15 Jan 2019
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...
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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 → 04 Jan 2019
Posted by Tom Virkler 
Back in elementary school we called the game Gossip. You know, everybody got in a circle and the first kid started a story by whispering it into the ear of the person to the left and then he or she passed it on until it had gotten all the way around. The last person would relate the story to the whole...
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 → 04 Dec 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
The authoress Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings illustrates a hard lesson of life early on in her classic novel, The Yearling. The Baxter family eke out their living on the St. Johns River in the back woods of Florida. The family is enjoying a quiet breakfast when Julia the dog starts barking outside....
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 → 20 Nov 2018
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...
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16 Nov 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
This article speaks to a ready market. Why? Because statistics suggest that 80% of all small and mid-sized businesses in the country have made no adequate plans for transition in the event of one owner’s retirement, long-term disability, or premature death. And “adequate” includes being properly...
Read more → 06 Nov 2018
Posted by Tom Virkler 
A television ad from a few years back had an auto mechanic, portrayed as somewhat of a rube, looking at an imported automobile and saying, “Let me do it! I’ve never fixed a foreign muffler before!” The commercial sponsor was a company whose only service was muffler replacement and repair and their...
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