Financial Planning

How Can I Reach My Financial Goals?

We meet with you to discuss your hopes and dreams and the reality of achieving them. Then we create a program that channels your income, obligations and dreams into a manageable matrix. We present concrete recommendations and provide you with the one-stop service you need to oversee and manage the growth opportunities and your income tax liabilities.

A Financial Plan Helps To:

• Significantly reduce income taxes
• Protect income in the event of long term disability
• Assess liability protection for personal and business assets
• Increase your effective after-tax yield
• Prepare for family emergencies
• Fund your children's education
• Provide for a comfortable and secure retirement
• Provide appropriate insurance coverage
• Minimize estate taxes
• Understand your financial status
• Minimize the financial/emotional impact of unexpected job-loss
  

How to Tell If You Need a Financial Plan

Are You:

• Reducing your taxes to the lowest possible amount by preparing detailed "what if" tax projections to determine appropriate tax reduction strategies?
• Compensating for inflation's devastating effects on your pension and social security benefits?
• Aware of all the investment vehicles available?
• Knowledgeable about the proper dollar amounts you should have invested?
• Earning an after-tax rate of return on managed assets that is substantially above the rate of inflation?
• Using one professional services firm to integrate all aspects of your family's financial needs?

Have You?

• Designed a retirement plan by preparing financial projections to determine how much you need to save and where to invest?

• Researched all the insurance policies on the market to determine which company has the most competitive programs?

• Positioned your assets for safety and superior yields by diversifying your portfolio?

• Established the proper funding and scholarship programs for your children's education?

• Using one professional firm to integrate all aspects of your family's financial needs?

In today's economy, if you answered "NO" to even one of these questions, you could be jeopardizing your financial future. If you answered "NO" to a few of these questions, ask us to review your plans.

Estate and Gift Tax Planning

Upon your death, virtually everything you own is subject to taxation UNLESS you do proper estate planning BEFORE you pass away (even life insurance proceeds). Tax law changes have profound implications to your financial health. The J.C. Warrick Financial Group provides comprehensive estate planning services that include:

• Cash flow/budgeting
• Income tax planning
• Estate planning
• Asset protection
• Retirement planning
• Business succession planning
• Residence ownership planning
• Trusts

Insurance

How much is enough?
Do I have the right kind of insurance to protect my family and myself?
How often should I review my insurance policy?

Insurance is a very personal matter, so it stands to reason that there is no one insurance strategy that fits all needs. Once we get to know you, we will review your goals and evaluate where the purchase of insurance makes sense. Most individuals do not know how to use insurance as a key instrument within a financial plan. If appropriate, we may recommend the purchase of an insurance policy as a strategic platform within your overall financial plan.

In the case of estate planning, trusts and certain business scenarios, insurance strategies can play an important role. When planning for life's uncertainties, insurance may also have a vital role within the area of risk management.

Estate Planning

Tools of the Trade

IRA's

• The original, deductible IRA lets you put as much as $ 3,000 (if qualified by income limitation) to a wide assortment of investments that grow 100% tax-deferred. Contribution limits rise to $4,000 for tax years 2005-2007 and $5,000 in 2008. Contributions limits will be adjusted for inflation after 2008.
  
• The non-deductible IRA is for people whose income makes them ineligible for the original IRA. You get the same tax deferral, but cannot take a tax deduction for your contribution.
  
• Medical Savings Accounts allow qualified contributors to save for medical expenses.
  
• Rollover IRA's are created when you receive a distribution from a company retirement plan or want to transfer funds from an older IRA into a newer one.
  
• "Roth" or "backloaded" IRA feature distributions or withdrawals that are not taxed and there are no penalties if the money is taken out after age 59½ and more than four years after the first contribution was made. There are contribution limits based on earnings and you must do calculations to determine if this plan is beneficial to you.
  
• Education (Coverdell) IRA's allow a maximum of $ 2,000 per year per child to be set aside in a special plan for education. Withdrawals are tax and penalty free.
  
• Medical IRA's: Medicare choice medical savings accounts.
  
• IRA Catch-up Contributions: IRA holder's age 50 or older may contribute an amount in excess of the basic annual contribution, as follows:
  • 2005: $500
  • 2006 and thereafter: $1,000