As part of our December 2014 Newsletter, we are featuring a special “Best Of” issue. Below, you will find a list of our Top 10 Articles on Financial & Life Insurance Planning. These articles are written by a variety of financial and estate planning professionals, as noted below. Some Magical Aspects of Life Insurance by Jonathan G. Blattmachr & Matthew D. Blattmachr Insurance as the Key Ingredient of the “New” Estate Planning Summary of a Live Presentation by Martin M. Shenkman, J.D., CPA/PFS, MBA, AEP (Distinguished) Life Insurance from the Estate Planning Attorney’s Viewpoint by Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP…
Our Top 10 Best Articles on Support Staff & Executive Assistant Tips
As part of our December 2014 Newsletter, we are featuring a special “Best Of” issue. Below, you will find a list of our Top 10 Articles on Support Staff and Executive Assistants. All of these articles were authored and written by Kristina Schneider and Megan DeLaGarza, Executive Assistants to Philip Kavesh. Five Simple Tips for Being a More Organized Assistant 6 Ways to Better Manage Your Interruptions How “Electronically” Organized Are You? Effectively Managing Your Boss’ Busy Calendar 7 Tips for Taking Better Notes & Being More Efficient! 6 Tips for Handling Difficult Clients 8 Steps to Hiring a Great…
Our Top 10 Best Articles on Practice-Building
As part of our December 2014 Newsletter, we are featuring a special “Best Of” issue. Below, you will find a list of our Top 10 Articles on Practice-Building. All of these articles were authored and written by Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law. 8 Year-End Practice Building Tips to Implement RIGHT NOW Conduct a Successful “Kick-Off” Meeting with Your Firm Staff Reviews & Setting Goals at the Beginning of the New Year Fight Back Against “Commoditization” and Low-Priced Competition Blow Up Your Annual Maintenance Fee Program!…
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…
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…
Books Now Available Through The Ultimate Estate Planner
At The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc., we are always trying to find the best products and resources available to assist practitioners. One of the ways that many estate planning professionals learn is through the more traditional method of reading books (yes, actual books!). We are pleased to team up with The National Underwriter Company and bring to you a number of books available for purchase through our website. We will be adding more publications in the next few weeks, so be sure to come back for more! ESTATE PLANNING BOOKS The Tools & Techniques of Estate Planning, 16th Edition Authors:…
2013 Year-End Tax Planning Ideas (Part 3)
By Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) As we near the end of 2013, year-end tax planning again takes center stage. In the last two newsletters we covered two of the most important year-end planning strategies in detail—loss harvesting and Roth IRA conversions. In this newsletter we summarize a number of other strategies that may produce substantial tax savings. Making Trust Distributions The tax brackets for trusts are much more compressed than the tax brackets for individuals. Trusts begin being taxed at the top rate of 39.6% when income rises above $11,950. By contrast, individuals filing joint returns don’t…
Robert Keebler on President Obama’s 2014 Budget Proposal
Thanks to generosity of Robert Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) of Keebler & Associates, LLP, AICPA and Leimberg Information Services, we are pleased to provide to you two free podcasts to download on the subject of President Obama’s 2014 Proposed Budget. Obama’s proposed budget will have a negative impact on the following planning: The estate tax rate would increase to 45% from today’s 40% rate. The gift tax exemption would be reduced to $1,000,000 The estate tax and GST exemptions would be reduced to $3,500,000 The GST period would be limited to 90 years from today’s unlimited period Current dynasty…
Steve Oshins’ 3rd Annual DAPT Ranking Chart & Other Free Updated Charts Available to Download
Steve Oshins’ 3rd Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust Ranking Chart Thanks to the generosity of nationally renowned estate planning and asset protection attorney, Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) for providing his 3rd Annual Domestic Asset Protection Trust Ranking Chart. For the first time since the chart was originally created, this chart now assigns numerical rankings to each DAPT state. The approximate weights assigned to each variable are listed. However, please note that in the interests of impartiality, since Nevada is the only state (of the top eight states per the rankings) that doesn’t allow divorcing spouses to access its…