05 Feb 2019
Posted by Randy Fox 
An earlier article discussed Opportunity Recognition, one of the Four Cornerstones of building a successful charitable planning practice. Recall the reference to fundamental testamentary transfers - bequests by will. These transfers take place only upon the death of the donor and bequests by Will...
Read more →
29 Jan 2019
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Robots have rules to live by; or so we were first told by author Isaac Asimov in his 1942 science fiction short story, Runaround. His Three Laws of Robotics dictated: 1) A robot may not injure a human or allow a human to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey the orders given it by humans...
Read more → 08 Jan 2019
Posted by Tom Virkler 
The decision Pete Carroll made in Super Bowl XLIX to pass the ball on second-and-goal rather than simply handing the loaf of bread to the man whose golden spikes would surely have tripped the light fantastic into the end zone and into the rarefied air inhaled by back-to-back Super Bowl winners has since...
Read more → 21 Dec 2018
Posted by Randy Fox 
The “discovery” process with prospects is a fundamental building block of planning – meant for gathering information and documentation to better understand the starting point for their planning journey. Records to review include asset statements, mortgage documents, tax returns, and estate planning...
Read more → 18 Dec 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
The IRS told Edith Windsor she owed them $363,000. So she decided to make a federal case out of it. The liability was a result of the estate tax due upon the death of her same-sex spouse, Thea Spyer. Because the couple had been legally married in Ontario, Canada two years earlier, Windsor claimed...
Read more → 11 Dec 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Well, it’s the season for gift-giving and even the IRS has gotten into the holiday mood with a proposed regulation that is a true gift to wealthy gift-givers. As they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile! The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 had good news for high net worth individuals Every...
Read more → 07 Dec 2018
Posted by Randy Fox 
Learning a new planned giving skill set requires commitment while raising a number of questions - Why am I doing this? Will I make money? Does it fit my business model? Whether you’re an attorney, a CPA, a financial advisor or an insurance agent, there are at least 9 compelling reasons to embark...
Read more → 27 Nov 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Let’s start with the one about the mathematician who hated negative numbers. He would stop at nothing to avoid them. Think about it for a minute. Insurance advisors don’t like negative numbers either, especially when they represent losses inside an insurance or annuity product. And too often the response...
Read more → 16 Oct 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Dr. James Stuart Pritchard had a pretty good resume. After graduating from the Toronto Medical School he moved across the border to Michigan and became a highly-regarded physician specializing in chest, lung and bronchial disorders. He was the president and general director of the prestigious W.K....
Read more → 25 Sep 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Thank goodness for grocery store tabloids! They report news weeks before a story even breaks in the mainstream media. And for a time, it seemed almost impossible to get through the checkout line without perusing at least one front-page article about some celebrity’s close encounter of the third kind. But...
Read more → 
