Focus Groups Seek Clients’ Views About Financial Products

The first in a series of customer-centered focus groups conducted by Retirement Outfitters and May-Investments was a resounding success.

“It was a lively discussion,” says Barbara Traylor Smith, president of Retirement Outfitters LLC and investment advisor representative for May-Investments. “I believe we got honest, fairly clear feedback.”

More focus groups are planned in future months, and although they all will deal with financial topics, the particular focus of each discussion will vary.

“The idea is we get a group of people together, and we ask for their feedback on a topic,” Barbara says. “The topics will change from meeting to meeting.”

The February focus group centered on fixed indexed annuities. Barbara says clients first were asked for their expectations and assumptions about the annuities. After clients wrote answers to the questions, Barbara presented more information about the investments, and clients were invited to discuss whether the investments would meet the needs and expectations of different investors.

The focus groups help Barbara and Kim Last, financial adviser and owner of Kimberley A. Last Financial Services Inc., discover clients’ beliefs and uncertainties about various financial products. Then, those client concerns can be addressed.

“I want to know ahead of time what my clients’ fears are so I can address them,” Barbara says.
 
Focus group participants will be selected from the firms’ clients or people who have attended educational seminars sponsored by the firms. Participants must be between 55 and 75 years of age and have at least $100,000 of investable assets.

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Upcoming Workshop on New Estate-Tax Law

At the end of 2010, Congress passed a new law that changed the way inheritance taxes are levied in the United States for the next two years. The changes in those wealth-transfer taxes – which include estate tax, gift tax, generation-skipping tax and income tax that results from capital gain on inherited property – appear to be extremely friendly to taxpayers.

But some dangerous pitfalls exist in this complex new law, and it’s safe to say that it’s a trap for the unwary and a boon for those who are wary enough to plan carefully. A little knowledge can be your salvation.

Estate-planning attorney Steve Gammill has scheduled a workshop about the new law from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at the new Fruita Community Center. If you’re interested in attending, please contact May-Investments at 263-5126 for more details.

The workshop will focus on several aspects of the new law. For example, the new law:

• Allows personal representatives of people who died in 2010 to choose between paying estate tax or passing capital gain tax liability on to the kids.

Question: What about those who already chose no estate tax before knowing there would be a choice? What are the real ramifications of the capital gain recognition choices?

• Allows a surviving spouse to utilize the unused portion (if any) of the deceased spouse’s tax exemption.

Question: Does this really mean a large exemption and no need to set it up in planning documents? Does it survive a change in the law lowering the exemption in two years?

• Establishes a $5 million exemption for gift tax.

Question: Should you gift a large amount now in case the exemption is lowered in two years? What happens if you die when lower gift and estate tax exemptions are in place?

• Reunifies the gift and estate tax exemptions.

• Establishes a $5 million exemption for both estate and generation-skipping tax.

• Will expire in two years unless a new law is passed, which would usher in another period of uncertainty for estate planners and their clients.

Question: What happens to your tax plan if it provides for today’s exemptions and you are still alive in two years when the exemptions may be lowered?

Steve Gammill is a Fruita-based estate-planning attorney who teaches nationally to attorneys and other professionals in the estate and business planning field. He has presented on the topics of irrevocable life insurance trusts, business and investment asset protection, marketing, business succession and exit strategies, and disability planning. His practice is limited to estate and wealth strategies planning, including legacy planning, business exit and asset protection planning, and family and business strategic vision planning.
 

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Get Fit and Get Healthy

Monica Cullinane is on a mission.

She cites statistics that say more than half of Americans are overweight or obese, and she says that by making a few simple changes in lifestyle and diet, many people could drop their extra weight and live healthier lives.

“Most of the time, (poor health) is the result of diet and sedentary lifestyle,” says Cullinane, a Grand Junction health and nutrition coach who presented a recent program on healthy living to interested clients of May-Investments/Retirement Outfitters. Making small changes in behavior – such as scheduling regular exercise and removing unhealthy foods from your diet – tend to last a long time because small changes are easier to incorporate into your lifestyle.

“Think about your life and how important it is to make little changes,” says Cullinane.

She offers several ways of increasing your energy level. Among those suggestions are reducing or eliminating caffeine, which can cause dehydration and can contribute to fluctuations in blood sugar. Changes in blood sugar lead to fatigue and mood swings.

Cullinane also suggests that adding more dark leafy green vegetables to your diet can increase energy. Green, leafy veggies are rich in nutrients and can help improve circulation and strengthen the immune system, she says.

Cullinane saves special criticism for sugar. Added sugar in foods can go by several names, including high fructose corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, “natural sweeeteners,” and “juice sweetened.” Just check the ingredient list of most foods in the supermarket, and you’ll find at least one of those terms.

“The marketing is very tricky,” she says.

Regardless of its name, added sugar in foods is harmful to human health. It can contribute to diabetes and obesity, increase cholesterol, and cause cardiovascular disease, Cullinane says. Buying sugar-free products isn’t any healthier, since many of them contain chemical sweeteners – such as aspartame – whose effects on health have been questioned.

Cullinane suggests adding more whole grains to your diet. Whole grains do not spike blood-sugar levels, and they can make some great-tasting foods.

“Your life depends on your choices,” she says.

For more information about Cullinane’s nutrition and health coaching services, visit http://http//www.integrativewellnesstoday.com.

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Planning for the Transfer of Your Personal Possessions and Why It’s Important

Grandma is in the nursing home and her house is being sold. Is now the right time to divide up her belongings, or should we wait and simply store everything?

There are five children in the family and each of them wore the same hand-knit sweater. When mom passes, who should get that?

Estate planning is a valuable and necessary process in our modern times, and like most, you probably have given careful, even deliberate consideration to how you want your largest assets to be passed on; but have you given the same deliberate thought to how you want your smaller, non-titled assets to be handed down? We’d like to argue that, from an emotional standpoint, planning for the transfer of your personal, non-titled possessions could be just as important.

Let’s take a moment to define what we mean by non-titled personal assets. These are your personal possessions that do not require legal title and might include such items as jewelry, tools, photographs, hand-made items, clothing, family heirlooms, clocks, furniture, and more. For the purposes of this article, we are concerned with items whose primary value is sentimental, not monetary. Items of large monetary value probably are better addressed in a traditional will.

Planning for the transfer of these assets may not seem like top priority, but most attorneys who specialize in estate planning say that the smaller non-titled items often cause some of the biggest problems when settling estates. There are a number of reasons for this; divorce, second marriages, blended families, large families, sentimental attachments to items, the age of potential heirs, interest level among heirs, the strength of your relationships, and overall family dynamics are all challenges that serve to complicate the process. Because these assets tend to be highly personal by nature, the emotional stakes surrounding the division of these assets can be high, and a lack of planning will only compound problems. In short, a lack of planning can lead to some serious sour grapes among potential heirs.

Another danger posed by a lack of planning is the loss of information associated with your personal items. Because the value of many personal belongings lies in the sentimental, and not the monetary value of the item, preservation of the stories, origin, family history, and meaning associated with these possessions is vital. This information easily can get lost if you don’t take purposeful steps to preserve it.

Additionally, advanced planning is the only way you can be sure that your wishes will be met, and it lets you control when those wishes are carried out (i.e., you may choose to give with warm hands or you may prefer to wait until your estate is divided).

We firmly believe that the peace of mind that comes from ensuring the orderly and meaningful transfer of your most treasured belongings is invaluable at any age, and we encourage our clients to do advanced planning. However, knowing how to plan for this process can be confusing and complicated, and that, coupled with the fact that it is a highly personal process, can cause us to drag our proverbial feet.

We are here to help! If you are interested in learning more about the steps involved in the planning process or would like our assistance with the process, be sure to attend our upcoming workshop on the subject, to be held January 11, 2011, from noon until 1 p.m. We also have a number of resources that we can recommend on the subject. Anyone interested can phone our Retirement Concierge, Lisa Mauser, at 263-5126 or contact her via e-mail at http://www.blogger.com/Lisa@GJStocks.com.

 
 Douglas B. May, CFA, is President of May-Investments, LLC and author of Investment Heresies .

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Everyone should have an inventory of important documents

Everyone should have one,

Putting one together seems tedious and time consuming,

It’s easy to put off,

But very important!

What is it? No, it’s not a riddle – it’s an inventory of important documents and family records, and the first line says it best – everyone should have one!

We live in an unpredictable world, and (unfortunately) emergencies are a fact of life. Because emergencies are by their nature unexpected, we cannot possibly anticipate what future problems we might face, but we can eliminate some of the anxiety surrounding the unknown by being prepared, no matter what comes our way.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, says that when it comes to preparing for emergencies, financial readiness can be as important as a flashlight with fully charged batteries. The agency offers several tips to help consumers prepare:

• It recommends buying a fireproof file box where you can place your important documents, extra keys, safe deposit box key, and a small amount of cash. The box should be kept in a location that is easily accessible in case of an emergency, and it should be portable – something that you can ‘grab’ quickly.
• The agency recommends that you keep backups of important financial data maintained on your computer. This backup should be kept in your fireproof file as well as your safe deposit box.
• AND the agency recommends that you compile complete inventories, including:
• An inventory of household belongings (to help with insurance claims);
• A list of emergency contacts and your insurance policy information;
• An inventory of current prescriptions and your medical history;
• A list of phone numbers or email addresses and websites for your creditors, financial institutions, landlords, and utility companies, as well as a list of account numbers;
• Copies of financial and family records that include deeds, titles, wills, birth and marriage certificates, passports, and relevant employment, benefit, retirement, and Social Security documents.

If you feel daunted by the job of putting together (and maintaining) all of these inventories and copies, you are not alone.

We can help! We encourage our clients to be prepared for emergencies by keeping inventories and guarding their important paperwork. If completing such an inventory has been on your to-do list for far too long, come to our Nov. 30 workshop, where we will present a variety of resources to assist you with the process. This workshop, which starts at noon, is designed to equip you with the tools for your individual needs and is an important first step to obtaining the peace of mind that comes with being prepared. Please RSVP to http://www.blogger.com/Lisa@gjstocks.com. Look forward to seeing you there.

Thinking about a charitable legacy?

Many Americans volunteer in some capacity to help others in their community. Most Americans make financial contributions to charitable organizations each year. For many, being involved in the community and giving to others is what makes one’s life rich.

What about some sort of contribution to benefit your community when you are gone? Come learn about what a charitable legacy is and the kinds of questions and planning you might want to consider as you do your estate planning. A seminar titled “Thinking about a Charitable Legacy” is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the May-Investments conference room, 244 N. 7th St. in Grand Junction. This seminar will focus more on the “softer side” of legacy planning – how to be thoughtful and strategic with your philanthropy, how to organize your legacy – and some of the tools, techniques, and tax benefits of charitable giving will be covered.

A light lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to Lisa at 263-5126.

Upcoming events: Retirement-planning software and Roth conversion workshop

A “Retire Right” study showed that the most important prerequisite for a successful retirement is having a plan to help you through this season of life. As the old saying goes, those who fail to plan – plan to fail. May-Investments uses a goal-based software tool to help us address clients’ planning needs, but a thorough planning effort reaches well beyond just number-crunching.

eMag readers who attend our Sept. 28 workshop will learn how our retirement-planning software helps people answer the important question: “Do I have enough?” We also will provide attendees with free access to our planning software. For those interested in preparing for their own retirement-planning effort, the software is easy enough to use without any assistance from us.

Join us for our planning workshop to see how useful this software can be, then let us know if you’d like us to sign you up for your own free access.

On Oct. 12, Barbara Traylor Smith will present a Roth Conversion Seminar that will help people consider how converting a regular IRA to a Roth IRA might help them meet their goals. Attendees will look at a Roth calculator to learn if it can help them with their decision. In addition to the tutorial, the workshop will focus on key reasons why someone might consider this option and who might be the most likely candidates to benefit from conversion.

Our last Roth seminar in August was very technical and focused on how the Roth conversion can help investors avoid a new surtax on high-income earners. The upcoming October seminar is more general, easier to follow, and applies to a wider range of investors. We asked attendees to “strap in” for the August presentation, which was geared to CPA continuing-education classes. For October’s workshop, we’ve converted the information to a format that is much easier to digest, and it will apply to a broader set of concerns.

On Oct. 26, we will host a Legacy Planning Seminar and hope to draw on Western Colorado Community Foundation resources to help us take a look at how to leave behind much more than just a pile of money. If you are interested, save the Oct. 26 date on your calendar.

To register for any of these educational workshops, please call Barbara at 970-256-1748 or email Lisa@GJstocks.com. Our workshops start at noon and are limited to about 10 people. We provide sandwiches and ask only that you bring your questions!

Roth seminar to explore IRA conversion issues

High-income owners of traditional IRAs who are interested in exploring the potential benefits of converting to a Roth IRA are invited to a seminar Aug. 17 that will discuss some of the issues to consider.

The Roth Conversion Seminar is scheduled from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17, at May-Investments, 244 N. 7th St. in the Bray & Co. building (on the corner of 7th and White) in Grand Junction. It will be hosted by Barbara Traylor Smith, investment advisor at May-Investments and president of Retirement Outfitters, and Travis H. Perry, a Grand Junction-based Attorney and Counselor at Law. Barbara and Travis will discuss new rules allowing people with adjusted gross income of more than $100,000 to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The advantage of a Roth IRA is that all contributions can be withdrawn tax-free, while withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxable.

This workshop will feature a seminar presented by Robert Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP, a partner with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Mr. Keebler was named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the U.S. and is the past Editor-in-Chief of CCH's magazine, Journal of Retirement Planning.  This seminar covers a lot of territory, including how converting to a Roth can help some taxpayers avoid the new 3.8% surtax on high income households.  Come strap yourself in for this fast moving, information-packed webinar presentation.  Learn "who should convert," and consider if that should include you.

For more basic information about making Roth IRA conversions in 2010, visit this Money-Zine.com article, http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Retirement/2010-Roth-IRA-Conversions/

To attend the Aug. 17 seminar, please RSVP to Barbara at 970-263-5126 or via email at barbara@gjretire.com. 
 
 Douglas B. May, CFA, is President of May-Investments, LLC and author of Investment Heresies .

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