01 Dec 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
In July 1941 the Chicago White Sox rolled into Fenway Park to face the rival Red Sox and their hitting phenom known as The Kid, Ted Williams, the 23-year-old who had batted .327 and .344 in his first two years in the Bigs. Foremost in the mind of Chicago manager Jimmy Dykes was how to contain the “Splendid...
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24 Nov 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
The results of the 2020 election may determine the focus of your marketing among your wealthy (and possibly less wealthy) clientele. Among the tax proposals that have been put forth in the Biden/Harris plan is a change in the federal gift and estate tax that could greatly expand the number of folks...
Read more → 17 Nov 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
The best subtitle for this article would probably be, “New Horizons in Financial Underwriting!” But first, let’s take a short break to capture a parent-child moment in a typical American home: Father: “Son, I want you to be good at school today.” Son: “I’ll be good if you give me five...
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10 Nov 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander; or so we are told. But adages aren’t always truisms, so unfortunately the conventional wisdom behind them must be applied categorically and with ginger – especially when building financial justification for a case. The coverage guideline a carrier...
Read more → 03 Nov 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
When discussing and designing executive bonus plans, too much time is lost talking about and describing “single bonus” and “double bonus” methods, and too many cases may be lost because they haven’t been discussed at all. Just a quick study of vanilla executive bonus: The employer, (ER) agrees...
Read more → 27 Oct 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
During and after his tenure as President of Harvard University, Charles Eliot liked to contend that the essentials of a liberal education could be gotten by simply reading fifteen minutes a day from a selection of great books that would all fit on a five-foot shelf. If so, you wonder why people line...
Read more → 01 Sep 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Whenever life insurance is proposed the first two client-questions that inevitably follow are: first, how much will it cost and then, are the premiums deductible (especially if the client is a business-person). Let’s deal with the second. In a business situation life insurance premiums are never...
Read more → 25 Aug 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Devotees of the popular PBS series Downton Abbey felt the pangs of separation anxiety as they approached the final episode. This generation’s version of Upstairs, Downstairs has done much in the process of its narrative to enlighten viewers with an inside look at the workings of a great English manor...
Read more → 18 Aug 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
How much is a life insurance policy worth when the insured passes away? Easy question, right? Just look at the amount of the death benefit on the contract. Most think that, because the proceeds are received income tax-free, what you see is what you get. If the policy says $100,000, then the beneficiary...
Read more → 17 Mar 2020
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Much is made of how few taxpayers will pay federal estate taxes since the lifetime exemption was increased by the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. But there may be more prospects than you think. In any case, here is all you need to know to get the ball rolling in a discussion with any client: Each...
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