Planning for retirement allows for many considerations and avoiding Probate is one of them. The good news is if own a retirement account and have named beneficiaries, the account does not have to go through the probate process in most cases. Avoiding probate should be one of the goals of proper ...
Assets are the lifeblood of an individual and losing them to someone else one fine day can be a nightmare! This is where asset protection attorneys in Orange County come to your rescue. Asset protection is the concept and strategy that enables us to guard our precious wealth and allows us to prot...
What is Estate Planning? In 2015 $2.6 Billion dollars was lost to Probate Court Fees nationwide. Those entrapped in the system were not the wealthiest Americans; someone in their family failed to plan and left them having to untangle the mess just to switch title or get control so they can sell o...
The new Health care reform bill includes a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on unearned income including annuities, and possibly income recognized from the surrender or sale of life insurance. Many clients have asked how to get out of annuities they don't need to minimize a potential huge tax hit. This i...
There are five destroyers of wealth. Taxes Inflation Procrastination Expenses Debt So if we know these five exist that eat away our gains and slow our progress, then we know where not to invest. Debt and procrastination are personal things but the other three can be avoided. The typic...
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) recently passed in the House of Representatives by a margin of 417-3 last Thursday. The bill is slated to be successfully ratified into law by the U.S. Senate later in the year in a rare moment of bipartisanship. The SECUR...
Lies 2 Many people think putting money away tax-deferred is great for retirement. Well, it is not bad but it can have lethal consequences depending on your success over the years and at what tax bracket you retire in. Remember, your deferred plan is tax at ordinary income at the rate your in when...
Two years ago, the current government built their own mark on the United States with what some call the most necessary and important tax reform. The retirement reform that they are planning might be the long shot of 2019 since there are four important pieces of retirement reform in legislation be...
A law was passed in 2009 and requires life insurance companies to change the method of how they price their products. This was MANDATED by the California State Insurance Commissioner, in an attempt to make life insurance and other insurance products more affordable and fairly priced. What this me...
Business Owners: A recent horrifying article discussed how small-business owners are significantly less likely to have retirement plans than wage and salary workers, a pair of studies found. It is wrong that the entrepreneur takes risks every day for themselves, family and maybe investor or share...
Building your dream home for retirement is not an uncommon goal many Americans have. However, just because it's a common dream doesn't mean it's an appropriate dream for a large portion of the population. Sure, you may have several hundred thousand or a couple million in your retirement accounts....
With all of the day-to-day demands on your finances, sometimes it is difficult to have a strong grasp on what your overall financial picture really looks like. While many people may be very in tune with one segment of their financial life, you may be inadvertently neglecting other parts. One ofte...
There has been a lot of chatter recently by economists and news outlets using the word “recession”. Understanding that it could happen and understanding how to handle it are different matters. If you are one of those nearing retirement or in retirement that has no strategy, you may be right to...
You've put your time in and the day you've been waiting for has finally come. It's time to retire! You're done working 40+ hours a week and ready to enjoy the money you've been saving for years. Slow down for a minute, though. It can be tempting after working for so many years to start checking o...
When couples get married the finances are typically left to one person. It is rare for both parties in a marriage to handle the finances together. In some cases, it is the wife that is leaving the husband to handle all financial issues. This may be common in some relationships, but it is not exac...
Raising children is something often done by parents in the prime of their life, typically between the ages of 20 and 50. By the time retirement comes around, most of the children are off on their own, leaving the parents to finally take a well-deserved rest. Aside from occasional contact with the...
Looking back at the past few weeks, the market has made some investors nervous. Market volatility can lead to some serious stress but what are the best ways to respond to this uneasy feeling? When dealing with market volatility, it's important to keep several things in mind to avoid making majo...
This topic is not comfortable for everyone to talk about but planning now can make a world of difference later. More than a third of long-term care residents are younger than 65 years of age. This statistic reminds us that we should prepare for the future, and the earlier you start preparing, t...
Retirement is a dream for most Americans. Sure, there are people like Warren Buffett who love to work. Most people do not. If you're one of those people who want to retire, the question arises of when a good time to retire might be. Some people will be fine retiring next week while some should wa...
If you are approaching the age of 65 or already an eligible beneficiary, open enrollment for 2020 Medicare health benefits starts soon. For new enrollees over 65 or turning 65 and don't have medicare, you can sign up from October 15th to December 7th of this year. Existing enrollees will receive ...
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month which gives us a reason to talk about a subject that some try to avoid. Life insurance can conjure up dark images. Many people are jarred into realizing the importance of buying life insurance after a close friend or family member has passed away or e...
I recently read that a lawsuit is filed every 13 minutes of every working day in California and this disease is proliferating throughout the country. In addition, the toxic substance and mold litigation is on a rise with multi-million dollar verdicts against the landowners. Over 80 million lawsui...
A few years ago after reviewing some portfolios for clients that tried their hand in stock market trading it was obvious to me that they were gambling as if they were at the roulette table in Vegas. As someone who has worked for a billionaire and observed the asset class relative to stock, the in...
I wrote an article a few years ago that was published in the OC Metro in Orange County, California called “Uncle Sam's Snake Oil.” This article was designed to wake up all the sheeple (that is a half person half sheep) that is just following along and believing that what you've been told to be tr...
