Our Services

 

 

Insurance Services

Life, disability and long term care insurance are about risk. Risk is the exposure to the possibility of loss. Risk can be assumed, ignored or transferred to a risk bearer. By asking questions and listening to you, I can provide solutions to help meet your needs. Whether for personal or business situations, I will help you to determine the appropriate type and amount of insurance. I can also provide you with a full array of health insurance options.

Corporate Benefits Programs

If you're a business owner, you know the importance of attracting loyal, hard-working employees. But once you've attracted them, what are you doing to motivate, reward, and retain them?

Perhaps equally as important, what are you doing to reward yourself?

By helping you understand - and implement - qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, I can help you set extra – even substantial - money aside for yourself and selected key associates; I can help your employees prepare for their own retirement; and we can show you ways to motivate, reward, and retain loyal, hard-working employees.

I offer products, services and strategies for the following business planning needs:

• Deferred Compensation and bonus plans
• Stock redemption and cross-purchase plans
• Key-man and buy/sell insurance
• Split dollar techniques
• Group life, health and disability plans
• Section 79 plans
• Captive Insurance

Estate Planning Strategies

You've worked hard over the years and you've accumulated some assets. But if you're like many people, you probably haven't taken the time to develop a plan for preserving those assets. Unfortunately, estate taxes could consume a sizeable portion of everything you've worked hard to accumulate over the years.

Don't let that happen to you.

Let me show you how to reduce the amount of taxes your estate may owe, as well as how to plan for the eventual distribution of your assets to your heirs. Through the use of wills, trusts, charitable gifting programs, and life insurance, I can help you find solutions to address:

• Wealth preservation
• Wealth transfer
• Protecting your business interests

What is a will, and why is it essential for you to organize one?
A will is a legally enforceable document that allows you to specify how you want your estate easier to handle for your peers after your death. There is no guarantee that the responsible party will carry out your wishes if you die without a will. A general misconception about wills is that they belong solely to the wealthy. However, wills are a necessary component of any individual since you must pick the person who will inherit your assets. A will creates the option for you to provide your descendants with the assets you're building up during your life.  

What are estate planning strategies?
Apart from conducting a will, it is vital to organize your finances. Executing your will is usually done in several ways to manage your finances, keep your assets safe, and avoid complications. Conducting your will, automatically means you are creating some form of family trust. The kind of trust you set up will depend on your needs, which should always be researched accordingly together with a financial advisor, or attorney.

To increase the success of your estate planning, we look at different factors. For example, dying without having named any surviving beneficiaries, your retirement account may court file a dispute. Here, the court will decide how to divide it. In the form of retirement funds, court disputes are considered a complex, time-consuming process. Therefore, they should be avoided by clearly evaluating and amending them in case of a significant life event occurs, such as a marriage, divorce, or death in the family. 

In addition, by passing away, you become subject to so-called 'death taxes,' meaning that IRS or the federal state will levy tax on a deceased person's estate. The federal state imposes taxes on the beneficiary who gets the property in the deceased's will or the estate, or the tax is levied before the distribution of assets. Depending on which state you live in, there is a threshold for death taxes. Some states charge death taxes from $5 million, while other states impose taxes from $12 million. Important to note, is that the tax laws are dynamic and change from time to time. Again, it would be best to consider hiring an attorney for the many deductions. They often come with piles of paperwork that make it nearly impossible to guarantee the total potential value of your assets. 

Many individuals use trust funds as a tool to secure their assets. Small trust funds collect holdings in a fund with self-sufficient incomes, removing their need to work. On the other hand, Larger trust funds vary in complexity and purpose, safeguarding assets for charities, your 401k or personal pension, and other purposes. Please note that the complexity of a trust fund depends on your situation, so we would love to contact you about your options. You are free to contact us any day for a free consultation.

There are different trust strategies to implement. For example, wealthy individuals might choose to set up a limited liability company (LLC). Setting up a business like this allows individuals to transfer certain assets for wealth transfer after they have been "compressed." In addition, when individuals transfer their assets to the liability of an LLC, there are significant tax benefits. 

When thinking about strategies to minimize death taxes, there are ways to reduce the amount of tax paid by setting up a qualified personal residence trust (QPRT). These trusts allow you to move your primary or secondary residence after your passing. Moving your residence can result in tax liability abroad, preferably in a country where milder tax laws exist.

According to your tailored needs, you might need to consider getting life insurance. You sign a legally binding document that ensures death benefit payment when the insured counter-party dies when getting life insurance. In the form of an irreversible life insurance agreement, life insurance can be an efficient and effective way to transfer money and leave a legacy to your heirs. In contrast, you can use term life insurance to replace lost income throughout your working years if you die prematurely. Your entire life insurance policy's cash value will not be taxed as it grows. Your life insurance is "tax-deferred," It implies that your money will grow quicker since it will not be cut by taxes each year, meaning the interest you earn on your cash worth applies to a more considerable sum. It is also possible to set up an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) that forms the basis for either an individual or 'second to die' plan, where death benefits are paid out solely on the second death. 

On the topic of irrevocable living trusts, you might want to consider setting up a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT), a financial tool used in estate planning to reduce taxes for your transfers to family members. These arrangements establish an irrevocable trust for a specific length or period. When setting up the trust, the individual who creates it determines a gift value. Then, assets are in the trust, and an annuity is provided to the grantor each year. When the trust ends and the last annuity payment clears to the holder, the beneficiary receives the assets and pays minimal or no gift taxes.

Asset protection and avoidance of probate 

Protecting estate assets entails implementing estate planning measures before death. Unless assets are put into a trust, all estates in the United States must go through probate. If the estate does lacks assets to settle ongoing bills, probate might last several months and prevent heirs from obtaining expected inheritance presents.

Individuals with an established will are usually subject to probate formalities. When a person dies, a probate action is not always required, but it is frequently required if the deceased person's surviving estate is of high worth. Individuals might avoid expensive probate charges and complexity by creating an easily certified will or investing in non-probate options like trust funds. It is highly recommended to check the validity and legal authenticity with an attorney.

Leverage on the annual-exclusion gifts 
If you're considering optimizing your estate planning, the annual exclusion gift offers an easy, advantageous tax difference when taken into consideration annually. Currently, any individual can gift $16,000 per year per recipient. This tax gift might seem like a minor tax change, but yearly contributions to each child or grandchild can reward them significantly in the future when considering tax reduction. Keep in mind, that when you are planning your estate, we strongly urge you to hire a financial planner and attorney. If you're interested in what you can do to optimize your estate planning, you can schedule a free consultation to go over your options.

 

Retirement Plan Services

I can show you how you may be able to increase your client's tax-deductible contributions to qualified plans and even make existing plans more tax-efficient.

For retirees or those about to retire, we can help you determine how to best receive your retirement benefits.

Long-Term Care and Disability insurance are offered through representatives who are independently contracted with insurers providing such coverages and are neither underwritten nor issued by National Life Insurance Company.

Legal and tax advice are not offered.  Please consult with your legal and tax advisors prior to implementing any strategy.  Creation of the Captive Insurance Company subsidiary is arranged by an independent third party specialist.