Protect, Preserve and Defend Your Health

We protect ourselves from costs associated with car accidents, flood and fire damage to our homes, and we have individual healthcare coverage to help prevent serious illness. Many of us have life insurance to plan for the future and to provide tax-free benefits to our families when we are gone. However, sometimes traditional coverage is just not enough. As we evolve as a society, so do our financial, retirement and health planning tools. There is a new solution now available so individuals can combine the best of both worlds – it's a hybrid solution to help ensure that long-term care needs will be satisfied while providing a legacy for heirs.

Beneficiary

Owner

Spouse

Survivors

Even though an IRA is frequently the largest asset people have, except perhaps their home, many IRA owners surprisingly fail to conduct a BOSS review on an annual basis to ensure that their money will flow the way they want it to. Many people are unaware that unless their IRAs and other retirement plans are set up correctly, they will be leaving their heirs a tax bill and not a legacy. Nobody is immune to IRA mistakes.

Plenty of well educated, intelligent, wealthy individuals die without proper planning because they just didn’t know they had a serious problem…a problem that, sadly, could have been easily corrected.

It’s important to understand what happens to your IRA when you pass away. Many people think that their IRA passes through their will, it does not. The IRA beneficiary designation form determines what happens to IRA assets. IRAs are not inherently probate assets, meaning, they do not need to go through the probate system which requires that a probate court declare how and to whom the assets shall be distributed. IRA assets COULD, however, end up going through the probate court system if there is no valid designated beneficiary and, as a default, the IRA ends up going into the deceased’s estate.

You may ask yourself, why does it matter if my IRA or 401(k) goes to my estate, my children are the beneficiaries of my estate anyway, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that if the estate is the beneficiary of an IRA, the opportunity for heirs to stretch the IRA RMDs over their individual life expectancies is effectively destroyed. The opportunity for heirs to enjoy continued tax deferred growth on those IRA funds will be destroyed. The opportunity for heirs to maximize the benefit of the IRA by turning the tax infested IRA into a tax efficient legacy from you is destroyed!

B-O-S-S

WHAT DOES

B-O-S-S STAND FOR?

Who's the BOSS?

BOSS is an acronym that we use to refer to the four key people everyone must consider with respect to retirement planning, i.e., developing an income exit strategy and ensuring all IRAs,

Is a big stock market correction coming? Notice any patterns?

The stock market has recently reached an all-time high, and many people are looking at their brokerage accounts and celebrating. However, I wouldn’t pop the corks on those champagne bottles just yet. There’s a chance that this bubble is about to burst with a big stock market correction on the horizon.

A look back at the S&P 500 might shed a little light on why many financial professionals believe a BIG correction is coming.

Key Points to Keep in Mind When it Comes to Social Security

When you are deciding when you should begin your Social Security benefit based on your personal circumstance, there are some important things to keep in mind.

What You Need To Know About Maximizing Your Retirement Income

What You Need To Know About

Maximizing Your Retirement Income

Baby Boomers in particular want to know whether Social Security will be there for them and how much they

can expect to receive. Most Baby Boomers do not know when they should apply for their Social Security benefits and how to maximize that benefit. Most importantly, many Baby Boomers are concerned that their Social Security benefit will not be enough for them to live on during their retirement. Before strategies can be discussed, it is crucial to understand the value of Social Security and what it can mean for you. Social Security basically offers a stream of income that you cannot outlive and it includes inflation adjustments, familiarly known as COLAs. For example, if your monthly Social Security income today is $2,000 and the annual COLAs are 2.8%, in 20

Prohibited Transaction Disqualifies IRA

Prohibited

Transaction

Disqualifies IRA

We often discuss the pitfalls of self-directed IRAs and the increased risk of prohibited transactions. In a recent Tax Court case, Ellis v. C.I.R. (T.C. 2013) 106 T.C.M. (CCH) 468, Mr. Terry Ellis’ entire IRA was disqualified, subjecting him to not only accuracy related penalties imposed by the IRS but also a 10% early distribution tax on the entire IRA.