Single Point of View
Single Point of View is our way to occasionally share planning ideas relating to personal finance. Our goal is to pass along concepts that you may not be exposed to on a daily basis.
IRS Retirement Plan Limits announced for 2015
On October 23, 2014, the IRS announced its annual cost of living adjustments. Below is a chart from www.401khelpcenter.com that does a nice job summarizing the changes in limits since 2012. Chart of Select Limits 401k Plan Limits for Year 2015 2014 2013 2012 401k Elective Deferrals $18,000 $17,500 $17,500 $17,000 [...]
SPP Investment Update
Below is an email to our clients discussing our recent rebalancing of our Target Allocations. We thought it would be helpful to share during this recent market volatility. A phrase I always try to keep in mind during times of higher market volatility is “the markets tend to take the stairs up and the elevator down”. For me, this [...]
Chase Security Breach – What to do?
If you are a customer of Chase Bank you are probably wondering what steps you can be taking to protect yourself.First, we would suggest not to panic and change banks based on this breach. All banks and financial institutions are targets for these attacks. Unfortunately, it is safe to say this won't be the last breach of a bank.Online Access [...]
IRS Guidance on after tax 401k contributions and Roth conversions
The last quarter (or so), we tend to be very focused on tax planning. (Not to be confused with tax accounting in the first quarter or so). With that, it is very timely that last week the IRS issued guidance (Notice 2014-54) on rolling out after tax contributions from a 401k plan. KEY POINT In its guidance, the IRS stated [...]
Donor Advised Funds – WSJ Article
Recently the WSJ published this article focusing on Donor Advised Funds that we wanted to share.http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/tax-smart-philanthropy-made-easy-1408728248-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwMjEyNDIyWj?tesla=yThe article highlights the ways Donor Advised Funds (DAF) can help simplify & organize your family's charitable giving. It also outlines how utilizing DAFs can help maximize the tax impact of the gifts you make.We have seen this impact firsthand in helping clients establish and manage DAFs. Companies like Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab [...]
Year End Gifting
Family Loan-Forgiveness of principal vs forgiveness of debtCredit Card Miles529 ContributionsOutright gifts of up to $14,000 per person-$28,000 from a couple2x for december and january for particular goalLifetime exemptionWhat is not considered a gift