Q&A: I’m the Executor of Dad’s $500K Portfolio. Should I Cash It Out?

Paula Pant and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy answer three listener questions: an executor deciding whether to move his late father’s $500,000 brokerage account to cash during probate, an investor whose bond fund lost 38% in six years, and a 401(k) plan manager of 23 years defending target-date funds. Key takeaways include protecting estate value without market timing, the illusion of individual-bond safety when rates spike, and when bond funds beat individual bonds. The episode closes with a discussion of why so many people avoid looking at their own money.