Taxes get complicated. Retirement plans. Medicare. Social security. Estate and gift taxes. Health savings rates. Tax rate schedules. This tax reference pocket guide is easy to keep with you, with the information you need to keep at your fingertips while planning with your clients.

Taxes get complicated. Retirement plans. Medicare. Social security. Estate and gift taxes. Health savings rates. Tax rate schedules. Mileage rates. This tax reference guide contains all the information you need to keep at your fingertips while planning with your clients.

The lifetime gift and estate tax exemption is set to be cut in half in 2026. It might seem like there's ample time to create a plan, but there is a practical deadline ahead of the statutory deadline. Here's what you need to know to avoid the rush.

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.

Even for affluent clients, pre-funding death expenses with discounted dollars remains effective. Life insurance is uniquely able to deliver a specified pool of tax-free liquidity at exactly the time needed to cover final expenses, debt, liquidation, taxes, probate costs and bequests.

Good planning starts with asking the right questions. This workbook will help you stay organized through the retirement planning data gathering process. There is room to record employer information, proposal census data, retirement plan design, goals and related notes.

Good planning starts with asking the right questions. This workbook will help you stay organized through the estate planning data gathering process. There is room to record client information such as current estate plans, objectives, existing insurance policies and other notes.

When someone plans to leave a charitable legacy, the typical approach is to include a bequest in the will. Instead, try using life insurance. Have the charitable organization purchase life insurance on the life of the donor or name the charity as beneficiary of an existing policy.

A charitable lead trust (CLT) is a “split-interest” trust with both an income and remainder beneficiary. The trust makes distributions to a qualified charity for either a specific term or the life of an individual. Upon death, remaining assets are distributed to the donor’s beneficiaries.

Estate planning is an important part of tax diversification, and life insurance can be an effective resource for achieving it. This example illustrates the benefits of the strategy with projected values and client options for coverage.

Just because an estate is too small to get taxed doesn’t mean it is too small to cause problems with heirs ill-equipped to handle wealth, sibling rivalries, divorce, lawsuits and more. Using a trust, clients can give heirs the benefit of wealth without direct ownership of wealth.

Using a portion of assets, clients could get the certainty of a contractual guarantee of an insurance company, higher than 4%. Then, use that guaranteed income to provide a guaranteed return of their investment principal through a life insurance contract.