The titling of accounts can play an important role in how your assets ultimately distribute to your heirs. For example, retirement accounts have beneficiary designations that determine who receives these accounts. If overlooked, these designations can inadvertently circumvent your intentions that are laid out in your estate documents.
Using life insurance is a common strategy to ensure liquidity to cover your estate transfer costs. However, owning life insurance in an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) instead of in your own name can put more of these dollars to work for you by removing the insurance proceeds from your taxable estate.
Certain investment strategies can utilize leverage to enhance potential returns. Leverage is not always transparent when reading an investment statement and is often found deep inside a strategy’s prospectus. While leverage can enhance returns, it may also potentially enhance losses and should be considered if this (often unseen) risk is necessary to accomplish your objectives.
Target date funds can be tricky as these investments assume that all investors who are retiring in similar years have similar risk tolerances and cash flow needs in retirement. Typically, these funds reduce risk as the target retirement date approaches. Certain investors may need or may wish to have a higher risk tolerance or need […]
West Capital Management provides its clients with account aggregation services, which allows investors to get a firm understanding of all of their allocations and collective risks they are exposed to.
Paying an institution directly vs. giving money to the recipient outright can help you avoid unintended gifting for tax purposes.
Many investors have been cautious since the financial crisis on putting their capital back to work as they fear they will be ill-timed if there is another correction. Historical analysis shows that more money is lost waiting for the correction than in the correction itself. Having a sound investment implementation plan will alleviate the detrimental effects […]
