Posts by Kristina Schneider
How “Electronically” Organized Are You?
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the top tips to get yourself more organized in your office space and through your daily workload, but your organization isn’t just about what’s on the outside. How about your electronic files on the computer? If you’ve ever spent more than five minutes looking…
Read MoreFive Simple Tips for Being a More Organized Assistant
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Being an organized assistant is important when supporting a busy professional advisor or attorney, especially one that may be meeting with multiple clients and managing multiple projects and priorities (like most professionals are doing). Organization isn’t just about how your office looks, but it is also how you manage…
Read MoreAdvise Clients to “Shift” Opportunities Rather than Grab It Themselves
By Jeremy Spackman, Esq. Opportunity Shifting is a technique where a client’s parent, grandparent or other person sets up a beneficiary controlled Dynasty Trust for the benefit of the client and the client’s descendants. The client, as trustee of the Dynasty Trust, uses the gift made by the parent or grandparent to invest in a hot…
Read More“Contextualizing” Life Insurance
By Jason Oshins, Financial Advisor, MBA Context is everything, and an important component of a financial advisor’s job is to contextualize the decision-making process to enable clients to make more effective decisions with a greater likelihood of long-term success. When planning for a couple’s retirement, I frequently begin by reviewing a life expectancy chart, emphasizing…
Read More“Green Book” Proposals and Income Tax Planning
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) On April 13, the Treasury Department issued its annual Revenue Raising Proposals, commonly referred to as the“Green Book”. In this column we will summarize the key income tax proposals and suggest some planning ideas. These proposals include: (1) Implementing the Buffett Rule by imposing a new “Fair…
Read MoreFight Back Against “Commoditization” and Low-Priced Competition
Download Printable Article By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law (UPDATED JULY 2015) The estate planning profession, and in particular the basic Living Trust-centered practice, has been hammered by new challenges. There’s the proliferation of Internet “zoom” document providers and do-it-yourself…
Read MoreTax Planning for 2013 Under the New Laws
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) As you probably know all too well, tax rates increase substantially in 2013 and later years for high income taxpayers. Not only did the top income tax rate increase from 35% to 39.6%, but a 3.8% Medicare surtax is now imposed on net investment income (NII). The…
Read MoreNew Private Letter Ruling Approves NING Trust
By William D. Lipkind, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation) & Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP (Distinguished) For many years, practitioners have used the so-called DING Trust to save substantial state income taxes for their clients. “DING Trust” is short for Delaware Incomplete Gift Non-Grantor Trust. It’s an irrevocable trust that the settlor sets up for the benefit…
Read MoreInsurance as the Key Ingredient of the “New” Estate Planning
Summary of a Live Presentation by Martin M. Shenkman, J.D., CPA, MBA, PFS®, AEP (Distinguished) Despite the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“ATRA”), which has now made the federal estate tax exemption “permanent” at $5.25 million, your high net worth clients should still consider estate tax planning right now. The gift exemption is still…
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