The 13 Wealth Management Issues act like balancing scales.  Once you do something to one side, it impacts or tips the other.  We believe it's vital that one individual have a thorough understanding of your overall financial picture and intentions.

Investment Planning may be the single biggest issue for affluent and wealthy individuals.  If this were not the case a few years ago, it certainly is now.  When we build an investment plan for a you, we assemble information on all of your assets in a consolidated view. We develop a unique plan based on your expectations of income, risk tolerance, time horizons, feelings towards income and capital gains tax, constraints, attitude and expectations for communication, and liquidity needs.

Insurance is a unique financial tool.  In addition to allowing protection of assets from loss or damage, it can also be used to solve both personal and business financial problems.  For example, life insurance alone can be used for liquidity for taxes, funds to transfer a business, replacement of a charitable gift, reduction of debt, and equalization of inheritances, just to name a few. Our firm will provide a detailed Efficiency Review of your overall risk management plan, covering all four types of insurance. These are life, disability, long-term care, and liability.  All four types need to be assessed from three distinct vantage points; adequacy of coverage, appropriateness of policies, and cost effectiveness.

When discussing banking and credit management issues with you, we focus on four broad categories. First, helping you understand how credit can be used to effectively leverage your wealth.  Second, we focus on the coordination of credit management with the accumulation or investment plan you maintain. Third, is the relationship between tax efficiency and utilization of credit.  Fourth and last, and if it applies to you, is a better understanding of how credit can be utilized to mitigate cash flow crunches that tend to perpetuate poor decision making in other areas of a your financial life.

With life expectancies increasing and some individuals wanting to retire sooner rather than later, the need for prudent retirement planning is crucial.  When gathering information about your retirement and life income plan,  we'll examine results of using distributions from the plan during life versus distributing to descendents at death.  We'll also cover issues related to qualified retirement plans and/or IRA distributions that are important including timing of distributions, income taxation, estate taxation, and the amount of control desired over these assets.  Your unique situation and needs will determine the recommended solutions.  We'll help you answer the three most common questions in the retirement income planning discussion;  one, do you have enough to retire or are you on track.  Two, how are the assets invested and where are the assets.  Three, when distributions are needed to meet an income stream, which pools of funds will be pulled from first versus last to generate that income.

Executive compensation issues provide a unique challenge when building a wealth plan. We provide advice on strategies to manage cash, deferred compensation, life insurance, qualified retirement plans, nonqualified retirement plans, incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, and lastly restricted stock.

Business succession planning is time consuming, complex, and often emotional for the party that is exiting the business.  There are typically two options for a business owner to consider:

1. To transfer to children/descendants (family)
2. To sell the business to employees or a third party entity

Both of these options are available to business owners during their lives or after their deaths.  The timing of the transfer or sale, and the resulting transfer tax or income tax issues, need to be addressed in each business owner’s wealth management plan.

Planning for incapacity is a crucial component of any wealth management plan.  Most people would prefer to choose someone to act on their behalf, rather than have that person appointed for them by a court.  Since this is a significant decision, when discussing this topic with you, we'll make sure to bring up three issues with regard to your Power of Attorney:

1. Who is named?
2. Is this person knowledgeable of where the pertinent documents are located?
3. Who the incapacitated person has confidence in and should be consulted by the Attorney-in-Fact?

The opportunity for clients to provide education and family support drives most of their financial gifting in some manner.  It's critical for us to understand and best maximize the benefits of these tax-efficient gifting strategies.  Giving to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are common, however, some clients often gift to many other family members as well.

Charitable giving is of great importance to many of our clients.  When reviewing this topic with you, we'll address tax-efficiency and control issues.  You can gift with direct transfers or indirect transfers, and both come with many advantages and potential disadvantages.  Also, you can structure gifts during your lifetimes and after your death for very targeted reasons.

A titling and beneficiary designation review is one of the most important discussions we could ever have with you and your family. We focus in helping clients navigate the potential IRS issues when transferring retirement accounts. It is essential to work with an advisor that is knowledgeable as mistakes can seldom be reversed once made.

Death is something many people are uncomfortable talking about, but in the case of wealth management, the inevitable must be addressed.  One of the most important decisions you must make is who to name as executor under your will or trustee selections.  Trustees may be nominated under a Revocable Living Trust.  Designating this position should ensure continuity in the investment process.

When it comes to the distribution of the estate, maximizing after-tax benefits for your heirs and other beneficiaries is best planned in advance.  There are various solutions that can be implemented based on your desires, whether distributed outright or through a trust, that allows the descendant to maintain some level of control and minimize estate taxes.  This is typically to one of two beneficiaries, family, charity (philanthropy).  We'll help you look for ways to minimize the tax impact as much as possible and transfer as much of your net-worth to family, other descendants or the selected charity as possible  

Tax planning is a vital part of nearly every aspect of wealth management for a client.  In many cases, taxes represent the largest single expense for the affluent and high net worth client.  Structuring your investments, your personal and if applicable, your business transactions to minimize this expense is critical in facilitating the achievement of your goals and objectives. We work closely with your tax adviser to minimize tax obligations and maximize portfolio efficiency.

That pretty well sums it up!  Simplify the complex.  Simplifying your life.