Don’t forget that if you’re attending the WealthCounsel 2014 Planning for the Generations Symposium, TODAY is the last day to take advantage of special conference prices. We will be at our booth until the conference concludes at 12pm. Special 25% discount off your product order Payment plans are available Special IRA Inheritance Trust® Marketing Bundle Package (available only at the conference!) Save $100 on July 23rd’s Practice-Building Program on Time Management by signing up today! The EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS for our upcoming Ultimate LevelSM 2½ Day Practice-Building Programs expires on July 31st, so be sure to sign up right away:…
What’s the Truth About Life Settlements?
By Daxton Fryer, Senior Life Settlement Analyst Whether you call it a life settlement, a lifetime settlement or a senior settlement, Life Settlements have become a very popular option for today’s financial planners and trusted advisors and their clients who may want to cash out their life insurance policies. Life Settlements have also become a powerful option for corporations, trusts and individuals who have poorly performing or thinly funded senior client policies. This specialty is fast becoming a mainstream financial planning tool for insurance agents, CPA’s, tax attorneys, estate planners, elder law attorneys and trust companies. As a financial professional,…
Top Five Life Insurance Myths
By Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP (Distinguished) Understanding life insurance is important for everybody in the estate planning industry. Whether you are a financial advisor, an attorney, an accountant or a banker, you have plenty of opportunities to help your clients make good life insurance decisions. With any complex topic, there are always myths that exist that cause people to make bad purchase decisions. The life insurance industry is no different than other industries in that numerous myths have been repeated over and over through the years. MYTH #1- Buying term insurance and investing the difference is better than buying…
Naming IRA Beneficiaries
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished), CGMA Earlier this year, the IRS released PLR 201417027 in which it refused to extend the deadline to begin required minimum distributions (RMDs), for taxpayers who were not even aware that they were beneficiaries of a decedent’s retirement plan. Because of their seemingly innocent mistake, the missed RMDs might be sliced in half by the 50% excise tax for missed distributions under IRC § 4947(a) and the beneficiaries might be exposed to negligence and understatement penalties under IRC § 6662. This ruling is a reminder of the importance of proper naming of…
I Had a Successful Practice, Now What?
By Joseph J. Strazzeri, Esq. At industry conferences you hear it all the time. The first day is all about friends connecting and sharing their successes since they last saw each other. Over dinner and wine, or maybe the next day, you start to hear the challenges they are facing such as fewer clients, lower compensation, more hours, and administrative team breakdowns. Practitioners that have been in the business more than half-a-dozen years have seen these ups and downs of market driven forces, and they no longer try to address the symptoms, but rather the underlying cause. Understanding that the…
Estate Analyst—Clark v. Rameker: No Bankruptcy Exemption for Inherited IRA
By Robert L. Moshman, Esq. It is not often that the Supreme Court provides a clear rule on any aspect of financial planning (or even graces our niche with a passing reference), so these occasions call for special attention. On June 12, 2014, the Supreme Court’s decision in Clark v. Rameker clarified that an inherited IRA is not a protected retirement fund for bankruptcy purposes. Here, we analyze the decision and its impact on planning issues and review the applicable rules and caveats that apply to inherited IRAs. Note: The following discussion of IRAs is about traditional tax-deferred IRAs only…
BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court Decision on IRA Bankruptcy Case!
A Supreme Court Decision was made in an Inherited IRA bankruptcy case (Clark v. Raemaker), which brought to light the importance for estate planners and clients to utilize a standalone IRA beneficiary trust to better protect IRA assets! As a result of this exciting news, we are pleased to bring to you a very special, limited-time offer… Get 25% off ALL of Our IRA Inheritance Trust® Products! PLUS, we have a very special Bundle Package that allows you to purchase all of our products at an even greater discount (and the option for a monthly payment plan). You will want…
The 2014 Stanley Cup Champs Pass by UEP
We break the usual estate planning-related content of our blog to bring you some urgent and important news. Our beloved Los Angeles Kings and 2014 Stanley Cup Champions passed by our office earlier today during a parade through the South Bay. Our President, Phil Kavesh, captured this perfect photo opportunity of this momentous occasion. GO! KINGS! GO!
Top 10 Things Every Advisor Needs to Know About Inherited IRAs
By Michael J. Jones, CPA | Volume 2, Issue 6 (June 2014) In my practice, I’m seeing an increase in inherited Individual Retirement Accounts. That’s alerted me to an ever-increasing need for practitioners to review not only how IRAs fit into clients’ financial planning, but also to review and advise them properly regarding the beneficiary form and other key issues. Here are some things advisors and their clients need to keep in mind. An IRA is a ticking tax bomb. Unlike other assets, the income tax basis in an IRA inheritor’s hands will not be its fair market value upon death….
Recent IRA Developments
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished), CGMA | Volume 2, Issue 6 (June 2014) Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) are one of the most popular retirement saving vehicles available today. Many of your clients, if not all, will have either (if not both) a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. The rules concerning IRAs are vast and continually being further defined. In this article, I will discuss some of the more important IRA developments over the past six months or so. Bobrow v. Commissioner In Bobrow v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2014-21, the court interpreted the “limit of one IRA to IRA…