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Two things in life are certain: death and taxes, but have you ever considered the impact your death has on the taxability of your assets? Depending on how you are saving, you could potentially be passing a tax burden onto your heirs.

I can understand and appreciate the overwhelming list of tasks that a business owner sometimes has to accomplish. Perhaps on that list there may be the task of setting up a retirement plan for employees. There are three retirement options employers could consider implementing, depending on what they are hoping to accomplish, Payroll Deduction IRA, Simple IRA, or 401(k).

"It’s that time of year again when most of us are meeting with accountants and CPAs to tally up our income from the previous year. It’s not uncommon for your financial advisor or tax preparer to talk to you about deferring some of your income through contributions to pre-tax retirement accounts like an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), etc. Though tax deferral does have its benefits, it may not always be the right decision."

"The CARES Act provides 2 trillion dollars of government aid along with several SIGNIFICANT changes to preexisting IRS, retirement accounts, and other financial rules in attempts to open up opportunities for individuals and small businesses to survive in this time of crisis. I have broken down and summarized that document here into 5 key areas: Recovery Rebates, Coronavirus Related Distributions, Significant Tax Changes to Retirement Accounts, Unemployment Compensation Benefits, and Small Business Benefits."

"Anyone can seem like a good financial advisor when markets are doing well. The expectation investors have when investing in capital markets is to make money, so when expectations are easy to meet, the bar tends to be set pretty low. However, it’s when markets are down (like the current bear market caused by COVID-19) that separates great financial advisors from mediocre ones. It’s times like these when people may wonder what their financial advisor is doing during this bear market. I can’t speak for all financial advisors, but I can tell you what the advisors at Financial Strategies Group have been and will continue to be doing in the weeks and months ahead."

"I have often said that what separates average investors and the great ones is how they make decisions when the markets become volatile. With education and understanding comes great discipline. There is an actual science around disciplined investing which has always been the easiest and most probable way to be successful in the markets long term."

"If I could only contribute to one retirement account for the rest of my working career, it would be the Roth IRA/401k. Although there are many benefits to a Roth IRA, there are three benefits that I find to be most intriguing. On top of the benefits I lay out below, you will be pleased to hear that in recent years employers have made the Roth 401k more accessible and the contribution limit on Roth IRAs has been increased!"

From where did you learn most of your life skills? How did you learn to brush your teeth, read, write or drive a car? For me, it was my parents and school. What if there were something that affected just about every facet of our lives that our parents had limited knowledge of and was hardly covered in school? I am referring to Finances. Finances are consistently listed as one of the top reasons for divorce and money is one of the biggest causes of stress for Americans.