Good to Know

Good to Know Yes—even clients with a 6-figure income can pay no tax on long-term capital gains. Sound too good to be true?  Read on to see how many of your current clients qualify. Long-Term Capital Gain (LTCG) Rates We tend to assume that clients with LTCG and an above-average income will pay at least…

Good to Know A financial planner’s or advisor’s role can be as much about implementation as it is about inspiration.  The best retirement savings plan in the history of humankind may be doomed to failure when a client is disengaged or procrastinates.  Sadly, too many of our clients understand the importance of putting the plan…

Good to Know A savvy financial advisor can help a client maximize key benefits in 2024 from the Secure Act 2.0, including: Required minimum distributions from Designated Roth Accounts, Emergency Savings Account, Student Loan 401(k) matching contributions, and 529 Plan to Roth rollovers. The IRS has not clarified how these 2024 changes will be implemented. …

Good to Know Artificial intelligence is either the greatest threat to our species or the greatest boon to humankind, depending on what headline you read. The author makes the cheerful assumption that AI does not become “self-aware” and eradicate humanity á la “Terminator.”  Neither this article nor financial planning will matter if the author has…

Good to Know All that glitters is not gold. -French Monk Alain de Lille, 1175 Assume your client just received a grant of Restricted Stock from their employer. Congratulations are in order, but before they go out and use some of that grant “money” to celebrate, let’s understand exactly what they received and when they…

Good to Know This article continues our goal to create or deepen a financial advisor’s awareness of the creative use of Roth IRAs or Designated Roth Accounts in special circumstances such as: Resolving the tension between building an emergency reserve and saving for retirement, Reducing income taxes on Social Security Benefits for retirees, and Lowering…

Good to Know This article is intended to create or deepen a financial advisor’s awareness of the creative use of Roth IRAs or Designated Roth Accounts in special circumstances such as: Business Owners with Net Operating Losses and High-Income Clients that are ineligible for a Roth IRA contribution. Caveat—this article is meant to raise awareness…

Good to Know Scamming—especially income tax scamming—is on the rise yet again. Even if you’ve already filed your income tax return, you may not be immune from clever and, in one case, particularly loathsome villainy. The IRS recently published a list of common scams and we’ll focus on three in today’s article, including: IRS impersonators,…

Good to Know The purpose of this article is to separate fact from fiction and help you motivate clients to plan, starting now, for the inevitable healthcare costs in retirement. We’ll start with good news—Americans are living longer. Average life expectancy increased by almost 10 years during the 50 years ending in 2010, according to…

Good to Know Distributions from Traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k) plans are generally subject to a penalty for taking the money out too early (premature distribution) or too late (delayed distribution penalty). Secure Act 2.0 gives welcome penalty relief effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023. Terminal…