The LFA Planner of the Year award is an internal award given to LFN planners each year and is based on sales, quality of service, and commitment to Lincoln’s principles, and is selected by Lincoln senior managers.
My clients ask me all kinds of questions about the tax and technical aspects of financial strategies. In particular, folks are curious about the details Social Security benefits. To continue reading, click here.
Most people who are planning for retirement worry about whether they will have enough income to comfortably live on. One factor in the retirement income mix that sometimes gets overlooked is the effect of federal income taxes.
The good news about federal income taxes is that for many of those nearing or at retirement age, the rates are lower today than they have been in the recent past. The outlook isn’t all rosy though. To continue reading, click here.
Those of us who provide life insurance and financial advice to our clients understand the importance of planning for the death-time transfer of wealth. I work closely with estate planning attorneys and tax professionals to make sure my clients get the benefit of comprehensive and coordinated advice.
Not everyone is open to the idea of hiring a professional team to create an estate plan. Some are determined to do things themselves. Why? There may be several factors: To continue reading, click here.
On December 22, 2017, the president signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This Act brought about big changes to our tax system. Here’s a review of those changes, and what they mean for 2019: To continue reading, click here.
Many of my clients have heard that they can take advantage of Medicaid—a government welfare program—to pay for the costs associated with chronic illness. Relying on Medicaid long-term care (Medicaid LTC) coverage is seen to be an alternative to the purchase of insurance intended to cover long-term care costs. In my experience, clients have questions and misconceptions about the Medicaid LTC program. To continue reading, click here.
In my letter last month, I talked about Social Security retirement and spousal benefits. The federal government also provides other Social Security benefits:
· Survivor benefits for dependent family members of a deceased worker—not just surviving spouses.
· Disability benefits for incapacitated workers and some family members;
· Spousal benefits based on the earnings of an ex-spouse in certain circumstances.
Survivor Benefits
Unmarried children younger than 18 or up to age...... to continue reading, click here.
Many of my clients who are planning for retirement will rely in significant measure on Social Security retirement benefits. Despite fears over shortfalls in the federal government’s Social Security “trust fund,” retirement benefits seem likely to persist and remain largely unchanged into the foreseeable future.
Social Security retirement benefits are available to individuals who meet three requirements. The retiree must: To continue reading, click here.
The divorce or legal separation of a business owner can create financial heartaches for the divorcing owner, and can put incredible emotional, organizational and financial stress on the business.
Usually divorcing spouses—or those who otherwise separate from committed long-term relationships—make financial claims on one another. For those whose valuable assets include an interest in a closely held business, the parties may argue about....to continue reading, click here.
About 40 years ago, life insurance companies started offering universal life (UL) insurance. The premise behind UL was that the working parts of the life insurance policy should be made more understandable to someone buying the coverage.
Part of UL’s attraction is that its initial premiums tend to be lower than the premiums for other kinds of cash value life insurance policies. Consumers have embraced UL. According to life insurance statistics.....to continue reading, click here.
Cash value life insurance has several undisputed tax advantages, if structured properly:
Many of my business owner clients use life insurance to solve potential business problems. Some use coverage to help provide money for a business buyout in the event of the owner’s death. Others buy insurance on the lives of key employees, to help protect the business financially in the event something happens to those important executives.
Today I’d like to focus on permanent life insurance as part of an employee benefit plan. To continue reading, click here.
Many of my clients who are planning for the possibility of care in their old age assume that the federal government will take care of their needs. Unfortunately, for many, that is not the case.
Medicare pays only for most costs associated with a medically necessary skilled nursing facility stay or home health care, and then only in limited circumstances for a limited duration. Medicare does not pay for - to continue reading, click here.
Basketball season is wrapping up, and a perennial powerhouse of the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers, has fallen on hard times. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2013, and their win-loss percentage over the past four years has been the worst in team history.
What happened? The death of majority owner Gerald “Jerry” Buss in 2013, and the subsequent power struggle between his children is part of the story—and that is of interest to me and to my business-owner clients. To continue reading, click here.
With 2016 federal income tax deadlines approaching, most of our friends are asking: “What can I do now so I will not have to pay so much tax in 2017?”
Here some questions that can lead to individual income tax savings opportunities: To continue reading, click here.
Permanent life insurance can be an important part of your financial picture. In addition to cash value life insurance’s death benefit protection, it offers extra benefits—often hidden—that can help my clients toward achieving their overall financial security objectives.
What hidden benefits am I talking about? To continue reading, click here.
I help my business owner clients make plans for their business’s survival after death or other life-changing event. I recently learned about a court case where two owners of a Kentucky business had a falling out, and they asked the court to decide some things about one owner’s buyout of the other. The case is Conlon v. Haise, No. 2014-CA-001581-MR decided on September 30. I thought you might be interested, as I think the case has lessons that apply to many business situations. To continue reading, click here.
I was amazed to see permanent life insurance in the mainstream news lately. The press has been full of details regarding the compensation arrangement between University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh and his employer. One of the key elements of that employment package is the loan-based split-dollar plan between the coach and the school.
Under the agreement:
The IRS allows most pre-retirement distributions taken from an employer’s retirement account or IRA to be rolled over into another retirement account or IRA without tax consequence. One way to accomplish the tax-free transaction is through the 60-day rollover technique. While this concept seems simple enough, taxpayers often run into situations that prevent them from completing a rollover in a timely manner. Recent changes in the regulations have added more potential complexity. To continue reading, click here.
Inherited qualified accounts, IRAs and nonqualified deferred annuities (NQDAs) can all potentially be stretched after the account owner’s death. “Stretch” means that the beneficiary can delay the federal income tax consequences associated with the transfer of the account. However, stretch has strict rules associated with it—including required minimum distribution (RMD) obligations imposed on the beneficiary. To continue reading, click here.
Life insurance offers significant tax advantages to many of my clients. For example:
The federal government believes those tax characteristics to be so favorable that it limits the amount of premium that can be paid for life insurance. The limits are based in part on the amount of coverage and....To continue reading, click here.
Did you know that the federal government allows you to exchange one permanent life insurance policy for another without having to pay income tax on the transaction? The technique is referred to as a Section 1035 exchange.
While the idea of a Section 1035 exchange is simple, sometimes its successful execution is not. To continue reading, click here.
Twenty years ago, a technique known as split-dollar was an often-used way to pay the premium for needed life insurance coverage. Then, between 2001 and 2003, the IRS published rulings and regulations that effectively ended many commonly-used split-dollar strategies.
On April 13, the Tax Court published a decision with regard to certain split-dollar details in the case of Estate of Clara M. Morrissette et al v. Commissioner. In its ruling, the court took the side of a family that had implemented private split-dollar plans for the purpose of facilitating estate planning.
Here’s what the family had done: To continue reading, click here.
Securities: Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Wyoming
**This internal award is given to LFN planners each year and is based on sales, quality of service, and commitment to Lincoln’s principles, and is selected by Lincoln senior managers.
Insurance: Arizona, California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Texas, Wyoming, Utah
