Working Together

WORKING TOGETHER

WORKING TOGETHER


Answers to questions about investing and retirement planning can be found in seconds with a few taps on our phones. That’s the good news. The cautionary news is that for about every question, you will find persuasive arguments on opposite sides of the question. And you won’t get answers to the questions you don’t ask, where the biggest risks are hiding under the leaves. Financial journalism makes for lots of clicks but often incomplete, incorrect, or biased advice.


Comprehensive wealth management is much more than investment portfolios. Research is deep and consistent on that question. Taking the edge is found by connecting the dots on your goals and needs for growth, lifetime income, risk management, and estate legacy. Looking at benchmark investment returns without adjusting for risk is like betting on a horse to win without considering the spread.


Given time and good planning, active management should lower the taxes you pay; it should add flexibility to draw cash when needed without turning paper investment losses into real ones; it should provide a margin of safety for predictable risks in life, such as health and long-term care; and it should help you transfer wealth consistent with your wishes, with fewer challenges and loss of wealth to your heirs, and more family harmony.


Most situations are multi-party: spouses, children, and professional advisors. A planning process based on facts significantly increases the quality of decisions and actions on the plan, coordination with other advisors (CPA, attorney, property-casualty agent, banker), and positive return on investment for legal, accounting, and investment advisor fees.


During our first visit, we’ll show you our planning process and determine if we’re a good fit to improve what you’re already doing.

 


Once you decide to proceed:


We sign a service agreement forming a business relationship. We will prepare a plan for you and discuss it until you’re clear and comfortable with the plan and priorities for implementing it. We establish accounts for you at Charles Schwab & Co.


We invest the accounts according to your plan, carefully considering your pre-existing investments, capital gains, other tax liabilities, and fees.

Our monitoring of performance and the plan is continuous, and we consult with you as needed or desired.


BUSINESS PLANNING

Most owners don’t do succession planning for understandable reasons; succession planning requires difficult conversations about the company's value and risks, possible successors, retirement, health and aging, and family relationships.


We continually refine our planning process for family businesses to be practical and increase your net valuation. Whether your business exit is one year away or twenty, the largest threats to your wealth are taxes and the sector in which the business operates. MyWealthTicket, ™ our four-pillar planning road map, connects the current view of your business and personal financial situation with goals for growth, income, asset protection, and estate planning.


All our business clients receive valuation and tax reports as part of our planning, not once but yearly. Having your business and money life live on separate islands serves no purpose but to lose sight of exit opportunities and control over when and how much you pay in tax.

COMPENSATION PLANNING

Most compensation plans we’ve seen do not address the real challenges of recruitment and retention. Annual profit-sharing bonuses have marginal, if any, retention benefits and poor tax consequences for the key employees. Conventional retirement benefit plans add to your balance sheet and cause compounding cash flow burdens for private companies. However, high-earning key employees are essential for growth and owners’ ability to increase business value. Addressing these challenges improves results of transitions and sales.



Our team helps private companies evaluate their current retirement plan and administrative costs ─ 401k and Roth 401k, SEP, Simple plans ─ and explore options to design and administer a plan if they do not offer one. Federal tax credits may underwrite 100 percent of the costs to start the plan.


ESTATE PLANNING

For our financial planning and wealth management clients, we partner with a national estate planning firm to provide you with a professional Trust-based or Will-based estate plan. Plans may include a revocable trust (if desired), a will, financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and other documents.


Your estate plan is prepared and reviewed usually in less than two weeks by experienced estate planners and attorneys familiar with the laws of your state. This service is high quality and low-cost, provided as a service to ensure our client families have complete and current estate plans in place for peace of mind and thoughtful estate settlement.


You will provide general information and complete a confidential questionnaire. If we have any questions or you have requirements such as a special needs trust, the preparer's attorney will clarify those with you.


Already have an Estate Plan? If you are in the minority of families that have completed their estate plan, this service can review your existing documents and provide a list of follow-up questions to see if it is up to date. If you know of significant changes in your situation, such as children or marriage, the service will prepare new documents while using your existing trust name and date (this prevents having to re-register assets already in the trust).


Approximately 75 percent of estate plans are appropriate for this system. Disqualifying situations are disinheriting children, heirs that might litigate after your death, or highly unusual beneficiary needs. This service will not be for you; we will gladly refer you to an experienced estate planning attorney for these needs.


If you have put off completing your estate plan for years because of cost, coordination of meetings with an attorney, or lack of desire to discuss the challenging topics of aging and mortality, this service is an option for you.


The service is appropriate for special needs children or concerns about a child who is not financially responsible. The team will ask questions on five important topics to determine the needs of the trust.


All plans will, if desired, include information to address conduit language for IRAs, opportunities to convert shares to a Special Needs Trust or postpone distribution in exceptional circumstances (for example, drug use), state-specific requirements, flexibility for unknown changes in State and Federal Estate Tax Law, and more.


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