're Childfree, disability insurance is essential. Bri Conn, CFP® and Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC make the case that your paycheck is the engine behind the entire life you've designed, and protecting it isn't the same as guarding against some freak accident. More than one in four of today's 20-year-olds will become disabled before retirement, and about 90 percent of claims come from ordinary illnesses like cancer, heart conditions, and long COVID, not the dramatic scenarios people picture. The throughline is the one that runs through everything on this show: your income is your freedom, and protecting it on purpose is how you keep the life you built. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why disability is far more common than people assume, with more than one in four of today's 20-year-olds becoming disabled before retirement and about 90 percent of claims coming from everyday illnesses rather than accidentsThe real difference between short-term and long-term disability coverage, and why a solo earner with no partner to fall back on should treat long-term coverage as non-negotiableHow the definition of disability in your policy changes everything, from the restrictive "any occupation" standard to the "own occupation" coverage that keeps paying even if you build a new careerHow occupational class, benefit caps, and riders like residual disability shape what you actually pay and what you actually collect, and why mental health claims are often limited to a set number of yearsThe tax rule that catches people off guard, why a benefit paid for by your employer is taxable while one you fund yourself arrives tax-free, and how that math should shape the coverage you chooseEpisode Hosts: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC is an Associate Advisor at Childfree Wealth® and the go-to expert for long-term care strategies and tax planning questions. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is the trusted education hub for people who are Childfree or permanently Childless. It provides guidance on finances, estate planning, relationships, and life decisions for adults without children. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®, supporting long-term planning for people living without kids. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Building real community as an adult is quietly one of the hardest things about modern life, and it gets harder when you're Childfree. The friends you assumed would always be around get busy, have kids, or move away, and one day you look up and realize the built-in social life adulthood promised never actually arrived. Maddy Roche sits down with four people who got tired of waiting and built the communities they couldn't find. Kari Cardinale of the Modern Elder Academy, Florence Wlodarski of Parallel Social Club, and Charlie and Ali Higgins of DINK Social each started from the same quiet ache, wanting people whose weekends were free and whose lives looked like theirs, and turned it into something thousands have now joined. Underneath it all sits a striking finding: the single biggest predictor of a long life is not diet or exercise, but the quality of the friendships you build in midlife. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why finding your people gets harder in your 40s and beyond, the specific friction points that make adult friendship so difficult, and how these community builders designed around every one of themHow three very different organizations approach the same need, from a midlife wisdom school to an in-person social club to an app built specifically for Childfree couplesWhy the first hangout is only the entry point, and how structured, smaller gatherings create the deeper "third vault" conversations that actually bond people togetherWhat it takes for an introvert to walk into a new community and get the most out of it, including why small, vetted, interest-based groups beat big networking-style eventsThe 80-year Harvard finding that the quality of your midlife friendships predicts a long life more than diet or exercise, and why that reframes community as a health priorityEpisode Guests: Kari Cardinale is a partner and Chief Content Officer at MEA (Modern Elder Academy), a midlife wisdom school with campuses in Baja, Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, plus a digital campus and an alumni community of 8,000 people across 60 countries, all built around navigating midlife and building new friendships. MEA (Modern Elder Academy): meawisdom.com Florence Wlodarski is the co-founder of Parallel Social Club, a social wellness community in Los Angeles built for DINKs, SINKs, Childfree, and childless adults. Parallel hosts around ten small, curated in-person events a month, designed to remove the friction from adult friendship and help busy professionals actually connect. Parallel Social Club: parallelsocialclub.com  Charlie and Ali Higgins are the co-founders of DINK Social, a social app built exclusively for Childfree couples to connect, discover events, and build real friendships. Launched in early 2026, the community-driven platform has already surpassed 2,500 couples. DINK Social: dinksocial.com  Episode Host: Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Loneliness carries the same health toll as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and for Childfree adults there is no built-in carpool lane to friendship. You build your crew on purpose. In this episode, Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW, Maddy Roche, Bri Conn, CFP®, and Alli Gage trade honest stories about the moments that forced them to rebuild their circles, from divorce and sobriety to cross-country moves, and the practical ways they found their people again. They get into why intergenerational friendships are a quiet superpower when your life is not organized around school pickups and playgroups, how to take the pressure off by letting not every friend be a best friend, and the small, repeatable habits, showing up a second time, raising your hand to volunteer, casting a wide net, that turn strangers into a community that fits the life you designed. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why friendship is a health requirement rather than a nice-to-have, and what the research on loneliness, the friendship recession, and the emotional-support deficit reveals about how common it is to feel disconnectedHow major life changes like divorce, sobriety, and moving can signal that your crew needs to change, and how to rebuild intentionally by getting clear on how you want to spend your time and who you want around youWhy intergenerational friendships are a particular advantage for Childfree adults, and how connecting across age groups brings perspective, mentorship, and a richer lifeHow to take the pressure off friendship by connecting over one shared thing, since not every friend has to be a best friend for the relationship to be deeply satisfyingThe practical, repeatable moves for finding your people, from hobbies, classes, volunteering, and faith communities to apps like Bumble BFF and Meetup, plus why going back a second time changes everythingEpisode Hosts: Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW is a Senior Advisor at Childfree Trust® with three decades in social services across child welfare, public schools, and guardianship and probate. She is also one of the nation's first Certified Veterinary Social Workers, with deep expertise in the legal and emotional terrain that vulnerable individuals navigate. Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making. Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. Alli Gage is the Chief of Staff at Childfree Insights, the behind-the-scenes coordinator who keeps all the organizations running in an orderly fashion across the board. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Being Childfree changes how you build a business, from the money you can pour back in, to the hours you keep to the question of who it's all for. Jena Gribble of Blush Cactus and Huzefa Kapadia of Scalar Learning join Bri Conn, CFP® to talk about what that has actually looked like for them, the runway that lets them weather a slow season, the boundaries they set by choice, and how they think about a business's future when handing it down was never part of the plan. They get into the real trade-offs and the freedom underneath them, including why success on your own terms beats scaling for the sake of scaling every time. In This Episode, You'll Learn: How being Childfree can create real financial flexibility for a business owner, from reinvesting profits to building the runway that carries you through slower seasons.Why flexibility and availability are not the same as having unlimited time, and how both founders set boundaries around work that they chose rather than work that was imposed on them.How to think about the future of a business when passing it to children isn’t the goal.Why defining what success actually looks like matters so much for Childfree founders, and how to avoid the trap of scaling for the sake of scaling.What experienced founders wish more people understood before starting out.Episode Guests: Jena Gribble is the founder and brand strategist at Blush Cactus, a branding and marketing agency in Gilbert, Arizona, that helps businesses clarify who they are, communicate their value, and build brands people trust. What began as a freelance graphic design business grew into a full agency with a team, with strategy at the heart of everything they do. Connect with Jena: blushcactus.com Huzefa Kapadia is the founder of Scalar Learning, a Los Angeles based education company focused on math education. A former software engineer and patent attorney, he launched Scalar Learning solo in 2013 and grew it through word of mouth and a successful YouTube channel into a team of tutors, while still tutoring more than anyone on his team. Connect with Huzefa: scalarlearning.com  Episode Host: Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education. About Childfree Insights: Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®. Connect with Us: Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com. Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.