Retirement and Estate Planning

Retirement Planning

If your business or professional practice doesn't have a tax-favoring retirement plan that benefits you and your employees, strongly consider starting one. You have a number of options and within tax law guidelines, can structure a plan to suite your needs whether it should be a profit sharing, defined benefit plan, Simple, Welfare benefit, SEP, or 401(k) or a combination of plans.

Your business may deduct the contributions it makes to a qualified plan on behalf of yourself and employees, within limits. Plan participants do not include contributed amounts or plan investment earnings in their income until they receive distributions.

We can advise you regarding personal contributions allowed into Individual retirement accounts, Roth IRA's and the new Roth 401(k) IRA's. Your income, tax bracket, age and retirement goals impact how much to contribute.

When retirement comes, you will have choices to make concerning plan distributions which impact your tax and financial plans. We can help you answers to questions such as should I roll my retirement plan into an IRA, how long will my money last, have I named a beneficiary, or what is the minimum required distribution amount. We not only look at your retirement funds, but integrate them into your overall financial and tax plan.

Estate Planning

It's often been said that nothing is certain but death and taxes. In the estate tax arena, nothing is certain concerning taxes. There seems to be constant proposals brought before our legislators to change the way estates are taxed. We can help. We stay up to date on the tax law changes. We can guide you through planning your will, setting up trusts, designating beneficiaries, choosing trustees and lifetime giving. Some of the most important decisions you make in this area are who will be the guardians on my children, when should you give up control of your assets, and to whom should you give power to act on your behalf.

There are planning vehicles that may work for you such as a family limited liability company, a private foundation, or charitable gift trust. In making a plan we look at your whole financial picture. We can make recommendations concerning how your assets are owned, selling or transferring a family business, buy-sell agreements, life insurance and whatever else is needed in giving you and your heirs peace of mind.