YodZiaN

How do you go about finding the best financial planner for your money? Well, like many people, you are probably very skittish when it comes to trusting just anyone with your money and for good reason. However, the skittishness could work to your advantage, when it comes to finding the best financial planner.

In these times, any person walking down the street can proclaim themselves a financial planner, the key is to knowing the good from the bad. Many people have found the market for financial planners is strong because the demand grows with each passing day for financial product advice as people are readying themselves for retirement and other issues become more complex.

Attorneys, accountants, insurance agents, and brokers are all becoming financial planners in addition to their current titles; this may not mean they have your best interests at heart either. This may come at a surprise to you; however, as unfortunate as it is, it is a reality. It is extremely important that you conduct full research to avoid running into an instance where your money has suddenly disappeared without an explanation.

It is also important that you keep in mind, just because a person claims to be a financial planner, does not mean that they have guidelines, or processes that they follow. Therefore, the first thing you must do is find potential financial planners. This can be done easily by searching online, using your favorite search engine, and locating financial planners organizations or you could also talk to you friends, family members, or colleagues and find out whom they recommend. It is important that you trust the judgment of any person you are seeking advice from, when it comes to finding the best financial planner.

After you have gathered a list of prospective financial planners, it is time to start contacting them. Telephone contact should be the first step, through this contact you can ask a variety of questions and eliminate those Read more…

Choosing a financial planner is a very important decision. Who will you trust to handle your life savings and plan your financial future? The fact that someone claims to be a financial planner does not qualify him or her to handle your money. They must have the proper certification, experience and knowledge.

The Four Cs of choosing a financial planner

1. Credentials

?What certifications, college /university degrees and experience does he/she have?

?How many clients or how much money does he/she handle?

?Make sure the planner is registered with the Investment Dealers Association in your area or Certified by a Government body

2.Compensation

?How are you compensated? Flat fees, salary or commission? (Beware of those who earn big commissions for placing you in high risk funds)

?Are there any hidden underwriting fees with my investment fund?

?Will you explain all the cost involved with each investment?

?What is the cost of liquidating or canceling my account with your firm? (Good to know, if you decide to switch funds or investment companies)

3.Characteristics

?What is your investment philosophy?

?Do you focus on domestic markets, foreign market or both? (Answer should be both)

?What is your specialty? Your strongest area? (Global portfolio management, no load mutual funds, stocks, bonds etc)

?How do you view risk and how does your philosophy fit my risk tolerance?

4.Customer service

?What services does your Read more…

Nobody likes to think about losing a loved one, and often when it occurs, we have no idea where to turn.

If you are not prepared, the paperwork will hit you after your spouse’s death in an apparently overhwelming deluge. It is tough to get through it even when you are prepared. A to-do list is prepared for you here.

1. Get a grip on your assets. Find out what you have to work with by gathering copies of your joint tax records for the past five years, records of both your husband’s and your own retirement plans, all insurance policies, bank and brokerage accounts, and the deed to your house and any other property the two of you might own, jointly or seperately. Bundle the documents in one big file that you keep in a safe but accessible place, such as a locked drawer.

2. Obtain death certificates. You’ll have to send nearly two dozen copies of your husband’s death certificate to credit card companies, the company that holds the mortgage on your home, insurers and various other companies and agengies to verify his death. At this time, they are not requiring the copies be certified by the state.

3. File for benefits. Notify your husband’s employer and file for any benefits owed you, such as pension income, life insurance and health insurance coverage. Do this by talking to the person in charge of employee benefits (ask the human resource department to direct you). Find out about settlement options – does the plan want you to choose between a lump-sum payment or annuitized payments, which are made every year.

4. File insurance claims. Alert your husband’s life insurance company and file a claim. Your insurance agent will have all the policy information you will need and will be able to help you obtain the necessary forms.

5. Notify government offices. The Social Security Administration will need to be notified. You must have been married a minimum of nine months before your spouse’s death to be eligible for benefits, except in the case of death resulting from accident or military service. Don’t forget to contact the motor vehicles bureau in your state to change all vehicle registrations to your name.

6. Contact financial services providers. Any joint accounts should be transferred to an account in your name only. (You will need to use one of those death certificate copies for this.) In many instances, you will be able to renegotiate the terms of outstanding loans with your banker if your financial status is shaky. If your husband had a brokerage account, ask his broker to give you a value on his account at the time of his death. Estate taxes will be based Read more…

What can you expect from a financial adviser?
Instant Expert:
What is the difference between a tax deduction
and a tax offset?

Insights into Successful Investing –

Seek Advice — Part One

If senior executives, sports stars, politicians and entertainers all get expert help to manage their money, why shouldn’t you? There are many reasons why it makes sense to seek advice. Some are just common sense.

Expertise

In an increasingly specialised world there are an ever-increasing number of experts we call on to help us. If you listed the experts you consult every year it would probably include mechanics, accountants, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, travel agents and gym instructors. Even sports stars rely on expert coaches to remain at the top of their game.

Why do we rely on these experts? Because they are trained to do certain tasks that we are not ? book flights, fix teeth, devise a fitness program, fit contact lenses etc. That training means
that we can rely on them for advice and services that make our lives better and easier. It’s no different with managing our money.

Efficiency

Given time, a certain amount of natural talent and a lot of training, we could do a lot of things that we pay others to do. We could spend time researching nutrition, learning biomechanics and anatomy and devise our own exercise program. Or sweat over books till we knew enough of the latest tax laws and accounting legislation to do our own taxes. The reason we don’t is that it’s inefficient. It’s more cost effective ? in time and money ? for us to specialise in what we do best and use other experts when we need help.

Tiger Woods makes a lot of money from playing golf. Which is the best use of his time and energy? Learning international tax law or improving his putting? Researching investment products or practicing his bunker shots?

Insights into Successful Investing ?
Seek Advice — Part Two

What do you get from your financial adviser?
So what are the most important services you get from a financial adviser?

A holistic approach

A financial adviser can help you take a holistic approach to your finances. They help you to understand your existing financial position, clarify what your goals are and devise a strategy to help you achieve them. Most importantly, they build a financial plan that is about YOU ? your age, your plans, your investment experience, your risk tolerance and your lifestyle.

That means that all your financial decisions fit into a logical framework and that the products and services you choose work together to meet your needs.

Asset allocation

Asset allocation is the art and science of allocating your investment between shares, property, bonds, cash and other asset classes. Many different experts believe asset allocation is the single most important investment decision.

Your financial adviser can work with you to devise an asset allocation structure that suits you, helping you use the mix of growth and defensive assets that meet your needs. Ongoing
consultation with your adviser also helps you to stick with your asset allocation strategy in the face of short-term events, such as the tendency to become too defensive when markets are falling or too aggressive when they are rising.

Security selection

There are literally thousands of shares, managed funds, trusts, super and retirement income products to choose from. Which is best for you? Your financial adviser has access to the latest professionally-compiled research that allows them to compare these products against each other. That means they can choose the best products for you both in terms of performance, fees and in terms of quality of management and how they fit into your portfolio.

An education
One final and often misunderstood role of a financial adviser is to help you learn more about investing. No-one will do it better because they are by your side as you make crucial life and investment decisions.

It makes sense to hire an expert and even more sense to learn from them.

Source: BT Financial Group ? Extract from ?Ten Investing Truths ?

Instant Expert: the part when you can learn interesting things
and dazzle your guests at dinner parties?
What is the difference between a tax deduction and a tax offset?

Tax deductions are items of expenditure or allowances that are deducted from an individual’s (or an entity, such as a company’s) assessable income, in order to determine the amount of income on which tax will be calculated (referred to as taxable income).

Deductions may include a range of general or specific deductions and will generally include expenses incurred in gaining or producing assessable income, or expenses necessarily
incurred in carrying on a business for the purposes of gaining or producing assessable income.

Examples of legitimate tax deductions include: rent paid to lease a business premise, interest paid on money borrowed for investment purposes, expenses incurred in repairing an
investment property, premiums paid for salary continuance insurance, contributions to superannuation made by an employer or a self-employed person (subject to age based limits),
donations to certain charities, approved agricultural investments and the like.

By way of example, let’s look at Jonathan’s financial position. His assessable income is made up Read more…

You?ve done your homework and you shopped around, you even asked your brother in law, your neighbor and your boss who helps them with their financial planning but your still not sure. How do you know you can really trust your advisor? After all your families? financial future is riding on it!

This is becoming a harder and harder question to answer, why? There are now at least 89 different designations doled out by about 87 different financial services associations and professional institutions. Your advisor might be a CAC, CEP, CFA, CFP, CLU, CHFC, RFA, RIA, CSA, AEP, FIC, LUTCF, and there is even the ones I have RFC

Did you know that a large percentage of today?s millionaires have accumulated their wealth in one generation. No we are not talking about people who have some special education, or achieved superior investment performance, or won the lottery, or even people who inherited it. We are talking about people like you and me who work for a living but somehow managed to accumulate great wealth.

But how did they do it you may ask? Their secret can be revealed in a saying my Uncle once shared with me, that he passed down from my grandfather (an Italian immigrant with no formal education). Here is what he said, ?If you make $10.00 and spend $11.00 you will always be poor, but if you make $10.00 and save just $1.00 you will always have money.? Believe it or not it is that simple. The majority of today?s millionaires achieved that status by spending less than they earned over long periods of time.

The key difference is a change in mindset not a change in income or investment return. Most millionaires are more concerned with the independence and security that having money brings, than spending money to have the appearance of wealth.

According to recent research surveys most millionaires are not out to impress anyone with their shiny new toys. In fact, in one survey fifty percent of respondents had never spent more than $399 for a suit, $140 for a pair of shoes, or $235 for a watch. A similar survey showed that 50% of all millionaires had never spent more than $29,000 for an auto and had paid only $24,800 for their latest car. More than 36% owned cars that were at least 3 years old. When they did but Read more…

Most of us know when we hit a financial disaster, usually we can even trace the beginning of the process that led to the financial failure, but the problem seems to be the fact that some people keep repeating the mistakes, or adapting new problematic methods of trying and solving problems.

The wise financial planner would first consider his own strong and weak points before making financial decisions and would draw conclusions for the experiences he had in the past, the few points that ultimately lead to financial disasters that I will discuss here are very basic and natural, yet many people do not practice the least amount of caution when making plans.

The first and most prominent problem with bad financial planning is that the planner has no financial education, in this case I would strongly advise seeking professional help. Most of do not have formal financial education, and many of us do not understand the financial basics that rule the markets, other do not want to go into these calculations, but all these groups should start by admitting that they do not have the knowledge of dealing with financial planning and look for someone who does. The great benefit of listening to advise of experts is that it teaches you things, the approach to financial planning, the basics of a new financial plan and much more, it is very possible that in a few months you will be much more educated and better informed in a way that will allow you to start making your own calls.

The second problem is making decisions and planes letting other people manage you finance for you, and I don?t mean letting you professional financial planner but friends, neighbors and family. Even though these people have the best intentions, it is very clearly your own responsibility to take care of your personal finance, and as much as it is unpleasant to make financial plans and take care of your personal finance Read more…

An IRA is an IRA is an IRA, unless it?s a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs, which burst upon the investment scene not so long ago, offers some attractive departures from traditional IRAs, especially if it?s being used as a retirement planning tool.

The Roth is the same as a traditional IRA in that it is not an investment in and of itself, but a vehicle to investing in other instruments such as stocks, bonds, bank certificates of deposit, mutual funds, and even real estate. That?s pretty much where the similarities end and the differences begin.

With an ordinary IRA, the money you contribute is not subject to income taxes first, it comes straight from your gross salary. Taxes are paid when you withdraw the money and traditional IRA monies have to be withdrawn from the account when you turn 70 ?, or they become subject to higher tax rates.

In the case of the Roth IRA, the money you pay in comes from your net salary ? in other words, you have already paid the income taxes on it. For many people it makes sense to have paid the income taxes up front when they are making more money, than later on when they need the money for retirement.

In addition, there are no taxes on the growth from your Roth IRA. What you put in, stays in, and earns additional money for you. And, the longer you leave it in, the more it grows.

At the same time, the Roth IRA is a bit more accessible since you can make withdrawals from it, provided you have had it for at least five years and you are at least 591/2 years old. There are no penalties for early withdrawal from a Roth IRA and, because the income taxes were paid up front, there is no tax to pay at the time of withdrawal.

There are some rules that govern contributions to a Roth IRA. For example, you can contribute up to $4,000 per year as an individual, but if you are 50 or older you can make an additional contribution of up to $1,000 as of 2006, in order to ?catch up.? As long as you have income ? from either work or alimony in most cases, you can make contributions to a Roth and you can keep doing so, no matter how old you are. You don?t qualify for full contributions to a Roth IRA if your Read more…

What is financial planning, and why it is crucial for you.

Even if you do not think you are a financial planner, you better start thinking like one fast. In the United States, there is an approximate of 5.6 million people who are either self-made millionaires or financially independent. And what is so hard to believe about that statistic, you ask? This is because that is only about 5% of the American population.

The remaining 95% of the American population (we’re talking about 106.4 million people here!) are not only not rich, but most of them are facing financial disasters, either owing to poor financial planning or foolish spending!. This is why you should start thinking like a financial planner. Financial planning is not so complicated, and it can make a huge difference in your life.

As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Much of the same can be said if you do not plan your finances well, it does not matter if you are a high earner, you still need financial planner skills, to keep you form harms way and to ensure that your life will be financially secured.

The fact of the matter is that financial planning Is Not An Option, most of us need to think ahead today, and you should practice your financial planner skills right away to enjoy the money you make today in the future.

The basics of financial planning is to keep all your finance in order, this is very basic advice, alright. However, more often than not, we would rather concentrate on other things in life such as health, studies, work and more.

Think about the things you want to achieve in life, and how you are going to get there, financial planner always set his goals and puts some order in his thought before starting to actually put the wheels in motion. Financial planning can include buying a house, paying for your children education and thinking about a retirement fund.

Financial planning will help you use your current pay check and your saving to start working on a program that will give you peace of mind on the financial level, a financial planner will plan a budget according to every household?s expenditure budgeted and a Read more…

Saving for retirement is even more important for solo-entrepreneurs because you don?t have a company sponsored pension plan or matching 401K contributions to rely on. There are many retirement plans available to self employed individuals and small businesses. Which one is right for you?

Here is just a sample of the retirement plans available to solo-preneurs and small businesses:

Roth IRA ? although this is not just for solo-preneurs, this is the first place you should look to save if you are just starting to save for retirement (or resuming to save after starting a business). Roth IRAs are low-cost, very flexible, and allow you to grow money tax-free as long as you follow the distribution rules. Contributions can be made up to $4,000, and can be withdrawn at any time without tax or penalty (earnings withdrawn may be subject to penalty and tax if withdrawn before age 59 ? and certain other conditions are not met).

SEP IRA ? if you?re maxing out your Roth IRA, and are ready to save more, a SEP IRA allows you to save up to 25% of your compensation (20% of your self-employment income) for a maximum of $44,000 per year. Contributions are tax-deductible, and SEP IRAs have low maintenance fees. Contributions can be made for employees also, but employees cannot contribute to their own SEP IRA. This is a good choice if you just have a handful of employees and are looking for a low-cost way to save for your own and your employees? retirement.

Simple IRA ? a Simple plan offers many of the benefits of a 401K, but with less IRS reporting requirements. You can contribute up to $10,000 to a Simple IRA, with an employer match of up to 3%. Contributions are tax-deductible, and Simple IRAs also enjoy low annual fees. Employees are allowed to contribute to Simple plans, and a company match is mandatory. If you have a lower salary (or self-employment income) in your small business, a Simple IRA allows you to put more away towards your retirement than other plans.

Solo 401K ? for small Read more…