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 ex

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.

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 li