Blog

Value of Life Insurance in Buy-Sell Agreements

By Bruce Starks, CPA, CFP®

Course: Insurance PlanningLesson 17: Business Uses of Life Insurance Student Question: Do buy sell agreements accounts for projected growth of the company?  Do the life insurance benefits increase over time to account for projected growth, or perhaps can they invest and grow conservatively to keep up with inflation (or COLA on the plan)?  Instructor Response:…

Lisa and the 7 Steps

By Dan Madden, CFP®

Lisa is a CFP® professional meeting a new client, Mark, for the first time. During their initial meeting, Lisa asks Mark about his financial goals, gathers his personal and financial information, and identifies his risk tolerance. Which step in the CFP Board’s 7-step financial planning process is Lisa primarily engaging in during this initial meeting?…

Emerging Trends for Long-Term Care

By Bruce Starks, CPA, CFP®

Good to Know The traditional approaches and challenges to managing long-term care costs are: Self-insurance – the risk of depleting savings (e.g., retirement portfolios), Buy insurance – sharply increasing premiums plus increasingly tight underwriting requirements, and Medicaid – poverty generally required to qualify. It’s been said that nature abhors a vacuum and it appears that…

Custodial Accounts and Gifting

By Bruce Starks, CPA, CFP®

Course: Estate PlanningLesson 13: Case Study Online Student Question: If a check given by Mary to Peter was deposited into a custodial acct where Mary was the custodian, doesn’t that mean that Mary didn’t give up ALL control, so it’s not a complete gift? Instructor Response: Generally, the donor must give up all ownership and…

Carryover of Losses

By Dan Madden, CFP®

A client has provided the following information for income tax purposes: $55,000 salary from an S corporation where the client serves as vice-president $4,500 loss from the S corporation $2,000 loss from a 4% interest in a limited partnership $1,300 loss from a 15% interest in Bayside Partnership in which the client does not materially…

Passing the CFP Board Exam

By Bruce Starks, CPA, CFP®

CFP® Certificants in the News “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”…

No Additional Cost Services Exclusion

By Bruce Starks, CPA, CFP®

Course: Income Tax PlanningLesson 6: Employer-Sponsored Total Income Exclusions Student Question: For “No Additional Cost Services” provided by an employer, which are excluded from employee income, there is the requirement that no significant costs are incurred.  How is “significant” cost determined? Significant sounds subjective. Is there a general rule for determining what is considered significant?…

Reducing the AMT

By Dan Madden, CFP®

A client, Sarah, is a 35-year-old single mother with two young children. She has a stable job with an annual salary of $80,000 and has accumulated $50,000 in a 401(k) plan. She also has $10,000 in an emergency savings account. Sarah expresses concern about saving for her children’s college education while ensuring she has enough…

Schwab Advisor Services Donates $150,000 to the Women’s Initiative (WIN) Endowed Scholarship

By Dan Madden, CFP®

CFP® Certificants in the News The CFP Board has announced a generous donation of $150,000 from Schwab Advisor Services, in collaboration with the Charles Schwab Foundation, to support the Women’s Initiative (WIN) Endowed Scholarship. This contribution raises the total scholarship fund to $500,000, reaching the required amount for the scholarship to begin awarding financial support.…