By Jimmy J. Williams, CPA/PFS, CFP® Apr 22, 2021
2 hrs ago
Big projects and changes in the operations of government are always sought by new presidents with in their first one hundred days in office. President Biden is no exception to this trend.
     However, one of the areas of change proposed by the new administration is estate taxation. Under current law, most citizensâ estates in the United States would be well under the exemption allowed of $11,700,000. For those whose estates exceed this exemption amount, the rate at which their estate value is taxed is 40%. The current law is set to âsunsetâ after 2025 and the exemption would be returned to $5.5 million which would subject many more estates to taxation.
By Jimmy J. Williams, CPA/PFS, CFP® Apr 15, 2021
4 hrs ago
It is time to file your 2020 individual income tax returns. Many people face this task with trepidation and stress. To help you focus on this important obligation of all Americans, I am providing you some simple, yet effective, strategies to reduce this process to its simplest form.
First, do not procrastinate until April of each year to begin preparing for this required activity. Too many of us dislike the process of gathering and organizing our information to perform the task of preparing our returns. Do you remember the question about tackling big projects? You know, âHow do you eat an elephant?â The answer for the previous query, as well as the approach to your organization of tax information is the same, âone bite at a timeâ.
By Jimmy J. Williams, CPA/PFS, CFP® Apr 11, 2021
Jimmy Williams
One of the most important areas of planning for a secure future is to be able to weather the storms of life without invading your long-term investments. When working with a new client, we always ask questions regarding their current monthly living needs. By monitoring and managing your basic living needs such as food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, gifts, etc., you can determine your cash needs on a monthly basis.
This is the first step to developing a cash management plan that will serve you well in life. Once you know the cash flow need for a typical month, it is critical that you expand the thought process to cover a period of 90 â 120 days. Should a catastrophic event affect your family you will be confident that you can sustain your lifestyle without negatively impacting your future by withdrawing retirement assets prematurely.
Why the ‘one bad broker’ rule matters
One bad broker making big bets or selling lousy or misunderstood products can damage or even ruin a firm. Are firms doing enough to keep those brokers and high-risk behaviors in check?
April 7, 2021 4 MINS
Wall Street rewards high-risk behavior in its salespeople, be they deemed brokers, the old-fashioned term, or financial advisers, in the more commonly accepted contemporary tongue.
To illustrate that point, look no further than the widely disparate cases of a hedge fund blowing up and brokers a few years back pumping sales of a risky alternative mutual fund.
On the surface, the recent blow-up of Bill Hwang’s $10 billion Archegos Capital Management hedge fund and three retail broker-dealers reaching settlements over sales of the shuttered LJM Preservation & Growth Fund couldn’t appear any more different one is a hedge fund managing billions of dollars known for Hwang reportedly taking enormous single stoc
Roaring Kitty and phishing attacks expose cyber headaches for IBDs
Firm leaders understand the cybersecurity threat is real. But have broker-dealers taken appropriate precautions to protect advisers and their clients?
March 17, 2021 4 MINS
A question at the start of the pandemic was how would broker-dealers, particularly independent B-Ds that operate on thin margins, adjust to technology and supervision of advisers during Covid-19.
It’s clear that firms had plenty of problems making that transition and now those issues are coming to the fore.
For the past 12 months, firm employees have been out of the office, scattered and working from home, the targets of cyber-attacks known as phishing. Advisers, meanwhile, have been reaching out to clients using unsupervised social media platforms.