Posts Tagged ‘Jim Lange’

Don’t Become a Victim of a Financial Scam

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Special thanks to our latest radio guest, President and CEO of fiduciary360 (fi360), Blaine Aikin, for taking the time to give us insight into several of the proposals currently before Congress dealing with regulatory reform. Blaine gave up his time during an especially busy week - he joined us on Wednesday night (9/9) and then traveled to Washington, D.C. for a scheduled meeting on Friday (9/11) with SEC Chairperson Mary Shapiro.

The trip to D.C. was taken with members of the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard - a group that was formed to draw the public’s attention to the movement to create a unified fiduciary standard.  Fiduciaries are people who manage money on behalf of others and stand in a special relationship of trust and legal and ethical responsibility - including CPAs, CFPs, stock brokers and insurance brokers.

Currently, some fiduciaries are held to a fiduciary standard while others are held to a suitability standard.  It is the goal of the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard that the fiduciary standard apply to all fiduciaries and that disclosures become crystal clear.  (For more on this effort, visit fi360’s website at www.fi360.com).

During the second half of the show, Blaine took a close look at some of the recent financial scams and scandals (including the Bernie Madoff scandal) and what the average investor should be doing to avoid becoming a victim of such a scandal.

Blaine’s advice was excellent and taking a minute to review his suggestions could save you financial heartbreak in the future.  For starters, Blaine recommends that investors rely on RFPs (requests for proposals) instead of third party testimonials.  Do a background check - read the fine print in disclosures.

Don’t work with people who don’t have time to answer your questions or tell you that you don’t really need to know.  This is one of the ways that Bernie Madoff was able to avoid detection for so long.

Make sure that your advisor uses a system of checks and balances.  For instance, Bernie wore four hats - broker, advisor, manager and custodian.  Included in this system of checks and balances is making sure that your advisor does not take custody of your assets directly.

Do your homework - look for 3rd party verification - audited financials, GIPS certified performance standards, CEFEX.

Finally, keep in mind the old adage - if something seems to good to be true, it probably is.

If you missed the show with Blaine Aikin and you’d like to hear either the entire show or portions of the show - check back to this website soon.  Audio will be posted by next week (the week of September 21st).

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Posted in Bernie Madoff, Fiduciary standard, Financial scandals, SEC | 1 Comment »

Jim Lange in Kiplinger’s

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions have been Jim Lange’s passion for the past decade and Jim is always happy to spread the word to the media. Jim’s latest appearance in print can be found in this month’s (September 2009) Kiplinger’s Retirement Report (Leave Your Kids a Tax-free Legacy on page 18).

To show the wealth-building potential of a Roth IRA conversion, Jim gives an example involving two 65-year old fathers.  They are both in the 28% tax bracket and both have IRAs valued at $100,000.  To simplify the example, both dads also have $28,000 in a taxable account.

The first dad decides to make a Roth IRA conversion and pays $28,000 in taxes up front.  The second dad decides to stick to his traditional IRA and will pay taxes upon withdrawal.  In Jim’s example, both dads live another 20 years and leave their IRAs to their children.

Thirty years after their parents die, the Roth IRA child has $1.8 million in future dollars.  The traditional IRA child only has $980,000.  Why the big difference?  For starters, the Roth parent never had to take required minimum distributions and the entire amount was able to grow tax-free for all of those years.  The traditional dad had to take an RMD starting at age 70 1/2 resulting in the parent and child paying taxes on the RMD every year.

This analysis really becomes powerful when you realize that a tax-law change starting on January 1, 2010 will make all taxpayers eligible for a Roth IRA conversion, regardless of income.  Considering that many wealthy taxpayers will be able to convert much more than the $100,000 in the example, the potential benefits of a Roth IRA conversion could be even more dramatic.

In the same Kiplinger’s article, Jim also stresses the importance of the beneficiary designation of your IRA.  If you hope to have your heirs stretch this tax-free shalter for their lifetimes, it’s important to get the wording correct.  Non-spouse heirs cannot roll an inherited IRA into their own Roth IRA.  Instead, they must set up an inherited IRA and the name of the deceased must remain on the account.  Jim advises using language along the order of “inherited IRA of Joe Sr. for the benefit of Joe Jr.”.  The money must then be transferred directly into the new IRA.

Remember - we are less than four months away from the big tax-law change.  Make sure that you’re up-to-speed on the benefits of Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions.  For a more detailed comparison between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, we offer another of Jim’s articles on this website.  Go to the homepage, click on articles and then click on Roth: Four Little Letters Lead to Long-term Financial Security.

As always, our excellent professional staff is available to help you with a complete Roth IRA analysis.  Get more details by calling our office at 800-387-1129.

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Posted in Beneficiary Designations, Roth IRA Conversions, Roth IRA's | No Comments »

Turning Children Into Financially Responsible Adults

Friday, July 31st, 2009

A huge thanks to Neale S. Godfrey, best-selling author and founder of The Children’s Financial Network, for sharing her incredible ideas for raising financially responsible children on the July 29th edition of The Lange Money Hour. Neale was a great guest — full of tips for parents and grandparents on how to make sure that children are financially fluent.

A couple of her strategies are particularly timely given the economy and the time of the year.  For instance, many parents and grandparents are busy doing back-to-school shopping right now and we all know that shopping with tweens and teens can get ugly.  Neale offered a practical solution to avoid arguments and overspending.  For kids age eleven and up, Neale suggests giving them a budget and letting them make their own decisions.  You can set up a bank account or give them pre-paid debit cards, but in the end, putting them in control of their finances forces them to make budgetary choices.

The recession has also forced a lot of adult children to fly back to the nest and Neale recommends hammering out the details of the arrangement before they move back in.  How long do you expect them to stay?  What financial obligations do you want them to take care of?  Having these discussions in advance avoids problems later.  Neale even suggests taking the extra step of drawing up a lease with all of the terms defined.

In addition to setting up a trust, one of Jim Lange’s chief concerns when it comes to minors is the naming of a guardian.  Neale agreed that naming a guardian for your children is absolutely critical and she also recommends sharing the details of the arrangement with your children.

Notice, though, that the key element in all of these situations is communication — full disclosure of the family’s finances.  The problem for many families is that money is a taboo topic.  If this is the case in your family, one of Neale’s books might help.

Her #1 New York Times best-seller, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children is an excellent choice for adults and Ultimate Kids Money Book is perfect for elementary school age children.  Both are available on Neale’s website www.childrensfinancialnetwork.com.

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Posted in Economy, Recession, life insurance | No Comments »

New York Times Analyzes Roth IRAs

Friday, July 24th, 2009

The Tuesday, July 21st edition of The New York Times had an article titled “Converting an IRA Into a Roth? How’s Your Crystal Ball?”. Naturally, this got our attention. Jim Lange was at the forefront of the Roth movement when he wrote the first peer-reviewed article on Roth IRAs for The Tax Adviser in 1998.  Since then, Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions have been Jim’s passion.

For many taxpayers, Roth IRAs have not been on their radar because of the income limitations.  Currently, if your household’s adjusted gross income is over $100,000, you don’t qualify for a Roth conversion.  However, a big change is about to take place.  Starting January 1, 2010, all taxpayers will be eligible for a Roth IRA conversion regardless of income.  If you are unfamiliar with Roth IRAs, here’s how they work.  With a traditional IRA, you take a tax deduction now and pay income taxes when you withdraw the money.  With a Roth IRA, you pay the taxes up front and then your money continues to grow income tax-free for the rest of your life and, perhaps, even the lives of your children and grandchildren.

As we get closer to the tax-law change in 2010, not only is interest in Roth IRAs heating up, but so is speculation that the rules may change down the road.  The New York Times article suggests that in the worst case senario, the federal government might try to tax the earnings on a Roth IRA after all.  Or, perhaps, the feds might impose a penalty tax on excessive balances.  This argument is especially hot right now considering the massive and growing federal budget deficit.

Others believe that Roth IRAs will remain the same, but all other accounts would change to be like them.  That means contributions to traditional IRAs would no longer be tax-deductible and pretax savings in 401(k)s and similiar plans would also stop.

Does that mean that you shouldn’t consider a Roth IRA conversion?  Not at all.  As The New York Times also mentions, many advisors believe that Roth IRAs will not only remain the same, but will become even more valuable if income tax rates increase.

If you’ve ever been to one of Jim Lange’s Roth IRA workshops, he answers the question about a possible tax-law change governing Roth IRAs by pointing out that Roth IRAs are part of The Internal Revenue Code (as opposed to Social Security taxes - which were never part of The Internal Revenue Code).  If this law were suddenly changed and taxes imposed at withdrawal, Jim has said in his workshop that this would be “a violation of due process, a violation of the constitution, and you would have a very well-financed revolution”.

Listen to the July 15th edition of The Lange Money Hour which featured one of America’s top IRA experts, Natalie Choate, and you’ll find that Jim and Natalie both agree with two other points made in The New York Times’ article.  First of all, if you don’t have the money to pay for the taxes on a Roth IRA conversion outside of your retirement plan, you should probably not convert.

Secondly, it’s not a good idea to do a 100% conversion.  As Natalie put it, “don’t put all your money on one horse”.  It’s not a good idea to ignore the Roth IRA, and it’s also not a good idea to have all of your money in a Roth IRA.  Diversification is key.

Jim Lange and the rest of our team are still very excitied about the possibilities ahead with Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions.  If you’re wondering what to do, we recommend a professional analysis of your situation.  It’s possible that a series of small conversions would work best for you.  The professional staff here has been doing thorough Roth IRA projections for years.  You don’t have to wait until 2010 to get started - for help, call the office at 800-387-1129.

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Posted in Roth IRA Conversions, Roth IRA's | 2 Comments »