Clients who are philanthropic often own IRAs or other qualified retirement assets which carry potential tax problems. Naming a charity as the beneficiary of an IRA or including an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) may provide a more tax-efficient wealth preservation plan.

Although a deferred annuity is great for accumulating retirement funds, it's not an efficient vehicle to transfer wealth. Deferred income may be subject to income or estate taxes at death. Using annuity maximization, assets from the annuity can be repositioned to maximize value.

Every solid structure requires a solid foundation. So, why is it that a person’s income is so often overlooked when creating a strong financial plan? Disability Insurance can help create paycheck protection in case your clients' income is disrupted - even for a short period of time.

In this conversation card, you're looking for clients with CDs that rollover regularly or where the clients aren't using the funds. Through a multi-year guarantee annuity (MYGA), you can provide principal protection and liquidity with a greater return than a typical CD.

You may have clients holding on to a surprisingly large concentration of stock in a single company. At older ages, diversifying may be in their best interest. Life insurance can act as a noncorrelated asset, providing a natural hedge against the market risks of concentrated stock.

A company that routinely bids for large contracts needs to maintain a large pool of working capital, usually held in conservative assets. The cash value of life insurance can be counted as liquid working capital for bond underwriting and while providing a better return.

Like all high-income earners, highly paid employees of non-profits reach a point where they'd prefer to defer some of their current taxable income. In the summer of 2016, football coach Jim Harbaugh struck a split-dollar plan with the University of Michigan that's become legendary.

Business partners often own term life insurance policies on each other to fund a buy-sell agreement. They figure the buy-sell need is temporary and will go away once either partner retires, but there are problems that can be avoided by each partner owning their own policy.

Required minimum distributions from a retirement account can be used to fund insurance products – potentially offsetting or even eliminating taxes on the assets. In this case, purchasing a survivorship universal life policy created a 4x return in total legacy with charitable contributions.

Each business stage requires a different focus and set of tools and strategies to help business owners accomplish their goals. From startup, through growth, maturity and eventually business transfer, we can help you identify the issues you should be discussing with your client.

In this conversation card, you're looking for risk-averse clients who are nearing or currently in retirement. These clients want their money to grow tax-deferred, but feel uneasy about market swings. A fixed indexed annuity (FIA) can help mitigate the risk while offering strong returns.

In this conversation card, you're looking for clients who are concerned about rising rates, inflation or market risk. But they still want higher returns. With a fixed indexed annuity (FIA), clients can have no risk of loss while providing the ability to meet or exceed inflation.