Preparing for the 2021 Tax Season How a financial advisor can help you manage your taxes this year Reducing your tax burden can help you manage your wealth and free up money to meet your financial goals and build your legacy. But tax rules are complicated, and you may need help understanding all the methods you can use to minimize your tax burden. Your financial advisor is one resource you can tap to help you develop strategies that fit your plan and reduce your tax exposure in 2021. Here are four ways they may be able to help. Tax-deferred accounts…
Insights & Advice
Retirement
Master Your Goals
Earlier this week, our CEO Allen Harris, pointed out we all have “woulda-coulda-shoulda” investment opportunities, but how can we minimize that? Ideas. Plans. Goals. We are almost halfway through the first quarter of 2021. Now is the time to think about your “financial fitness”. Where is it now? And where do you want it to be? These questions can seem a little overwhelming if you do not know where to begin. To help identify what your specific goals are, here’s a checklist to get the conversation going. Master-List-Of-Goals-2021
Creating a Successful Business Succession Plan
An exit strategy helps business owners ensure the long-term success of their company A good succession plan creates a blueprint for ownership transfer as you exit your business. It helps you prepare for your retirement, ensuring you have the income you need. And setting a well-conceived plan into motion protects the people around you, including your heirs, employees, and customers by laying the groundwork for a smooth transition. Yet, despite these important benefits, many privately owned businesses don’t have a succession plan, leaving the business vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances. For instance, if the business owner dies or becomes incapacitated, there…
Understanding Your Retirement Income Plan
Manage cash flow in retirement with multiple income streams When you retire, you get to bid farewell to the working world. That’s the good news. The bad news? You’ll no longer have a paycheck coming in from your employer. To address that, you’ll need to piece together a steady stream of income from different retirement sources, such as Social Security, retirement accounts, and annuities. Each of these sources of income has its own benefits and tax treatments. Here’s what you need to know about how they might fit into your retirement plan. Social Security Benefits Monthly Social Security benefits provide…
Oil’s comeback
Earlier this year, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil slumped into negative territory for the first time in history. Oil traded at a negative $37.63. Today, that same barrel of oil is changing hands at $47.48. What changed? More than any other sector, the coronavirus has had a devastating impact on the global oil and gas industry. Declining consumer demand in the first quarter of the year in combination with high levels of energy production threatened to exceed worldwide oil storage capacity. OPEC+, the oil cartel, took action on April 12, 2020 by cutting oil production by 9.7…
Few businesses sell
The goal for many business owners is to sell their company and retire with confidence. If that wasn’t a consideration of yours last year, it might be today. According to a Baker Tilly survey, as a result of the pandemic, 31 percent of business owners will accelerate their sale to a nonfamily buyer, and 24 percent will accelerate ownership to the next generation. Some readers probably won’t quickly sell their company, because they have failed to take the critical steps necessary to make it transferable. Selling isn’t enough — you need to attain maximum value first. Surveys by the Exit…
Yes, You Might Actually Enjoy a “Working” Retirement
An important part of your retirement plan is a discussion of the benefits of working, regardless of age. Retirement is no longer an event––it is a segue into an altered definition of life as you know it. One definition of “work” is that it consists of actions that bring value to others and meaning to you. While you may feel that you’ve had enough work, it’s probably the underlying issues (i.e., meetings, corporate politics, commuting) that have left you drained and exhausted. Think about this: many people who go back to work after retirement are motivated by more than money––they…
It May Be Time to Reconsider What Retirement Means to You
Whether you’ve been told you should retire at 62, 65, or some other age, only you can decide what is right for you. In fact, you may want to reconsider retiring at all––at least in the traditional sense. Many of us don’t like the circumstances we find ourselves in––and look at retirement as the nirvana we’ve been missing. The truth probably lies somewhere between completely dropping out (i.e., piddling around in retirement) and never retiring (i.e., dying with their boots on). The reason many of us find ourselves in such situations is that we have been sold on an idea…
Are You Getting the Best Return on Life You Possibly Can?
When it comes to investing, the current standard of return on investment (ROI) can be self-limiting, adding pressure that is counterproductive. So much of ROI is not within our control. We can diversify investments––always a good strategy––but we cannot control how the markets perform or how global events affect the markets. Just as meteorologists can predict the weather but still be wrong, we can try to predict and plan for market upheavals, but we cannot control them. It’s important to balance return on investments with return on life (ROL). ROL is defined as, ‘How well you are doing in living…
Three Ways to Avoid the Downside of Retirement
When it comes to retirement, it’s easy to dream about the perks: sleeping in, traveling, reading a good book, playing golf––name your fantasy. Even if your retirement is fully funded, the reality can be far less fulfilling if you don’t plan ahead. Repeated studies have shown that people who do not have a rewarding retirement can suffer both physically and psychologically during retirement. Lack of mental stimulation is a primary reason. People are often forced into retirement before they are ready. Others think they are ready, and yet are not prepared for the day-to-day realities of a new lifestyle. Working…