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…

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…

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…

The Top 20 Seminar Marketing Mistakes People Make (Part 1 of 2)

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law | Volume 2, Issue 6 (June 2014) Marketing – – particularly seminar marketing – – has come up quite a bit in recent weeks.  From those attending our May Ultimate Level event, to list serve discussions, to people randomly contacting me.  It prompted me to take a break from the usual practice-building topic and put together an article on seminar marketing. Over the years, seminar presentations sure have evolved, from overhead transparencies, to slide carousel projectors to laptops and…

Estate Planning for the Middle Class: Overcoming Myths with Reality

By Matthew D. Blattmachr, CFP®, Trust Officer, Alaska Trust Company | Volume 2, Issue 5 (May 2014) Here are a few common misconceptions (or objections) people have about estate planning and trusts – – and how to overcome them. Myth #1: Estate Planning is only important for the very wealthy. Reality: Every client needs some kind of estate plan, because everyone has an estate. The size of your estate does not dictate whether or not you need a plan, but rather what plan you need. If clients don’t create a specific plan, then the state is more than happy to…

Another Private Letter Ruling Approves NING Trust

By William D. Lipkind, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation) & Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP (Distinguished) | Volume 2, Issue 5 (May 2014) Taxpayers in high income tax jurisdictions with large unrealized capital gains or a regular stream of ordinary income from an investment portfolio have always wanted to find a way to eliminate or minimize their state income tax exposure without giving up the economic benefit of the underlying assets.  On March 8, 2013, the IRS issued PLRs 20131002 through 20131006 approving such a trust under Nevada law.  These landmark Rulings have opened the doors for many practitioners to take advantage…