- Tax PlanningThe Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act also contained provisions affecting 529 plans, tax planning, and employee benefits. Let's take a look at some of these other new rules...
- Charitable GivingThe Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act contains one-time provisions that apply to the taking of required minimum distributions (RMD's) in 2020. The CARES Act also makes temporary modifications to some of the tax rules surrounding this year's charitable giving. With just a couple of months left to take advantage of them, let's explore these changes and their implications.
- Estate Taxes
- Tax ServicesFor Wealth Management clients, Five Seasons provides continuous supervision of retirement and investment accounts under management. Aside from ongoing investment selection, this may include dynamically rebalancing client portfolios, employing tax management strategies, and utilizing tactical asset allocation, if appropriate. As part of this process, Five Seasons...
- Income TaxThe Tax Policy Center estimates that recent changes to the tax code in the form of last year's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) "... will cut individual income taxes for 65 percent of households overall, but raise taxes for about 6 percent of households." Even so, why not resolve to improve your financial situation even more in the New Year. Depending on your circumstances, there may be a variety of moves to make to reduce your tax bills (or to offset them by saving money in other ways).
- Capital Gains TaxesFinancial Planning magazine, November 25, 2014 - Salt Lake City CFP® practitioner Paul Winter commented on the tax benefits of using donor-advised funds for charitable giving. "It's worked out very well--he [the client] got the immediate tax break when he was in a higher tax bracket, avoided the related capital gains taxes, and the account’s bigger now than it was at inception," Paul said. To see the complete article on the advantages of donor-advised funds, please click on DAFs Top Choice for Charitable Giving.
- Investment ManagementNearly as ineffective is to base estimates of future returns on surveys of individual and institutional investors. If anything, researchers have found a negative relationship between investor sentiment and future stock market returns. That is, investors as a group becoming more optimistic about the stock market is likely to be predictive of poor returns going forward. This finding is of course another argument in favor of a contrarian approach to discretionary investment management.
- Mutual FundsWith financial markets quietly grinding higher in recent months, I've been able to complete one of my major projects for the year, which was to investigate so-called "smart beta" mutual funds. As a primer, "smart beta" funds are also known as "strategic beta" funds, and are based on academic research that certain attributes of individual stocks indicate future outperformance.
- Bonds
- Wealth ManagementIf a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth many times that. To see a short video primer on what makes Five Seasons different from the vast majority of wealth management firms, please click on Fee-Only, Fiduciary Financial Adviser Educational Video.
- Accounting Services
- Payroll Services
- Financial PlanningPaul founded Five Seasons Financial Planning with the belief that consumers deserve objective, professional financial advisory services. As the sole practitioner and President at Five Seasons, an independent Fee-Only firm, he is able to ensure that clients receive...
- Retirement PlanningFox 13 News. September 5, 2006 - Paul appeared on Fox 13 News being interviewed by Sandy Riesgraf on advice for workers and retirees with traditional pension plans. To see a video clip of his appearance, please click on SLC, UT Financial Planner Paul Winter Discusses Pensions and 401k's on Fox 13 News.
- AnnuitiesBuyers often seem unaware of the shortcomings of annuities until well after their purchase. Equity-indexed annuities are no exception to this statement. While the downside protection they offer is not at issue here (but is subject to the claims-paying ability of the insurance company involved), the upside potential of these products is often vastly exaggerated (or misunderstood) by salespeople motivated by nothing more than the prospect of sales commissions averaging about 6% of the amount invested.
- Asset ManagementThe biggest challenge the industry faces today is asset allocation. Advisers need to be qualified to do this. There might only be 10% of advisers that are qualified to do it today. That's not where it needs to be....we have a long way to go to get the average adviser qualified.
- College FundingUnder the Federal financial aid formula, financial aid is reduced 35 cents for every dollar of student assets, but only 5.6 cents for every dollar of parental assets. In this regard, UGMA and UTMA accounts, considered an asset of the student, are less attractive as college funding vehicles than parental 529 accounts.
- Reverse MortgagesCaregiver's Home Companion, January 31, 2006 - Paul Winter was quoted in an article on the pros and cons of using reverse mortgages to fund retirement expenses. Winter, founder of Five Seasons Financial Planning in Salt Lake City, expressed the opinion that under the right circumstances this strategy could be very useful for house-rich, cash-poor seniors. To see the complete article, please click on Using Reverse Mortgages to Fund Retirement.