Case Studies

We love sharing our client stories because they are what drive us to do our best work every day. Your success is our success.

Here are just a few examples of how we have helped clients pursue their financial goals:

A client came to us with two rather large stock positions with a very low cost basis. Their portfolio was not diversified since these two stocks accounted for over 25% of their entire portfolio. Selling the stocks would have triggered huge capital gains and the client would have incurred a large tax bill. Our solution was to donate a good portion of each stock to a Donor-Advised Fund. Therefore, the client claimed a significant charitable deduction, saving them tax dollars without triggering any capital gain.

A married client was in a very low tax bracket. They had two grown sons, both successful and in very high tax brackets. We developed a strategy that triggered taxes for the parents, at lower tax rates, instead of the sons inheriting the assets and having to pay much higher taxes.

We reviewed a new client’s Estate Documents and noticed that both the husband and wife had Revocable Trusts which laid out their final distribution wishes upon death. After reviewing their assets, we noticed that nothing was titled in the trust’s name and the beneficiaries were still their young children. If no action was taken, it’s very likely that their assets would not have been distributed as intended.

Asset location refers to where you strategically invest your money between qualified accounts (IRA’s, 401ks), tax free accounts (Roth's) and taxable accounts (JT). Holding high tax investments in deferred or tax-exempt accounts can improve the overall tax efficiency of your investments and save you tax dollars.

Our client came to us already in a high tax bracket. Some of the holdings in their joint taxable account included high yield bond funds and other types of taxable bonds. Income from these investments would be taxed at our client’s highest tax rates. We were able to replicate these holdings in their tax-deferred accounts, thus saving them tax dollars.

We ran many different retirement scenarios and determined that our client could retire at age 65. We met with them to share the good news and he/she said they were not ready to retire. He/she enjoyed their work, liked the income and was not ready to deal with the free time that retirement brings. Understanding the uniqueness of our clients goals and listening to our clients carefully helps us deliver appropriate solutions.

Many of our clients have recently received letters notifying them of future premium increases. The letter outlined a few options if clients wished to keep premium about the same in return for reduced benefits. We determined that our client already had a strong daily benefit and in addition, had several other income streams. For this client, our solution was to accept a lower daily benefit amount in return for a lower premium. Understanding our client’s unique financial situation allows us to tailor our recommendations.