financial planning | Financial Planner | Retirement Planning | Korving & Company Suffolk & Virginia Beach

2 Great Ways to Save on Taxes By Giving to Charity

With year-end tax planning looming in the next few months, we are bringing you two ideas for donating to charity that could save you additional money at tax time.

Donate Appreciated Stocks or Mutual Funds

The first idea is to donate appreciated stocks or mutual funds from your taxable accounts. Donations of highly appreciated securities actually receive double tax savings. First you get to deduct the full market value of the donation, up to 30% of your adjusted gross income, which can help to reduce your taxable income. Second, the donation of securities also allows you to avoid paying the state and federal capital gains taxes that you would have owed if you had sold the stock.

Qualified Charitable Distribution

The second idea is something called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution.” A few years ago, Congress passed a law that allows those who are over 70 ½ years old to give up to $100,000 to charity directly from your Individual Retirement Account (IRA). You may use these qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) to satisfy all or part of your annual required minimum distribution (RMD). Those who give to charity using this method get special tax treatment of their gift.

Typically, taking money out of your IRA is a taxable event – the withdrawal adds to your taxable income and inflates your adjusted gross income (AGI). However, QCDs do not count as taxable income and therefore have no effect on your AGI. This is significant because your AGI determines a number of things, including Medicare premium costs, the net investment income Medicare surtax, the taxability of Social Security income, itemized deduction phase-outs, and exemption phase-outs, to name a few.

So making a qualified charitable distribution allows you to satisfy all or part of your RMD without increasing your taxable income or your adjusted gross income.

What are the rules?

You must be over 70 ½ on the date of distribution.
QCDs are limited to $100,000 per person per year.
Only distributions from a Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA or Inherited IRA (where the beneficiary is over 70 ½) are eligible. You may not make QCDs from SEP or SIMPLE IRAs, nor from any type of employer retirement plan; those types of accounts must be rolled over into a Rollover IRA before they may qualify.
Your QCD must go to an organization designated by the IRS as a “qualified charity.” This list includes all 501(c)(3) public charity organizations, but explicitly excludes donor-advised funds, private foundations and other grant-making organizations, as well as “split-interest” charitable trusts (such as charitable lead trusts or charitable remainder trusts).
The QCD must be made directly to the charity. This is non-negotiable. The distribution will not qualify if the check is made out to you, or if the money is first transferred into a non-IRA account of yours before it goes to the qualifying charity. The IRS does not provide a way to correct mistakes. Most trustees and custodians already have forms and procedures in place to help you make these transfers; make sure you are specific with them about your intent, and that they know how to handle your request. (Checks should be made out directly in the charity’s name and mailed to the charity’s address.)
Ensure that no tax is withheld from your QCD to the charity (no withholding is necessary since this is a non-taxable distribution).
Make sure to alert the charity that you are making a QCD to them, as some custodians may not put any information on the check or wire transfer that would personally identify you.
Make sure you get a confirmation letter from the charity acknowledging your gift and stating that you received no goods or services in exchange for it.
To report a QCD on your Form 1040 tax return, you generally include the full amount of the charitable distribution on the line for total IRA distributions (15a). On the line for the taxable amount (15b), enter zero if the full amount was a QCD (or calculate the taxable amount if your QCD was less than your total required minimum distribution) and write “QCD” in the blank space next to the line.

With either of these charitable donation and tax-saving strategies, it’s always a best practice to let the organization that you’re making the gift. This way they will know who to send the record of receipt to, so that you will have documentation to hold on to for your tax returns.

As we’ve mentioned before, we are not accountants and therefore suggest that you consult with your accountant to see if either of these ideas would make sense for your particular situation.

What is Financial Planning and Why is it Important

Dave Yeske, in the Journal of Financial Planning give a great answer.

Financial planning is a process for helping individuals and families use their human and material resources to transform their lives for the better. But I’d rather make a grander statement: I think financial planning is potentially the most important profession in the world, and certainly the most important profession in the 21st century.

… we deal with some of the most important forces in people’s lives. Think about the traditional professions of law and medicine, for example, and now look at financial planning. Vastly more people will suffer a bad financial outcome in their lives than will suffer from a dread disease or a perilous legal situation. We’re the ones who have the power to help people care for aging parents, educate their kids, provide for a comfortable retirement—these are the things that everyone strives for. These are also the biggest potential stress points in people’s lives.

A growing body of research is showing that financial problems can lead to negative health outcomes. Therefore, by extension, financial planners wield the power to potentially not only make people’s lives better financially, but even make them better physically. I can’t think of any other profession that is more at the intersection of everything that matters to people and everything that most impacts their lives.

When financial planners are cognizant of the magnitude of what they’re doing and the potential role they’re playing in people’s lives, I think they show up different. It’s a sacred trust that clients place in us because of the importance of this in their lives.

To which we at Korving & Company respond with “Amen.”

For help with your Financial Questions, contact us www.korvingco.com

What does planning mean for you?

Financial planning is about more than assets, investments and net worth. It’s about what you want to do with your money and why. It’s about identifying your concerns, expectations and goals. It’s about how you feel and what you want.

Financial planning helps address common fears and concerns such as health care costs, outliving your money and the best time to file for Social Security benefits.

The “Confidence Meter” helps you gauge how likely you are to reach your goals and whether you are on track instead of focusing on headlines.

Financial planning takes your risk tolerance into account. You will get a “Risk Number” that guides you to the kind of investment you should have.

Learn more about how financial planning can help you by contacting us at Korving & Company today.

Are you taking more risk than you should?

We often take risks without knowing it. There are some risks that are well known; things like texting while driving or not fastening your seat belt. But there are other risks that are less well publicized and that can hurt you.
As financial professionals we often meet people who are not aware of the financial risks they are taking. While there are countless books written about investing, most people don’t bother studying the subject. As a result, they get their information from articles in the press, advertising, or chatting with their friends.
Many people have told us they are “conservative” investors and then show us investments that have sky-high risks. This is because investment risks are either hiding in the fine print or not provided at all. No one tells you how much risk you are taking when you buy a stock, even of a major company like General Electric. GE is a huge, diversified global company, yet lost 90% of its value between 2000 and 2009. Norfolk Southern is another popular stock in this area. Do you know its “risk number?” You may be surprised.
We have analytical tools that can accurately quantify your risk tolerance and give you your personal “Risk Number.” We can then measure the risk you are taking with your investments. They should be similar. If not, you may find yourself unpleasantly surprised if the investment you thought was “safe” loses its value because you took too much risk.
We have no objection to daredevils who know the risk they are taking by jumping over the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle. But we would caution the weekend cyclist not to try the same thing. Contact us to find your personal “Risk Number” and then determine how much risk there is in your portfolio.

The most common investment mistake made by financial advisors

Bill Miller beat the S&P 500 index 15 years in a row as portfolio manager of Legg Mason Capital Management Value Trust (1991-2005), a record for diversified mutual fund managers. He was interviewed by WealthManagement.com about active vs. passive management.
We have written a number of articles about the mistakes individual investors make. But what about mistakes that financial advisors make? We are, after all, fallible and make errors of judgment. And like all mortals we cannot predict the future.
Here’s Bill Miller’s assessment about traps that financial advisors fall into:

One problem is how they deal with risk. There is a lot more action on perceived risks, exposing clients to risks they aren’t aware of. For example, since the financial crisis people have overweighted bonds and underweighted stocks. People react to market prices rather than understanding that’s a bad thing to do.
Most importantly, most advisors are too short-term oriented, because their clients are too short-term oriented. There’s a focus on market timing, and all of that is mostly useless. The equity market is all about time, not timing. It’s about staying at the table.
Think of the equity market like a casino, except you own it: You’re the house. You get an 8-9 percent annual return. Casinos operate on a lower margin than that and make money. Bad periods are to be expected. If anything, that’s when you want more tables.

We agree. That’s one of the reasons we are choosy about the clients we accept. One of the foremost regrets we have is taking on clients who hired us for the wrong reasons. One substantial client came to us as the tech market was heating up in the late 1990s. He asked us to create a portfolio of tech stocks so that he could participate in the growth of that sector. We accepted that challenge, but it was a mistake. When the tech bubble burst and his portfolio went down and we lost a client. But it taught us a valuable lesson: say no to clients who focus strictly on short-term portfolio performance. Our role is to invest our clients’ serious money for long term goals.
Like Bill Miller, we want to have the odds on our side. We want to be the “house,” not the gambler. The first rule of making money is not to lose it. The second rule is to always observe the first rule.
To determine client and portfolio risk we use sophisticated analytical programs for insight into prospective clients actual risk tolerance. That allows us to match our portfolios to a client’s individual risk tolerance. In times of market exuberance we remind our clients that trees don’t grow to the sky. And in times of market declines we encourage our clients to stay the course, knowing that time in the market is more important than timing the market.

Advantages of Financial Advisors

What is the real value to hiring a financial advisor, and who uses them? What is the value proposition? What makes one car with four doors and wheels worth $300,000 and other $30,000? Although we might have an answer, the answer differs from person to person.

Why People Use Financial Advisors

People use financial advisors for many reasons. Some use them because they absolutely need them, others because they want them. Paying a fee for advice and guidance to a professional who uses the tools and tactics of a CFP™ (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™) and an experienced Registered Investment Advisor who is a fiduciary can add meaningful value compared to what the average investor experiences.

Anxious About Finances

Many middle-class investors are anxious about their finances and are not interested in learning the details of managing their money. This anxiety often results in money left on the sidelines because they don’t know what to do or are afraid of making mistakes. That means earning a fraction of 1% at the bank when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is up over 25% in the last 12 months.

Coaching

There are others who are interested in learning about investing and may want to hire an advisor to “look over their shoulder.” They want to hire an “investment coach.”

Too Busy For Investing

A third category are people who hire professionals because they are busy doing things that are more important to them: building a career or a business, being with family, or living an active retirement. They hire an expert to manage their money the same way they hire a lawyer for estate planning, a CPA to prepare their taxes, and a doctor to keep them healthy.

Mistakes

A fourth category is people who were making their own investment decisions but ended up making a huge financial mistake. This leads me to a story about a really smart, highly paid high tech executive who is very knowledgeable about investing; but he hired an advisor:

It’s not because he lacks the knowledge or interest, obviously. Rather, he figured out he had behavioral blind spots and understood he was at risk of great financial loss. He’s paying someone just to take that risk off his plate.

Determining your goals, controlling risk, managing portfolios well, and knowing your limitations – knowing you have “blind spots” – has led many smart people to hire an advisor.

Vanguard, the hugely successful purveyor or no-load mutual funds (that appeal to do-it-yourselfers) estimates that a financial advisor is worth about 3% net in annual returns. They attribute this to the seven services that a good advisor provides:

Creating a suitable asset allocation strategy.
Cost-effective implementation.
Rebalancing
Behavioral coaching
Asset location
Spending strategy.
Total return versus income investing.

How Korving Can Help

If you have an advisor but he is not meeting your objectives, ask us for a second opinion. If you don’t have an advisor but may want one, we offer a free one-hour consultation to see if we are compatible.

A reader asks: what’s the difference between risk tolerance and risk capacity?

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That’s an interesting question and it depends on who you ask. The investment industry measures risk in terms of volatility, taking the opportunity for both gains and losses into consideration.

I will answer with a focus on losses rather than gains because, for most people, risk implies the chance that they will lose money rather than make money.

Risk tolerance is your emotional capacity to withstand losses without panicking. For example, during the financial crisis of 2008 – 2009 people with a low or modest risk tolerance, who saw their investment portfolios decline by as much as 50% because they were heavily invested in stocks, sold out and did not recoup their losses when the stock market recovered. Their risk tolerance was not aligned with the risk they were taking in their portfolio. In many cases they were not aware of the risks they were taking because they had been lulled by the gains they had experienced in the prior years.

People who bought homes in the run-up to the real estate crash of 2008 were unaware of the risk they were taking because they believed that home prices would always go up. When prices plunged they were left with properties that were worth less than the mortgage they owed.

This exposed them to the issue of risk capacity.

Risk capacity is your ability to absorb losses without affecting your lifestyle. The wealthy have the capacity to lose thousands, millions, or even billions of dollars. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, recently lost $6 billion dollars in a few hours when his company’s stock dropped dramatically. Despite this loss, he was still worth over $56 billion. His risk capacity is orders of magnitude greater than most people’s net worth.

The unlucky home buyer who bought a house at an inflated price using creative financing found out that the losses they faced exceeded their net worth. As a result many people lost their homes and many declared bankruptcy.

There are some new tools available to measure your risk tolerance and determine how well your portfolio is aligned with your risk number. Click HERE to get your risk number.

What’s Your Risk Number?

risk

Defining how much risk someone is willing to take can be difficult. But in the investment world it’s critical.

Fear of risk keeps a lot of people away from investing their money, leaving them at the mercy of the banks and the people at the Federal Reserve. The Fed has kept interest rates near zero for years, hoping that low rates will cause a rebound in the economy. The downside of this policy is that traditional savings methods (saving accounts, CDs, buy & hold Treasuries) yield almost no growth.

Investors who are unsure of their risk tolerance and those who completely misjudge it are never quite sure if they are properly invested. Fearing losses, they may put too much of their funds into “safe” investments, passing up chances to grow their money at more reasonable rates. Then, fearing that they’ll miss all the upside potential, they get back into more “risky” investments and wind up investing too aggressively. Then when the markets pull back, they end up pulling the plug, selling at market bottoms, locking in horrible losses, and sitting out the next market recovery until the market “feels safe” again to reinvest near the top and repeating the cycle.

There is a new tool available that help people define their personal “risk number.”

What is your risk number?

Your risk number defines how much risk you are prepared to take by walking you through several market scenarios, asking you to select which scenarios you are more comfortable with. Let’s say that you have a $100,000 portfolio and in one scenario it could decline to $80,000 in a Bear Market or grow to $130,000 in a Bull Market, in another scenario it could decline to $70,000 or grow to $140,000, and in the third scenario it could decline to $90,000 or grow to $110,000. Based on your responses, to the various scenarios, the system will generate your risk number.

How can you use that information?

If you are already an investor, you can determine whether you are taking an appropriate level of risk in your portfolio. If the risk in your portfolio is much greater than your risk number, you can adjust your portfolio to become more conservative. On the other hand, if you are more risk tolerant and you find that your portfolio is invested too conservatively, you can make adjustments to become less conservative.

Finding your risk number allows you to align your portfolio with your risk tolerance and achieve your personal financial goals.

To find out what your risk number is, click here .

Questioner asks: "Should I roll my SEP IRA into a regular IRA or a Roth IRA?"

There are two issues to consider in answering this question.

If you roll a SEP IRA into a regular or rollover IRA, assuming you do it right, there are no taxes to pay and your money will continue to grow tax deferred until you begin taking withdrawals. At that point you will pay income tax on the withdrawals.
If you decide to roll it into a Roth IRA you will owe income tax on the amount rolled over. However, the money will then grow tax free since there will be no taxes to pay when you begin taking withdrawals.

If you roll your SEP into a Roth, be sure to know ahead of time how much you will have to pay in taxes and try to avoid using some of the rollover money to pay the tax because it could trigger an early withdrawal penalty – if you are under 59 1/2 .

It’s up to you to decide which option works best for you. If you are unsure, you may want to consult a financial planner who can model the two strategies and show you which one works better for you.

Final Thoughts

As always, check with a financial professional who specializes in retirement planning before making a move and check with your accountant or tax advisor to make sure that you know the tax consequences of your decision. Contact us today through our form.

The financial risks of dementia

Dementia covers a broad range of mental diseases that cause a gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember. It often affects a person’s daily functioning and is different from the decline in cognitive abilities that are the usual effects of aging. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.

About one in ten people get dementia. It becomes more common with age and it’s estimated that about half of those over age 85 suffer from it in some degree.

As the disease progresses, most people with dementia require a certain amount of skilled care. Eventually the family will not be able to provide the 24 hour services that the patient requires and they will be placed in a facility designed to provide that care.

According to the NY Times:

On average, the out-of-pocket cost for a patient with dementia was $61,522 — more than 80 percent higher than the cost for someone with heart disease or cancer. The reason is that dementia patients need caregivers to watch them, help with basic activities like eating, dressing and bathing, and provide constant supervision to make sure they do not wander off or harm themselves. None of those costs were covered by Medicare.
For many families, the cost of caring for a dementia patient often “consumed almost their entire household wealth,” said Dr. Amy S. Kelley, a geriatrician at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York and the lead author of a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

As people age their cognitive abilities deteriorate. Even before they begin to suffer the effects of dementia, they may become forgetful or lose the ability to focus on their finances. Obtaining the services of a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) well before this happens – a fiduciary that puts his clients’ interests first – is vital. And, as people prepare retirement plans, the cost of dementia treatment and care should be one of the things for which they plan.

Do you have questions about retirement? You’re not alone.

Charles Schwab recently conducted a survey of people saving for retirement and found that saving enough for retirement was the single most force of financial stress in their lives; … greater than job security, credit card debt or meeting monthly expenses.

A new survey from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, Inc. finds that saving enough money for a comfortable retirement is the most common financial stress inducer for people of all ages. The survey also reveals that most people view the 401(k) as a “must-have” workplace benefit and believe they would benefit from professional saving, investment and financial guidance.

Most people who come to see us have concluded that they need professional help. They have some basic questions and want answers without a sales pitch.

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They know that they need to save for retirement but don’t know exactly how.

The want to know how much they need to save.
They want to know how they should be investing their 401(k) plans.
They wonder if they should put money into a Regular IRA or a Roth IRA.
They know they need to invest in the market but are concerned about making mistakes.

Only 43 percent know how much money they may need for a comfortable retirement, which is significantly lower than awareness of other important targets in their lives, including ideal credit score (91%), weight (90%) or blood pressure (77%).

“With so many competing obligations and priorities, it’s natural for people to worry about whether they’re saving enough for retirement;” said Steve Anderson, president, Schwab Retirement Plan Services, Inc. “Roughly nine out of ten respondents told us they are relying mostly on themselves to finance retirement. It’s encouraging to see people of all ages taking responsibility for their own future and making this a top priority.”

But you don’t have to go it alone. At Korving & Company we are investment experts. And we’re fiduciaries which mean that we put your interests ahead of our own.

How much annual retirement income will you have?

Most people believe that their home is their most expensive thing they’ll ever pay for. They’re wrong. The most expensive thing people ever pay for is retirement. And they’ll pay for it after they quit working.

That’s why it’s important to have a clear idea of what you’re getting into before you decide to tell your employer that you’re leaving.

The typical retiree’s sources of income include Social Security. They may have a pension, although fewer companies are offering them. If there is a gap between those sources of income and their spending plans, the difference is made up by using their retirement savings.

Running out of money is the single biggest concern of retirees. The big question is how long we will live and the amount we can draw from our savings before they are depleted.

For simplicity, let’s assume: You’re ready to retire today and plan to have your retirement savings last 25 years. You’ve moved your savings into investments that you believe are appropriate for your retirement portfolio. The investments will provide a constant 6% annual return. You’ll withdraw the same amount at the end of each year.

If you saved this amount	Here’s how much you could withdraw annually for 25 years
$100,000	$7,823
$200,000	$14,645
$300,000	$23,468
$400,000	$31,291
$500,000	$39,113
$600,000	$46,936
$700,000	$54,759
$800,000	$62,581
$900,000	$70,404
$1,000,000	$78,227

Keep in mind that these examples don’t include factors such as inflation and volatility that can have a big impact on your purchasing power and account value.

For example, if inflation were 4% a year, a withdrawal of $31,291 25 years from now would only be worth $11,738 in today’s dollars.

Investment losses would decrease your account’s growth potential in subsequent years. To account for these factors, you might need to save even more.

Many experts estimate that you’ll need 80% or more of your final annual salary each year in retirement. Social Security may only provide around 40% of what you need. And don’t forget that retirees typically have different types of expenses compared to people still in the workforce, such as increased health care and travel costs.

This is why planning is so important. A financial plan will provide you with answers to many of these questions. Retirees also need to reduce the chances that their portfolio will experience major losses due to market volatility or taking too much risk. This is where a Registered Investment Advisor who is also a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) can help. At Korving & Company we prepare retirement plans and, once you approve of your plan, we will manage your retirement assets to give you peace of mind.

Tag: financial planning