News About IRS And Tax: June 2018

Friday, 29 June 2018

IRS Announces They Are Working on a New 1040 Tax Form: Intuit TurboTax Has Got You Covered

Today the IRS announced they are working on changes to the 1040 tax forms. The IRS said that “this new approach will simplify the 1040 so that all 150 million taxpayers can use the same form. The new form consolidates...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-reform/irs-announces-they-are-working-on-a-new-1040-tax-form-intuit-turbotax-has-got-you-covered-41221/

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Jun 30 – Jul 1)

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the announcement that the CFP Board is launching a new “Standards Resource Commission”, a 13-person panel that will be tasked with creating guidance on the CFP Board’s new Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct to help CFP professionals know what they actually need to do to comply with the new rules.

Also in the news this week was a controversial internal memo at Wells Fargo that going forward, clients will be given the option to “opt out” of permitting their broker to take their contact information if the broker leaves, in what critics are calling an effort by Wells Fargo to end-run the Broker Protocol without formally dropping out of it. And the IRS provided a preview of its new Form 1040, which – in light of all the deductions and credits eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 – is aiming to consolidate the 1040 itself, the short-form 1040A, and the 1040EZ, into a new shortened postcard-sized tax return… albeit with what will still be a lot of new worksheets to calculate the deductions and credits that remain.

From there, we have a number of marketing and business development articles, from a look at how improving at sales and business development first requires a mindset shift that it’s about trying to share services that help (and why would you not be persistent in trying to offer real help to a prospect!), to advice on how to get better at networking, and some insights about what prospective clients actually want to see (and don’t want to see) on an advisor’s website.

We also have several retirement planning articles, including: a way to separate financial independence into multiple tiers depending on the nature of the lifestyle it can afford, and whether or how many trade-offs must still be accepted to make it work; how to think about and talk to clients whose struggle is not failing to save enough for retirement, but having saved “too much” yet being unwilling to spend and enjoy their wealth; and how to plan for and frame the cost of health (Medicare) insurance and medical expenses in retirement.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the business of advice itself: the first explores how often the best “advice” that we can offer is simply to listen, help clients be heard, and only occasionally, maybe offer some tidbits of guidance if and when they truly ask for it; the second looks at how the shift to more behaviorally-oriented advice (as opposed to traditional investment and financial advice) can fundamentally change the nature of the questions we ask clients; and the last looks at research finding that perhaps there’s such thing as being too empathetic with clients, and that the better way to connect with and help clients while avoiding burnout is not to empathetically feeling with them (and sharing their pain), but simply trying to extend kindness and compassionately feel for them, instead.

Enjoy the “light” reading!

Thursday, 28 June 2018

Undeclared Overseas Assets? Beware the ‘Requirement to Correct’ Deadline!

Overseas assests - requirement to correct

What does this mean for me?

If you are a taxpayer with overseas assets which are undeclared as regards income tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax, you have an obligation to sort things out by 30 September 2018. People who ignore this requirement and whose income or assets subsequently come to light will face much, much higher penalties and sanctions after the deadline.

Why bother now?

The United Kingdom has signed up for information exchange with a whole host of other countries. The information it receives from them will be input into its intelligence system known as Connect. This increases the likelihood of undeclared sources coming to light.

What if I do nothing?

After the deadline date, if your undeclared sources of income or gains come to light, you will face potential penalties as follows:

A tax geared penalty of between 100% and 200% of the tax due;
A potential asset based penalty of up to 10% of the asset value where the relevant tax at stake is over £25,000 in any one tax year;
Adverse publicity from being publicly named as a tax cheat where the tax is over £25,000;
A further potential penalty of 50% of the standard penalty if the Revenue show that assets or funds have been moved in an attempt to avoid the requirement to correct.

If you have a reasonable excuse for failing to correct your tax position, such as failing health for example, then penalties may be reduced or not charged in exceptional circumstances.

Get Started:

If you think you might be affected or are in any doubt, we suggest you act now to avoid any problems before the deadline. Call Taxfile on 0208 761 8000 for a no-obligation discussion if you want to put things right. Alternatively, book an appointment here. We have a wealth of experience in dealing with voluntary disclosures and negotiating settlements with HMRC, so can definitely help you. We offer tax advice and accountancy services from our offices in Tulse Hill, Dulwich and Battersea in South and South West London along with tax experts in Exeter, Plymouth, Poole, Dorset, Devon, Yorkshire and Carlisle.

source https://www.taxfile.co.uk/2018/06/requirement-to-correct-deadline/

Wednesday, 27 June 2018

QBI Deduction Strategies For High-Income Financial Advisors (And Other Small Business Owners)

For financial advisors, the new Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction (also known as the IRC Section 199A deduction, or the pass-through deduction) presents not just many tax planning opportunities for small business owner clients, but also tax planning opportunities for financial advisors themselves. The reason being that financial advisors are classified as Specified Service Business owners, and, as a result, any “high income” advisors (defined as those whose taxable income exceeds $315,000 when filing a joint return, or $207,500 when filing otherwise), are subject to a phaseout of their potential full QBI deduction of up to 20% of certain business income.

In this guest post, Jeffrey Levine of BluePrint Wealth Alliance, and our Director of Advisor Education for Kitces.com, examines how high-income financial advisors (and other Specified Service Businesses) can utilize strategies to get the most benefit from their QBI deduction, including spinning off and renting back depreciable property, creating a PEO and leasing back employees, condensing lifetime giving via the use of a donor-advised fund, and other strategies!

While high-income advisors need to consider the impact of the QBI phaseout on their income going forward, notably, the concern does not apply to all advisors. In particular, advisors with income less than the QBI phaseout levels will still receive a full QBI deduction. But for high-income advisors, the QBI phaseout will apply. As a result, advisors may particularly want to look for strategies to convert an advisor’s specified service business income into income derived from a non-specified trade or service business. Advisors have many options for implementing such strategies. For instance, some may want to spin off any firm owned real estate into a separate entity and lease back the property at fair market value. By doing so, an advisor can reduce the amount of specified service business QBI generated from their practice (as rent is a deductible business expense), while simultaneously increasing the amount of QBI generated from the separate “rental real estate business”, which is not a specified service business. The end result of the strategy is that the rent the advisor pays on the building would be eligible for the 20% QBI deduction (albeit with a cap of up to 2.5% of the unadjusted basis of the office space).

Similarly, other QBI strategies look for ways to reduce QBI generated from an advisor practice while also increasing QBI generated by a non-specified service business. For instance, advisors may want to “spin-off” non-advisory employees and lease them back through a professional employer organization (PEO) (as a PEO would be eligible for a QBI deduction, so long as it is not deemed an advisory business), license intellectual property to an advisory firm through a different entity (as the intellectual property income may be eligible for a QBI deduction), or even cut back their workload or increase their investment in their firm through deductible expenses, given the marginal tax rates that can reach as high as 64% within the QBI phaseout zone!

Ultimately, the key point is to acknowledge that high-income financial advisors (and other specified service business owners) have considerable opportunity to plan around the new QBI phaseout zone… even if their total income is well beyond the QBI phaseout zone! While the new rules can be a bit tricky (and strategies could shift as the IRS provides more guidance going forward), it appears that QBI strategies will be a key focus going forward, and present a considerable planning opportunity for advisors (and their clients!) to reduce their overall tax burden!

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

#FASuccess Ep 078: Understanding And Serving The Needs Of Truly Ultra-High-Net-Worth Investors with Charlotte Beyer

Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 78th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Charlotte Beyer. Charlotte is the founder and former CEO of the Institute for Private Investors, a private networking organization specifically for ultra-high-net-worth investors, and some of the advisors who serve them.

What’s unique about Charlotte, though, was the way she built a series of conferences, networking events, and online community for ultra-high-net-worth individuals before the world of social media and online communities became what they are today… and in doing so, demonstrated and proved that ultra-high-net-worth clients really do have a set of unique needs and challenges, for which they need both an organization, and advisors, dedicated to serve them.

In this episode, we talk in depth about the two biggest worries of ultra-high-net-worth families – which is not necessarily about how to maximize their investment returns or even minimize their taxes, but how ensure that their children don’t grow up to be entitled or otherwise adversely impacted by the family wealth, and how to avoid the risk of being “taken” and conned or scammed out of their money – what Charlotte calls the five “Ps” that she counsels ultra-high-net-worth investors to consider when evaluating an advisor, including the firm’s People, Performance, Process, Philosophy, and Phees, why the future of working with the ultra-wealthy is all about high-tech and high touch, and what ultra-high-net-worth investors really want to hear from an advisor to connect with them in a world where they hear a ton of advisor “pitches” to them that all sound the same.

We also talk about how Charlotte herself built IPI as an organization, how the effort to create a community organization for ultra-high-net-worth investors almost failed out of the gate, the way she structured the organization’s meetings and established group norms to promote the interaction between ultra-high-net-worth investors and the advisor community, and the lessons that any advisor can draw in figuring out how to really listen to the clients you’re serving an adapt what you offer them to fit what they really want and need.

And be certain to listen to the end, when Charlotte provides her suggestions about what financial advisors should consider if they want to move “up market” into serving ultra-high-net-worth clients, and the way the ultra-high-net-worth space is shifting as wealth gets younger (with the rise of Gen X and Gen Y ultra-high-net-worth investors), as women control an increasing portion of ultra-high-net-worth wealth (and have different expectations of their advisors), and as the advisor value proposition itself continues to change as technology automates for free many of the things that we previously were paid for.

So whether you are interested in learning more about how to build a community around your niche, the unique challenges and goals of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, or what you should consider if you are interested in moving “up market”, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Monday, 25 June 2018

Announcing The First Kitces Research Survey On The Real Financial Planning Process

Financial planning, and the process of creating a financial plan, has changed extensively over the nearly 45 years since the first class of CFP certificants. While early on, the financial plan was used primarily as a Calculator to do Needs-Based Analyses for the products they had to sell, over time it evolved into a Comprehensive Financial Plan that advisors could actually get paid for independent of any product implementation, which advisors then in turn Customized even further, and are now increasingly delivering Collaboratively with clients (where the focus is on the planning experience, and The Plan itself is merely delivered after the fact to commemorate the planning decisions already made).

Yet unfortunately, remarkably little research exists on how, exactly, financial advisors are actually preparing and delivering financial plans today. How often do advisors charge separately for planning? What is it that they actually deliver to clients? When advisors complain that it is very “time-consuming” to do financial planning, which part, exactly, is so time-consuming? And to what extent does financial planning software expedite the process… or exacerbate the problem?

In this context, we’re excited to announce the first Kitces Research initiative – a comprehensive study on the process that financial advisors actually go through to create and deliver a financial plan. Think of it as a benchmarking study for the creation of the financial plan itself, with a focus on identifying best practices.

So whether you’re frustrated that financial planning software doesn’t “do” what you need it to in order to demonstrate its value, or are simply looking for ideas to refine your own financial planning process to be more time-efficient or cost-effective (or valuable and able to command a higher price!), I hope you’ll take a few minutes to participate in our Financial Planning Process survey and help the world better understand what real financial planners actually do!

Friday, 22 June 2018

Tax Reform 101: Will Getting Married Change My Tax Situation?

Are you planning to get married or are getting married soon? If so, congratulations! As you and your significant other plan for the big day and your life together, there is a lot to take into consideration. And as fun...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-reform/tax-reform-101-will-getting-married-change-my-tax-situation-41112/

Thursday, 21 June 2018

Happy Summer Solstice! 4 Ways to Save This Season

Today is the official start of summer! Thoughts of vivid sunsets, theme parks, beach days and weekend getaways come to mind. All of these activities can take a toll on your bank account, but remember that you don’t have to...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/income-and-investments/happy-summer-solstice-4-ways-to-save-this-season-23422/

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Financial Advisor (And Other Specified Services) Business Entity Choices To Maximize QBI Deductions

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) included the most substantial changes to the tax code that we have seen in over 30 years. Perhaps the change which has garnered the most attention amongst financial advisors appears to be the new 20% deduction for qualified business income (QBI). What’s unique about the QBI deduction (also known as the IRC Section 199A deduction, or the pass-through deduction) is not just the size of the deduction (as a deduction of up to 20% of certain business income is likely to generate interest) but the fact that many financial advisors themselves will be eligible for a QBI deduction, albeit subject to some “high-income” limitations that many financial advisors will need to plan for in order to avoid having their QBI deduction phased-out entirely.

In this guest post, Jeffrey Levine of BluePrint Wealth Alliance examines how financial advisors (and other Specified Service Businesses) can maximize their QBI deduction through business entity selection, including why employee advisors may want to convert to being independent contractors; why S corps may want to convert to partnerships, LLCs, or a C corp (or not!); and why sole proprietors may not need to make any changes.

A key to understanding the new QBI deduction is how the “high-income” phaseout works. For QBI purposes, any specified service business owner who files a joint tax return with more than $315,000 of taxable income, or an advisor who files under any other status with taxable income of more than $157,500, will be considered “high-income”. As a result, high-income advisors will be subject to a phaseout of their QBI deduction, with the deduction being completely phased out when taxable income reaches $415,000 (joint) or $207,500 (other). Notably, since these thresholds are based on taxable income, this would include income from any sources (investment, spouse, etc.), even though the QBI deduction itself is calculated based on the business’ income.

The reason business entity selection influences an advisor’s QBI deduction is that not all compensation to an advisor is considered qualified business income. For instance, financial advisors who receive W-2 wages are not eligible for a QBI deduction at all, which is why employee advisors may want to consider converting to become independent contractors (if their employer will allow it), as their sole proprietor income would be considered QBI. Income from partnerships or LLCs taxed as partnerships will generally be considered QBI, with the exception of guaranteed payments made to partners (which may mean advisors utilizing operating agreements with substantial guaranteed payments may want to reconsider this structure in light of QBI considerations). The good news for S corps is that so long as advisors can reasonably claim a lower salary, profit distributions (but not wages) will avoid self-employment taxes and be considered QBI (although this extra incentive to push the boundary of what may be considered reasonable salary will also likely mean extra IRS scrutiny of S corp income). For C corp owners, wages again are not considered QBI, although such owners may still benefit from the reduced corporate tax rate of only 21%.

Ultimately, the key point is to acknowledge that business entity selection plays a key role in maximizing a QBI deduction as a specified service business owner. Although many financial advisors (and other specified service business owners) may be subject to a QBI phaseout due to their high income, choosing the right business entity structure can help advisors preserve as much QBI deduction as possible!Read More…

source https://www.kitces.com/blog/section-199a-business-entity-choices-qualified-business-income-qbi-deduction-strategies-financial-advisor-specified-service-business-phaseout/

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

#FASuccess Ep 077: Creating A Partnership Constitution To Formalize Decision-Making For A Multi-Partner Advisory Firm with Tanya Rapacz

Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 77th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Tanya Rapacz. Tanya is the co-founder of the Partnership Resource, a consulting firm that works with financial advisors partnerships to ensure that the partnership itself actually works, from formation, to the ongoing operation of the business, to succession planning.

What’s unique about Tanya, though, is that before she was trained in dispute resolution and mediation, she was a financial advisor herself, who both worked successfully in a partnership, and went through a partnership merger that didn’t work out, as she experienced first-hand what happens when the multiple partners of a partnership each want to take the business in opposite directions.

In this episode, we talk in depth about what it takes for a successful partnership to work, why it’s necessary to treat a business partnership like a marriage (anticipating that some level of conflict is inevitable, and the key to long-term success is your ability to align on your goals and work through the conflict together), why multi-advisor partnerships with 3 to 5 partners tend to be the unhappiest (because of those challenging interpersonal partnership dynamics when the number of partners increases), how the largest advisory firms often have the most stable partnerships simply because they end out creating governance structures that facilitate the multi-partner decision-making process, but why any partnership may benefit from taking the time to create an agreement on how the partnership will make decisions in order to reduce their level of conflict.

We also talk about Tanya’s own process working with partners, that starts with a series of personality assessment profiles to help current or future partners understand how to better communicate with each other, and the driving forces that motivate each other, the benefits of having a facilitator to help new partners talk through how key decisions will be made as partners and avoid reaching “easy agreements” that gloss over the challenging decisions like “which financial planning software will we use” that can tear a new financial advisor partnership apart, and how Tanya’s partnership process culminates in an actual “Partnership Constitution” document, that formally spells out for all the partners how decisions will be made collectively going forward.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tanya talks about how she’s now beginning to scale up her “partnership compatibility reports” and assessment process with RIA Match, in addition to doing more facilitation with advisors directly as more and more advisory firms begin to form partnerships and merge to gain economies of scale in today’s competitive environment.

So whether you are interested in learning more about how to manage relationship dynamics while working in a partnership, how personality assessments can help partners communicate better, or learning how you can form your own “Partnership Constitution” document to formalize decision-making, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Monday, 18 June 2018

Summer Reading List of “Best Books” For Financial Advisors – 2018 Edition

As the 2018 school season winds down and summer begins… it’s time for the annual summer slowdown for most advisory firms, as client meetings get harder to schedule because they’re on vacation, and as advisors we ourselves have some time to relax with family… and catch up on good books.

As an avid book reader myself, I’m always eager to hear suggestions from others of great books to read, whether it’s something new that’s just come out, or an “old classic” that I should go back and read (again or for the first time!). And so, in the spirit of sharing, a few years ago I launched my list of “Recommended (Book) Reading for Financial Advisors”, and it was so well received that in 2013 I also started sharing my annual “Summer Reading List” for financial advisors of the best books I’d read in the preceding year. It quickly became a perennial favorite on Nerd’s Eye View, and so I’ve updated it every year, with new lists of books in 2014, 2015, 2016, and a fresh round last year in 2017.

And now, I’m now excited to share my latest 2018 Summer Reading list for financial advisors, with suggestions on books about everything from how to improve your financial advice so it actually “sticks” with clients, guidance on how to navigate your career path as a next generation “G2” advisor (or to hire one if you’re a firm owner looking to attract the next generation of talent), self-improvement books on how to better manage your productivity throughout the day or broader Principles to live and manage your life (and business), and an uplifting read on how the world continues to improve in amazing ways, and why the primary issue we face today is not the concerns of our political system or our economy or all the other dreadful drumbeats of negative news, but simply the ways that our own human instincts cause us to misinterpret (in a systematically negative way) the avalanche of information around us.

So as the summer season gets underway, I hope that you find this suggested summer reading list of books for financial planners to be helpful… and please do share your own suggestions in the comments at the end of the article about the best books you’ve read over the past year as well!

Sunday, 17 June 2018

Happy Father’s Day! The Best Savings Tips from Our Authors’ Dads

Father’s Day is here! From life lessons to learning how to throw a baseball, we gain a lot from our fathers, especially when it comes to savings. To celebrate Father’s Day, we thought it would be fun to hear what...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/income-and-investments/happy-fathers-day-the-best-savings-tips-from-our-authors-dads-19904/

Thursday, 14 June 2018

Breaking Into A Financial Advisor Career: Get A(ny Non-Sales) Job

The number of female CFP professionals has remained stubbornly pegged at 23% for nearly 15 years, despite an ever-growing effort of the industry to attract more women. Because unfortunately, even as the profession seeks to build awareness and draw more women into financial planning, the positive impact is limited by the amount of sexual harassment and demeaning and belittling comments still directed at women by “fellow” advisors at the typical advisory industry conference.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, I share recent and unfortunate case-in-point examples of inappropriate and belittling comments that are still being made towards female advisors at industry conferences today, and explore what needs to be said to curtail problematic behavior.

For instance, at the recent FPA NorCal conference, a conversation that I was having with a group of female colleagues – including fellow advisors and several industry-leading consultants – was interrupted by another advisor who proclaimed the semi-circle of women I was speaking with looked like a “harem”. As though it’s ever appropriate to compare professional female colleagues to concubines!?

Similarly, it’s still all too common for women at advisory industry conferences to receive comments like “Whose assistant are you?” or “What do you actually do at your advisory firm?” with the implication that it couldn’t possibly be working as a financial advisor… even for a woman who prominently displays her CFP certification and a firm that’s named after her!

Yet I’ll confess that even as someone who has witnessed these kinds of disparaging comments, and am incredibly frustrated by them as well… I still struggle to figure out what, exactly, to say in order to break the cycle. As unfortunately, calling out offenders and trying to publicly humiliate them for their offensive comments is more likely to just make them defensive and run from the situation, instead of gaining some empathetic perspective and actually acknowledging and recognizing how their comments may be so demeaning to their female colleagues.

The bottom line, though, is that as someone who has witnessed this behavior, and often said nothing – out of a sheer lack of knowing what to say – I regret not taking a more active role in trying to stop it and saying something when I see or hear inappropriate behavior at advisory industry conferences. And it’s something I intend to address more proactively going forward. But I hope you’ll share your comments at the end of this article with your own perspective, on how best to have this conversation in the first place? What do you say when you witness sexual harassment at a financial advisor conference?

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Second Property & Rented Property ‘Tax Trap’ for the Unwary

New Capital Gains Tax rules for 2nd properties and property rentals

Owners of second properties and let properties need to be aware that HMRC is planning to introduce new rules from 6 April 2020 to require payment of Capital Gains Tax much, much earlier! The window of payment will be reduced from 31 January following the year of the gain to a mere 30 days from the date of the sale. Effectively, ‘in year’ reporting of the estimated gains - and payment of the tax - is mandatory under the new rules. Failure to report the gains and pay the tax will lead to penalties for landlords and second home owners. You will only be able to offset losses accrued at the time of the disposal, so losses later in the year will not be available against the payment on account.

Summing Up:

If you make a capital gain in 2018/19 (before the new rules kick in) you will pay the capital gains tax on or by 31 January 2019.
For the sale of a house that is let, or a second property, with exchange of contracts occurring on, say, 15 April 2020 with completion happening on 15 May 2020, the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) has to be paid by 14 June 2020. This accelerates the payment of the tax to the Exchequer by 7 months.
So, perversely, the later year requires the Capital Gains Tax payment before the earlier year, as you can see above!

The other difficulty is knowing what rate to apply because a higher rate taxpayer has to pay 28% on a gain but a basic rate taxpayer has to pay tax at 18% up to the limit of the basic rate band that is unused. This is, of course, one situation where Taxfile can help to work out the tax implications for its customers. Tax calculations are what we do best and we're here to help you! Note that Scottish tax rates may vary. HMRC is currently assessing feedback on their consultation, which closed on 6 June 2018. If you believe this change of rules is wrong, one option is to write to your MP to complain.

Professional Help with Tax & Accountancy - for Landlords & More

For help with accountancy and tax for any property, lettings or any capital gains situation you may find yourself in, contact your nearest branch of Taxfile. We have London offices in Tulse Hill (SE21), Dulwich, Battersea (SW8) and another in the Exeter in the South West along with additional tax consultants in Carlisle in the North of England, Yorkshire in the North East, Poole/Dorset and Plymouth in the West Country. Call 0208 761 8000 for an introductory chat or appointment, or click the bold links for more information. We'll be happy to help and to get your tax affairs in order.

source https://www.taxfile.co.uk/2018/06/property-tax-trap-for-the-unwary/

Universal Life Insurance Funding Strategies: Optimizing Death Benefit vs Cash Surrender Value IRRs

Before the development of universal life insurance, permanent life insurance was relatively straightforward. Policies had fixed premiums, fixed death benefits, and fixed interest rates generating consistent growth of cash surrender values over time. As a result, determining the internal rate of return (IRR) on policies was relatively easy. However, as “flexible premium” universal life products were developed in the early 1980s, policyowners gained flexibility to structure premium payments differently – introducing the possibility for individuals to place greater emphasis on either the IRR of death benefits or the IRR of cash surrender values based on their goals. However, because of the complexity of universal life insurance, many policyowners (and financial advisors) still remain unaware of this ability, and how to properly utilize flexible universal life products to fully optimize either one of these objectives.

In this guest post, Rajiv Rebello of Colva Insurance Services examines various universal life insurance premium payment strategies, illustrating that in order to fully understand the dynamics influencing both death benefit and cash surrender value IRRs, it is crucial to understand exactly how the policies work, including how the insurance expenses are deducted from a universal policy in the first place. Additionally, through some sample scenarios, Rajiv examines what premium payment strategies work best for maximizing either a death benefit IRR or a cash surrender value IRR.

Ultimately, the key point is that it’s important for any advisor to understand the mechanics of how best to maximize a life insurance policy, and why the funding strategies to maximize cash value accumulation are fundamentally different than maximizing the internal rate of return on the death benefit itself. Whether it is through “maximum funding” strategies, “minimum funding” strategies, or hybrids and other variations of flexible premium payment strategies… financial advisors and their clients have many strategies available for pursuing different financial objectives. And because choosing the right strategy can have a considerable impact on a client’s wealth, it is crucially important to pair the right funding strategy with the right policy structure in order to accomplish the long-term goals of a client!

Tuesday, 12 June 2018

#FASuccess Ep 076: Why Financial Therapy Beats Financial Advice To Help Clients Change Their Behavior with Kristy Archuleta

Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 76th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Kristy Archuleta. Kristy is an Associate Professor in the financial planning program at Kansas State University, with a focus on teaching advisors how to actually change their clients’ behaviors for the better.

What’s unique about Kristy, though, is that she’s also a licensed marriage and family therapist, and comes to the world of financial planning and how to help clients improve their financial behaviors with the perspective of a trained psychologist.

In this episode, we talk in depth about Kristy’s work at the intersection of financial planning and financial therapy, how a financial therapist would view common financial planning challenges from a different perspective with different solutions, the way that therapists approach helping clients to change their behavior by recognizing that clients are the best experts in their own lives, and why according to the best practices research of therapists themselves, what financial advisors typically do – give advice with a comprehensive list of recommendations to their clients about how to improve their financial lives – is actually not a good way to get them to change their financial behaviors for the better.

We also talk about Kristy’s work in helping to co-found the Financial Therapy Association, the development of a new Certified Financial Therapist (or “CFT”) program they’re developing, why Kristy anticipates that financial therapy will eventually become a specialization path for financial planners… and where the line should still be drawn between the end of what advisors can do by providing financial therapy, and when it may still be necessary to involve a fully licensed mental health professional on the client’s behalf.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Kristy talks about her own upcoming transition, from teaching financial planning and financial therapy at Kansas State University, to joining the financial planning program at the University of Georgia, to hopefully help them build more insights from financial therapy into their core financial planning curriculum as well.

So whether you are interested in learning more about the intersection between financial planning and financial therapy, how financial therapy can help clients improve their financial behaviors, or how financial therapists can become certified through programs such as the CFT, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Monday, 11 June 2018

Celebrating 10 Years Of Kitces.com And Hiring For The Future

In 2008, Kitces.com was first launched as a platform to showcase my new paid newsletter service, The Kitces Report, and to advertise my services as a speaker for financial advisor conferences, with a “grand vision” that my newsletter would help to draw interest for more speaking engagements, and that speaking in front of more advisor audiences would help me grow the number of paid subscribers to the newsletter. And on the side… I launched a blog, to share a few of my thoughts on financial planning strategies and industry trends that didn’t quite merit a full issue of the newsletter.

A decade later, the growth of the Nerd’s Eye View blog has surpassed even my wildest dreams, moving from a side project to the center of my business, built on a foundational belief that if we can stay focused on advancing knowledge in financial planning and helping real financial advisors to be more successful in their businesses and with their clients, that growth and other opportunities would come. And indeed they have, as the latest Erdos & Morgan study on financial advisor usage of digital media found that the Nerd’s Eye View ranks #1 for influence, objectivity, credibility, and simply being actually useful to financial advisors.

Given this growth, we’re excited to announce the addition to two new positions with the Kitces.com team. The first is a new Associate Editor role, to help us manage the ever-growing volume of content, readers, and behind-the-scenes logistics that are necessary to execute our growing media platform. The second is a new Senior Researcher, to replace Dr. Derek Tharp as he takes on a new financial planning teaching position at the University of Southern Maine’s business school. The Senior Researcher will help us to build a growing base of original research we aim to conduct directly through the Kitces.com platform, to help gain a better understanding of what real financial advisors actually do – from how they deliver plans, to how they price their services, how they use technology, and how they market and grow their advice-centric firms.

In the end, the goal of this growth and expanding the Kitces.com team is not to alter the service that we provide to the financial advisory community; instead, it’s simply to help us get even better at what we already do. Because in the end, a successful growing business needs more good people to be more successful and have a bigger impact to the community it serves. Which is true for both running a financial advisory firm itself, and also a platform that serves them. We’re nowhere close to being done yet, and I can’t wait to see what we can build to help the advisor community in the next 10 years from here!

Saturday, 9 June 2018

4 Myths About IRS Audits

There's plenty of misinformation circling around out there about IRS audits. It's time to clear the air and get the facts.

source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/4-myths-about-irs-audits-14563/

Friday, 8 June 2018

Making the Most of your Tax Allowances for Small Trading?

Using 'Trading Income Allowance' to save tax

Are you making the most of your tax allowances for small trading? If you have small earnings from self employment, then it may be advantageous to make a claim for Trading Income Allowance i.e. to claim a flat rate deduction of £1,000 for expenses instead of claiming the actual expenses incurred.

Example: Christina has income of £2,360 and expenses for web hosting of £204, software of £103 and publishing costs of £430 (total expenses £737). As her expenses are less than £1,000 she can claim £1,000 Trading Income Allowance in preference to claiming the actual expenses. Her taxable profit therefore becomes £1,360 instead of £1,623. So, she pays less tax!

This is just one simple way in which Taxfile's knowledge of the tax system can help its customers pay less tax in a totally acceptable way from HMRC's perspective.

Contact your nearest Taxfile branch

Please do contact us for any accountancy work that you or your business(es) require. We're tax experts and are also very well trusted by HMRC because we deal with them on a daily basis on behalf hundreds of clients. We have several UK branches including in Tulse Hill, Dulwich and Battersea in London, Exeter and Plymouth in the South West along with our tax specialists in Poole (Dorset), Carlisle in the North of England and Yorkshire in the North East. Call 0208 761 8000 or contact us here for more information — we'll be happy to help you to get your tax affairs in order in the most tax-efficient way.

source https://www.taxfile.co.uk/2018/06/trading-income-allowance/

Thursday, 7 June 2018

Tax Reform 101: What You Should Know About Changes to the Moving Expense Tax Deduction

Are there moving boxes in your future? Summer is a popular time to move and many are moving miles away to take a new job. If that’s you, congratulations on embarking on your new adventure! Here are a few things...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-reform/tax-reform-101-what-you-should-know-about-changes-to-the-moving-expense-tax-deduction-41043/

What Do You Say When You Witness Sexual Harassment At A Financial Advisor Conference?

Wednesday, 6 June 2018

Should A Financial Plan Really Be Boiled Down To An Index Card Of Advice?

Historically, getting paid for financial planning – not just to implement the recommendations, but for “The Plan” itself – meant producing a voluminous physical financial plan for which the advisor would be paid. The Plan was the tangible, physical deliverable, full of in-depth analyses and culminating in the advisor’s recommendations, that substantiates the financial planning fee. The one major caveat: few clients ever actually open The Plan again after it is first presented, focusing only on the subsequent recommendations and action items… and raising the question of whether financial planning might be done far more efficiently by eschewing The Plan and just delivering a One Page Financial Plan (of core recommendations and action items) instead.

Yet the reality is that even if The Plan is never revisited by the client after the day it’s presented, that doesn’t mean it was useless to have created it in the first place. Because from the client’s perspective, The Plan is what helps to validate that the subsequent recommendations are right and to be trusted in the first place; in other words, the client may in the end focus on just the recommendations and not The Plan, but that doesn’t mean they would have trusted and acted on those recommendations in the absence of the supporting comprehensive financial plan analyses and output.

Similarly, the real challenge for many clients is not figuring out the appropriate recommendations for them to achieve the goals in their financial plan, but to identify what their goals should be – or can be, or are even possible – in the first place. Which means producing The Plan, and subsequent What-If scenarios for the plan, are an essential element of the planning process in the first place. And again something that cannot be eschewed by just focusing on the One Page Financial Plan of recommendations at the end.

Notably, this doesn’t necessarily mean that financial advisors should or need to continue producing comprehensive financial plans exactly as they have in the past. The more the advisor can establish their trust and credibility – whether through showing empathy to create rapport with the client, demonstrating good communication skills, or simply their years of experience – the less the client may rely on the advisor’s analytical plan output. And to the extent planning software can be used more interactively and collaboratively with the client, the less it’s necessary to print out the voluminous plan in the first place.

Nonetheless, the challenge remains that even if the goal of the financial advisor is not just to get paid for The Plan, but for the advisor’s own financial planning knowledge and wisdom… it’s still necessary to go through the financial planning process in crafting recommendations for clients, if only because that’s what it takes for the client to have the buy-in and trust necessary to actually follow through and implement them!

Tuesday, 5 June 2018

#FASuccess Ep 075: Walking Away From RIA Partnership To Scratch Your Own Entrepreneurial Itch with Kathy Longo

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 75th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Kathy Longo. Kathy is the President and Founder of Flourish Wealth Management, a wealth management firm in the Minneapolis area that oversees nearly $130M of assets under management for 61 affluent clients.

What’s unique about Kathy, though, is that she had already successfully climbed the partnership track ladder at a billion dollar independent RIA, to become one of their “next generation” successor owners, yet ultimately decided to sell her shares and walk away from that business to start a new one in order to scratch her entrepreneurial itch.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Kathy has structured and built the staffing of her firm, launching initially by using a third-party TAMP provider, then transitioning to do the investment management internally as the firm grew by having her husband take over as the Director of Investments, the “culture snapshot” document she created to screen potential new employees to ensure they’re likely a good fit, and why it’s so crucial as a small business owner to embrace the philosophy of “slow to hire, fast to fire” with new employees.

We also talk about the value of having a study or mastermind group, why Kathy decided to join two different study groups – one that is comprised of all women financial planners in the industry from the Minneapolis area, and the other that is comprised of all women business owners outside the industry through the Women’s Presidents Organization or WPO, and why having a study group of peers and colleagues you can commiserate with and get advice from is so essential to running your advisory business… especially when you’re launching a firm and hit the inevitable challenges and emotional rollercoaster that comes with building your business from scratch.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Kathy talks about why she decided to write a book to further propel the growth of her advisory firm, and why and how she decided to invest in hiring an outside firm to help with the writing and book creation process.

So whether you are interested in figuring out how to structure the investment management component of a financial planning firm, how to create a strong culture for growing your team, or are wondering about the benefits of participating in a study group, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Monday, 4 June 2018

Self-Employed Tax Tips & Summer Jobs

Ah, summer – the time of year when young adults become entrepreneurs. Whether it’s a summer job or a part-time gig, by the time high school and college roll around, many young adults can be considered self-employed. If that’s you or...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/self-employed/self-employed-tax-tips-summer-jobs-23345/

The Latest In Financial Advisor #FinTech (June 2018)

Welcome to the June 2018 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month’s edition kicks off with the buzz from the Envestnet Advisor Summit… that Envestnet is shifting from a focus on investment management, financial planning, and wealth management, towards a new category it calls “Financial Wellness”. Which is not meant to be the employer-delivered-financial-education version of a Financial Wellness program, but a more holistic advisor technology platform aiming to cover all of the relevant areas of a client’s financial health, including not only planning, investments, and insurance (protection), but also credit/debt, and budgeting/cash flow as well. Which leaves Envestnet incredibly well positioned for the ongoing shift of financial advisors from products to advice, and makes its 2015 acquisition of Yodlee look increasingly savvy as holistic financial wellness requires holistic account aggregation to power it!

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

Principal Financial acquires RobustWealth as yet another old-line insurer aims to get more digitally savvy
Private equity firm Aquiline acquires a majority stake in RIAInABox as compliance software becomes an advisor tech category of its own
LearnVest shuts down its financial planning offering but may still be a success for Northwestern Mutual as its financial planning and PFM technology is integrated into the Northwestern core
AdvicePay announces the first ever “advisor crowdfunding” initiative, in an effort to raise $2M of new capital without taking on the conflicts of Venture Capital firms

Read the analysis about these announcements, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, in this month’s column, including Vestwell partnering with payroll processor Namely to expand distribution of its small-business 401(k) offering, Vestmark launches a new Model Trading Service as the shift to centrally managed portfolios in RIAs and IBDs is leading to a new desire to outsource the implementation, and Fidelity showcases the prototype of a new “Cora” virtual reality assistant for clients as Schwab launches two new Digital Accelerator Hubs. In addition, we highlight the rise of another new category of advisor software: Student Loan Analysis and Modeling tools, as the shift to pursue Gen X and Gen Y clients leads to a demand for new types of software to service them.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map”, including a number of new companies and categories!

I hope you’re continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to TechNews@kitces.com!

Friday, 1 June 2018

Tax Tips for Same-Sex Couples

In honor of June being National LGBT Pride Month, we’re breaking down filing tips for same-sex couples. In 2013, the IRS began recognizing marriages between same-sex spouses if they were valid under state law where the marriage took place. Since...

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source https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/tax-tips-for-same-sex-couples-2-21313/