The 2018 tax changes may have lowered your total tax liability, but many Americans were surprised by their refund, or worse…their tax payment! Proper tax planning should be a coordinated effort between your tax preparer and investment advisor. When tax and estate laws change, your investment advisor should be proactively providing you with tax strategies to consider and work closely with your tax advisor to minimize your tax liability and avoid the surprise many American’s experience. Here are five tax tips to consider for 2019 to help ease the pain and make sure you are doing all your can to keep your hard-earned money: 1. Take full advantage of tax deferred savings: Review your current sa
We constantly meet with prospective clients whose current advisers, in our opinion, are not providing them what they need to be financially successful. Here are some red flags that suggest it's time for a change. Guessing risk tolerance. Subjective questionnaires used by most of our industry to determine risk tolerance usually miss the mark. When we analyze prospective clients' current investments, 4 out of 5 have portfolios where actual risk and tolerance are not aligned. If your adviser is not using more sophisticated tools and technology to determine your comfort with risk, it's a red flag. Lack of planning. Frequently, we meet with prospective clients whose adviser has never prepared (
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which was enacted in December 2017, brought about a host of changes for taxpayers. Among the changes was the amount of withholdings as calculated by revised tax tables. The IRS announced that it is waiving the estimated tax penalty for various taxpayers whose 2018 federal income withholding and estimated tax payments fell short of total taxes owed. The penalty will be waived for those taxpayers that have at least paid 85 percent of their total tax liability through withholdings and quarterly payments. When the revised tax brackets were released under the new tax plan, many taxpayers calculated lower withholdings assuming less taxes owed. But the problem that arose w
