SOLUTIONS

We invite you to read about some of the Solutions that we have provided to our clients. If you don’t read another word on our website, we hope that this will give you a sense of the strategies and services we are proud to offer and the care we give to each client.

Challenge: Effective company stock planning

Solution:

Our client, a successful executive with significant appreciated company stock was retiring. Upon considering several scenarios, we recommended that he transfer shares from his retirement account to a taxable account. While this Net Unrealized Appreciation strategy required him to pay ordinary taxes on the basis of the transferred stock, he would eventually pay the preferred capital gains tax rate on the appreciated value only when he sold the stock. Had he rolled the stock into an IRA, he would have had to pay the ordinary tax rate on the full amount upon distribution. Consult with your CPA or HR department to see if this strategy applies to your company shares.

Challenge: Am I missing opportunities and making mistakes?

Solution:

Any family who works with a core group of financial professionals knows how difficult it can become to communicate their goals and coordinate the advice of their financial advisor, accountant, estate planning attorney and others into a cohesive plan.

To uncomplicate this process, we organize and lead a Wealth Advisor Summit – a collaborative meeting with the client and all of their financial specialists. During this time together, advisors have a forum to share their ideas, their knowledge and strategies with each other and their mutual client. Our clients have an opportunity to discuss their concerns, ask questions, and benefit not just from one viewpoint, but from the collective wisdom and expertise of the group as a whole. Read more about this in It Takes A Team.

Challenge: My stuff is everywhere!

Solution:

It can be a frustrating exercise to get a clear picture of all assets when they are with different firms. A client came to us with assets located in at least ten places places. He and his wife had company 401(k) accounts, they had several  limited partnerships, several CDs and a handfull of brokerage accounts.  They wanted an easy way to view their overall asset allocation, and evaluate the performance of each account and their entire portfolio.

With our advanced reporting capabilities, we are able to gather all of our clients’ financial data each and every day regardless of where it is custodied.  Once we collected their information, we reconciled the data and then generated the reports they were looking for.   Now, they can see their complete financial picture on one page.

Challenge: What can I do about this AMT?

Solution:

If you can’t reduce the impact of AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax), then at least try to earn the maximum amount of income to justify paying it.

We evaluated the portfolios of several clients who had attempted to reduce their taxes by holding  a large number of  municipal bonds exempt from Federal Tax. Because of the high state tax due on this income, they had unknowingly and drastically increased their AMT.  When we evaluated their income using our Alternative Minimum Tax Optimization process, we concluded that they should replace a portion of these “tax-free” bonds with higher-yielding and taxable corporate bonds. While this strategy may seem counterintuitive, we actually reduced their tax-free income to increase their after-tax income. Consult your tax advisor to call us for additional details.