Taxes are perceived differently by each individual even though the overall set of chaotic rules is the same for all of us. Yet when it comes to dealing with that chaos in a manner that leads to peace and prosperity, the process always involves the same three steps: Resolve past problems. Old issues don’t go […]
Tony Novak, CPA financial planner
An advertisement by a top-qualify national information publishing firm joined up with a prominent AICPA event to deliver an educational program designed to prepare CPA firms for imminent change. The bullet points describing the course content are: End-to-end, automated cloud-based tax preparation AI-enhanced, highly intuitive tax research A cloud-driven, Integrated Audit Approach that focuses on […]
I took comfort in John McCain’s final message this week. I do tend to despair in seeing that our lives, our finances, our whole planet are in far worse shape than ever before while some of those around us don’t even recognize the problem. Many of the people who continue to enable government to destroy […]
This blog post lists key issues in bullet format and is not intended as a complete discussion of any issue. A more thorough consideration is helpful for any aspect that may pertain to your family’s situation. Definition: “Medicaid planning” refers to the specialized field of financial planning that recognizes that it is possible to simultaneously keep financial assets while, […]
Lately we’ve heard plenty of discussion about tax law. It seems especially common right now when tax terms have come up multiple times in casual conversation this past week at coffee, family dinner and email from a client. In some cases the terms are misused or misunderstood. Like many types of discussion, meaningful communication depends […]
As great as this tax bill is for CPAs who offer tax planning services, it is just as bad for investment advisers. Here’s why: RIAs do not benefit from the 20% deduction of pass-through entity income. RIAs tend to have high state, local and property taxes. Limiting this deduction, along with elimination of the personal […]
Most of us in the financial services or advisory professions are generally aware of the impact of the “Fiduciary Rule”. But few, including myself, has any in-depth understanding of the scope of its impact. This well-written explanation of the fiduciary rule comes from a training material for financial service professionals. I added the emphasis. “In […]
A revolutionist is someone who wants to change the world — not just sitting around talking about it, but actually doing something to bring about change. If that describes your approach to personal financial management, then I’d love to have a conversation about what you are doing now and what else can be done to improve […]
One hundred trillion dollars. That’s the total net worth of all Americans in 2017*. It’s a staggering number. For practical discussion purposes, we might say that figure is the net worth of rich Americans. The top 160,000 households (one tenth of one percent) control a quarter of this wealth. About half of all this U.S. wealth […]