Services

Total Wealth Concierge

Total Wealth Concierge is our comprehensive full service high touch personal attention to every aspect of our Client’s life, most often clients call it a Family Office or Personal Trust Department like feel – With our roll-up-the-sleeves look anywhere needed in any aspects of our client’s life, these are just a few of the services we complete for clients over the last multiple decades:

• Comprehensive advanced forecasting tax planning and historical reviews
• Extensive Insurance analysis (we do not sell insurance) on all fronts including, life, property, automobile, home, disability, personal umbrella and specific needs, such as public board or other high-profile participation protection
• Personal residence acquisition, sale, review, future planning and multiple ownership assistance including title ownership, tax minimization and property value protest
• Constructive dialogue and representation with other advisors such as CPA, Attorney, Insurance Professional or company benefits representative
• Intense planning and reviews for all Investment, Tax, Estate, Retirement, College and future legacy needs

Retirement Readiness and Transition

Age 34 or 74?  When the day comes to start the next chapter, appropriate psychological preparedness, along with a strong and deep financial plan, allow comfort as the transition occurs. In reality, the work started long before that golden day, often times decades, other times, much shorter due to the situation.  

No matter the reason, when the day comes for the next chapter, appropriate planning, foresight, expectation, and deep personal insight make for a smooth transition. With our Total Wealth approach, the next chapter can be exciting and rewarding rather than fearful.

Investment Management

Frequently looked upon as a sprint rather than a journey, especially in today’s world of “Breaking News” soundbites along with pie in the sky forecasts followed quickly with overly dark doom and gloom, depending on the day.

In reality, Investment Management is a life long journey of continued good habits and stable thinking through good times and bad. Never getting too high and never going too low, which is accomplished by basic allocation in order to participate when times are good, and stay on course when bad, by protecting against major downside.

With multiple Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) keeping it simple and focusing on long term goals allows for a steady and stable path to success.

Protection Analysis and Assistance

You have worked hard to get where you are, careful protective coverages where needed for incidents of all nature can help keep what you have worked for in-tact. We help review, spot inefficiencies, minimize cost and maximize benefits through appropriate self-protected deductible amounts, as well as uncover holes in one’s protective plans.  We gladly work with your insurance professional on the following, just to name a few:

• Auto
• Home
• Umbrella/Total Family Coverage
• Life
• Health
• Long Term Care
• Personal
• Company Benefit
• Outside
• Appropriate flow-through beneficiary and estate efficiency
• Total Wealth Coverage
• Entity protection

Estate Planning

Here are just a few of the documents we help you develop, review, adjust and monitor:

Will – Document that directs non-beneficiary directed assets (Ex ..house, property, cash and regular investment assets) and may create trusts for minors, names a Custodian, Executor and may also create trusts and Trustees for estate tax minimization and other uses (see final statement in article below on Trusts.)

Power of Attorney– Financial document that appoints someone other than you to make most financial decisions in your absence. Generally this document immediately becomes effective upon authorization, as opposed to upon disability.

Healthcare Power of Attorney – Document that appoints someone to make important healthcare decisions if you are unable. Think un-conscience and need to approve some type of procedure.

HIPPA – Allows your appointed person to receive medical information on your behalf. This is the ant-privacy document to counter unintended consequences of many of the recently enacted privacy laws.

Living Will- Cease and Decease – DNR – These titles are one in the same and are frequently confusing. This document allows medical professionals to NOT mandate all possible care, should you become deceased mentally, but not in body function. DNR stands for do not resuscitate, and is probably the most explanative title.

Tax Monitoring and Minimization

Frequently tax planning may mean adjusting withholdings or quarterly payments upon a quick April 15 review of the prior year’s results. To us tax planning means a deep analysis of all aspects of a client’s life:

• On-going advanced-through-out the year constant tax planning
• Wash sale of investments both active and passive
• Careful Medicare income tax limit analysis
• Option, RSU, NUA and other public market review
• Advanced property tax clumping strategies
• Personal sales tax planning strategies
• Charitable and charity creation, organization and planning strategies

Concentrated Wealth Strategies

The saying of “Concentrate to make it, Diversify to keep it” reins true many times over. However, there is not a switch to flip and move from concentrated to diversified, but years of planning and special care of transferring concentrated wealth to diversified in a tax efficient manner. We help with the development and deployment of the following, just to name a few:

• Section 144
• 10b5-1
• RSU exercise
• Option sale
• Black out period restrictions
• Insider Restricted Sales
• Family and Personal Business Sale
• Timing, tax strategies, period estimates, stop limits

 

Trust Services

Assistance in creation, monitor, deciphering, updating or changing the various trusts a client may need or already own. Here are just a few of the Trusts we assist with:

Revocable Trust – By far the most common and most commonly misunderstood Trust of the bunch. Revocable means it can be changed at the grantors request. Due to this fact, there is very little tax or liability avoidance. The key positive for this trust is organization, especially over state borders. In high probate cost states may prevent substantial probate costs.

Testamentary Trust – Trust that is usually embedded in a Will and is created upon the grantors death. Testamentary trusts can take many forms, but are a key aspect of Estate planning for minors, estate tax, and generational transfers. It has virtually no existence until the grantor passes away.

Irrevocable Trust – The Hulk of Trusts. Being Irrevocable, once established and funded, this Trust is a beast. Estate tax, liability, inheritance are just a few items that can be addressed with an Irrevocable Trust. The biggest issue of this type of trust is it what makes it a beast, Irrevocable … once you put assets in it, there is no turning back. Careful use is advised.

QTIP Trust: Qualified Terminal Interest Trust – Most common set up by Grantor to give direction to assets beyond the spouse. Frequently used in second marriages to protect children from a prior marriage. Created and resides most frequently in a Will.

Credit Shelter/A:B Trust – Type of trust that is used to help minimize Estate taxes by maximizing the first person in a married couples Estate tax exemption upon death commonly resides in a Will. Can give directives to eventually end up to a non-spouse beneficiary, but living spouse maintains control during lifetime.

GST or Generation Skipping Trust – This handy estate planning trust gives relief to Grantors by jumping a generation and essentially skipping the Grantors children and passing to the grandchildren. Income may be distributed to the children, but the ultimate beneficiary will be the grandchildren. Under current law there is Estate tax relief from this trust.

ILIT : Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust – This trust is very useful in getting life insurance proceeds out of a Grantors estate. While life insurance is free from Federal taxes in most cases, proceeds are included in an Estate for Total Estate Tax purposes. Done correctly, the ILIT trust can limit most if not all of the proceeds from an estate and thereby estate taxes.