The Tax Life Cycle: How Physicians’ Tax Strategies Should Evolve Throughout Their Careers
The Tax Life Cycle: How Physicians’ Tax Strategies Should Evolve Throughout Their Careers One of the most common tax mistakes physicians make is using the same savings strategy throughout their careers. In reality, tax planning should evolve as your income changes. Thinking in terms of a “tax life cycle” can help you build wealth while […]
Educating Heirs on Student Debt
One of my favorite television shows is Shark Tank, which shows aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business plans to seasoned investors, the “sharks,” in hopes of an investment. The sharks use their own money to invest, so they ask tough questions to help evaluate the business’s potential. Have they demonstrated sales? How much does it cost […]
Should Business Owners Raise Their Salary to Earn More Social Security?
Key Takeaways: Lower taxes are better, right? We spend a great deal of time planning around the tax code to help people accomplish their goals in the most tax-efficient manner. However, lowering taxes today often has consequences down the road. Sometimes there is a clear mathematical break-even, and other times a complex web of behavioral […]
Should Business Owners Raise Their Salary to Earn More Social Security?
Key Takeaways: Pass-through entity owners can choose to take profits as wages or distributions Increasing owner salary raises payroll tax liability but also increases future Social Security benefits Older owners and owners with non-working spouses and/or incomplete earnings records stand to benefit the most from increasing their salaries Lower taxes are better, […]
When Do You Need a Corporate Trustee?
During the estate planning process, we often see families spend a great deal of time creating trust terms but very little time considering the role of trustee. They agonize over terms governing timing of distributions and control over principal, and then name the same person both to act as guardian for minor children and to […]
Protecting Aging Parents: Financial Governance Done Right
Watching parents age brings difficult conversations, and few are more important than the one about money. Financial vulnerability rises with age, whether from cognitive decline, isolation, or increasingly sophisticated fraud targeting seniors. The goal is not to take over, but to build a structure of transparency and trust that keeps your parents informed, involved, and […]
Team Member Spotlight: Cameron Hamilton
You helped found Bike4Alz and MyHammy Vice. What inspired you to get involved with those causes, and what keeps you coming back year after year? For some reason, I keep running into crazy people with big ideas, and I can’t seem to say no. In high school, my best friend wanted to honor his granddad […]
Connections: Tara N. Halbert on Estate Planning
Tell us a little about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in estate and trust law. I was a math major in college and gravitated toward tax classes in law school. I received a LL.M in tax law from the University of Florida after law school and took several trust and […]
A Financial Windfall Becomes a Planning Opportunity
More Than an Investment Decision At age 55, Mark and Jennifer received a $4 million inheritance following the passing of Jennifer’s father. While the additional assets strengthened their financial position, they also introduced a series of decisions that reached far beyond investment management. The inheritance included an inherited IRA, a taxable investment account, and cash. […]
Understanding Private Equity: Opportunities and Considerations
Understanding Private Equity: Opportunities and Considerations For many physicians, private equity has become part of everyday conversation, whether through a practice acquisition, a colleague’s group merging into a larger platform, or an investment opportunity presented as a way to diversify beyond stocks and bonds. But what private equity actually offers, and what it demands in […]
Connections: Mike Reynolds On Legacy Planning
Andy Reynolds recently interviewed Mike Reynolds, Member at Kinkead & Stilz, on Legacy Planning. Full interview below. How have family dynamics changed the way you approach estate planning compared to 10 or 20 years ago? Today we see a lot more blended families than we saw in the past. That means having conversations about […]
A Tale of Two Chairs
If you tuned in to the most recent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) press conference in June, you may have noticed the grey-haired man with his customary purple tie did not step up to the podium as he has for the last eight years. Jerome Powell’s term as Chair of the Federal Reserve ended on […]