True wealth is choosing how you spend your time.

Mary decided to buy a house and needed to make a cash offer. She asked us to sell investments to raise the cash. Most advisors would have simply processed her request. We did some analysis, and found that the tax implications of that sale would exceed $30,000—not the kind of surprise anyone wants! But we didn’t stop with just telling her about the problem. We suggested an alternate approach (borrowing against those assets using a short-term loan) that accomplished all of her objectives while avoiding a big tax surprise. An easy win that saved Mary a lot of money!

Susan owns a small business and wanted to create a retirement plan for her employees and herself. She researched options such as SEP, SIMPLE IRA, 401(k), and defined benefit plans. Each one had different contribution parameters, administrative requirements, and costs. Confusing! We helped her make sense of it all and choose the best fit for her unique situation.

Jim has a side-hustle business to keep him busy. He wishes more money could be put into his ROTH accounts annually. With our help, he contributed over $60,000 into tax-free ROTH investments multiple years using the mega-back door ROTH strategy. We love creative (yet legal!) strategies like this, and it’s fun to help our clients use them to grow and protect their wealth.

Tim was worried about upcoming required minimum distributions (RMDs) from his IRAs. They would require money to be taken out and taxed, pushing him into a new tax bracket. Not a good thing. We helped Tim take advantage of a market downturn, converting Traditional IRA dollars to ROTH IRA dollars. The move cut his tax rate almost in half, lowered future RMDs, and allowed future growth to be tax-free. Win!

Bill owns a small business and decided to open a new retirement account. But he didn’t know which type was best. He was unsure if his selection would support the contribution size he wanted, if he’d have to offer an account to his employees, and if the tax-deferred or tax-free arrangement would be best for him. With the help of a call center advisor and the internet he did the best he could. Unfortunately his choice was not optimal. We fixed it. Sometimes people come with messes, and that’s ok! We’re used to fixing mistakes and cleaning up messes, which is exactly what we did for Bill.