Not all investments make money and sometimes things don’t go quite like they were planned. This is the nature of Investment Risk.

In these cases to may become necessary to “clean out the attic” and get rid of some less than successful investment choices and trade them for some more promising choices.

Fortunately the IRS Tax Code (IRC) allows you to write off investment losses against investment gains in the year they are realized and even carry forward some of those losses to future years to reduce your Capital Gains Tax liability. In addition some of the investment losses can also be written off against your Income Tax liability.

However there are some somewhat complicated rules which may require some rather diligent recordkeeping.

Short-Term Gains and Losses and Long Term Gains and Losses

Short-Term Gains and Losses are for investments that are held for less than one year. They are taxed at your current Income Tax rate. Long Term Gain and Losses on investments held for more than a year are taxed at special Capital Gains rates. This is a matching game. Short-Term losses are deducted against Short-Term gains and Long-Term losses are deducted against Long-Term gains. Fortunately most of this information is sorted out and contained in the 1099 tax statement received each year from your Broker. Missing information should be contained in your own records, hence the need for diligent record-keeping. A good Financial Advisor should keep this on file for you.

Account Registrations?

Qualified Accounts – Qualified Accounts, such as an IRA or 401k, are accounts that are tax protected by the IRS. Typically income tax will be paid only when funds, including any investment gains, are distributed from the account. This means that Tax Loss harvesting doesn’t have much usefulness in these accounts since there is no Capital Gains Tax applied to these accounts.

Non-Qualified Accounts – These are accounts that are not tax-protected by the IRS. They are subject to Capital Gains taxes, Income Taxes, and Dividend Taxes. This is where most of our attention needs to be.

What’s the Catch?

Wash Sale Rules – So can you just sell an investment, book the tax loss, and then just immediately buy it back? Not quite. The IRS disallows the tax deduction if “the sale of stock or securities at a loss is within 30 days before or after you buy or acquire in a fully taxable trade, or acquire a contract or option to buy, substantially identical stock or securities.” (See IRS Pub. 550 for more details). So, watch the dates of the trades so you don’t get caught in this trap.

Tax Lot Selling

Professional Investment Managers should have sophisticated software that allows them to pick and choose which investment purchase (“lot”) to sell to realize the investment loss. This comes in handy when there are multiple purchases of an investment that occurred over a period of time at different prices. This may allow you to maximize the tax loss on the sale of your investment shares.

Tax Loss Carry Forwards

If you have a capital loss that is greater than what you can use for current year tax deductions the IRS allows you to carry it forward into future tax years.

An Extra Added Bonus

The IRS also allows you to use a capital loss deduction of up to $3000 of taxable income. This is a good way to potentially reduce your Income Tax liability in addition to your Capital Gains tax liability. This can also be carried forward to future year and applied again, up to the limit, until it is used up.

Conclusion

You can study more about tax management of your investments in our presentation on Tax Avoidance Strategies on our website www.SWRetire.com as well as learn more about our full service Financial Advisory practice. You should also consult your Tax Professional (CPA) to review your tax situation to ensure the most desirable outcome.

Views, opinions and analyses expressed in this presentation are those of Southwestern Retirement and not those of Independent Financial Group, LLC.

Registered Representative offering Securities and Advisory Services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a Registered Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC.

 Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC.

OSJ Address: 4041 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

The post Tax Loss Harvesting appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

One of the advanced methods we can use for sophisticated investors is a Managed Futures Portfolio using several Professional Investment Managers that put together portfolios using specialized techniques to manage market volatility. These are considered to be “Alternative Investments” that are often used for diversification of an Investment Portfolio.

The Managed Futures Portfolio typically uses long or short positions in futures contracts (“derivatives”) in the U.S and Foreign Stock and Bond Markets. These portfolios may also invest a portion of their assets directly in Fixed Income Investments to generate returns and interest income and also to use as collateral in developing Managed Futures positions.

Our Managed Futures Portfolio managers use these derivative contracts instead of owning investments directly and trade them in the Futures Markets as opposed to the traditional Stock and Bond Markets. They may also trade in Commodities, Energy, Agricultural Markets as described in their portfolio strategy disclosures. Our Managed Futures Portfolio pulls together several of these managers to achieve a broadly based exposure to this investment strategy.

The performance of the Managed Futures Portfolio should show a low correlation to the Stock and Bond Markets and can be quite useful to diversify an investment portfolio. This positions them as effective hedge on investments but is a less expensive and more efficient approach than the rather expensive and opaque “Hedge Fund” used in the past. New regulations have made these portfolios more acceptable to sophisticated investors as a substitute for the traditional Hedge Fund.

These investments seek to achieve Capital Appreciation in both rising and falling (Bull and Bear) equity markets with a level of volatility that is generally lower than the historic level of volatility experienced by Global Stock Markets.

Conclusion

The Managed Futures Portfolio is considered as an Alternative Investment intended for use by sophisticated investors with substantial assets to invest to diversify their investment portfolio. All investing is subject to risk, including loss of principal, and past performance is no guarantee of future results.

You can learn more about our full service Investment Management and Financial Advisory practice at our website www.SWRetire.com  and see more investing ideas that may be useful to you.

Views, opinions and analyses expressed in this presentation are those of Southwestern Retirement and not those of Independent Financial Group, LLC.

Registered Representative offering Securities and Advisory Services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a Registered Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC.

 Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC.

OSJ Address: 4041 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

The post Advanced Investment Strategies -Managed Futures appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

Laddered Portfolios can be made out of any group individual securities that have a fixed maturity. The intent is to remove interest rate risk by holding the securities to maturity thus eliminating price fluctuations that can be caused by changing interest rates. Other investment risks such default of the issuer or currency risk still remain. The risk of reinvesting the funds received at maturity at a lower rate also remains.

Typical Securities Often Used in Laddered Portfolios

Corporate Bonds – Generally have higher yields because of the perceived higher risk of the corporate issuer. Interest income is fully taxable at the Federal and State levels.

Municipal Bonds – Issued by State and Local issuing authorities. Yields are determined by the relative risk of the issuing authority. These bonds are exempt from Federal Tax and can be exempt from State tax if the taxpayer is a resident of that state.

U.S. Treasuries — Generally considered as the lowest risk security by the investment community. Interest income is taxable at the Federal level but tax exempt at the State level.

Certificates of Deposit (Fixed Rate) – Usually issued by Banks and Federal Deposit Institutions. These are principal protected by FDIC insurance up to certain amounts. Interest income is fully taxable.

Certificates of Deposit (Market-Linked) – These CDs are issued by Financial Institutions with access to the Stock Market. The yield is tied to stock market performance over a certain period instead of a fixed rate. Interest income can be more or less than a fixed rate CD depending on market performance. They are principal-protected, the minimum return is zero, and FDIC insured.

Mix and Match – It is also possible to put together several of these different types of securities in complimentary Ladders to take advantage of each of their unique characteristics. An example would be a mix of Fixed Rate CDs and Market-Linked CDs for an investor that wants to maintain some exposure to a rising market environment.

 Other Considerations

Risk Avoidance – Investors often use Laddered Portfolios to “park” cash if they do not choose to participate in the Stock or Bond Market but still would like to generate some interest income above Money Market rates.

Maturity Matching – Laddered Portfolios can be tailored to accrue interest and then generate free cash at very specific intervals.  The securities that make up the Laddered Portfolio are bought on the large secondary market where precise maturity dates can be chosen.

Liquidity Risk – The securities in a Laddered Portfolio usually can be sold or redeemed before maturity but this may expose the Investor to market price risk or redemption penalties. The key to this strategy working successfully is to hold the securities to maturity to avoid these risks.

Tax Equivalent Yield – It may be helpful to calculate a Tax Equivalent Yield in order to compare the tax liability of your interest payments of different types of securities which to build your Laddered Portfolio. This will help you make an “apples-to-apples” comparison of the actual income you would receive in comparing your different options. Your Financial Advisor or Tax Professional should be able to help you do this. 

Conclusion

Developing Laddered Portfolios may take sophisticated trading software to do properly. Investors may want to consider consolidating larger positions in order to avoid excess trading costs. You can learn more about Investment Strategies at our website www.SWRetire.com as well as learn more about our full service Financial Advisory practice.

Views, opinions and analyses expressed in this presentation are those of Southwestern Retirement and not those of Independent Financial Group, LLC.

Registered Representative offering Securities and Advisory Services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a Registered Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC.

 Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC.

OSJ Address: 4041 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

The post Laddered Bond and CD Portfolios appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

• Real Estate is probably the most commonly held Alternative Investment. It can be held as Direct Ownership where title is held directly by an individual such as a rental home, or Fractional Ownership as a share in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), or Partnership along with other investors. Although some REITs are actually traded in the Stock Market (“Traded REITs”) most actually started their lives as private offerings to investors outside of the market (“Non-traded REITs”). Common Real Estate categories include Residential, Office, Retail and Warehouse/Industrial.
• Life Insurance and Annuities. These are actually contracts that are made between an individual or special entity and a Life Insurance or Annuity company. Annuity contracts are set up with fixed or variable return rates based on various market returns. The contract benefits usually fall into two broad categories, Living Benefits, associated with Income payouts, or Death Benefits, associated with lump sum payouts. These benefits are guaranteed by the company issuing the contract. This guarantee can relieve and Investor of some of the market risk in stock or bond investing. A way to understand this investment market it is to realize that Annuity contracts often consist of a large current payment (the “Premium”) to the issuing company in exchange for a stream future payouts (the “Benefit”) to the Investor. Conversely, Life Insurance contracts consist of a current stream of Premium payments in exchange for a large lump-sum Benefit payout in the future. The issuing companies simply make their profit on the spread between these current premium payments and the payout of future benefits.
• Hedge Funds and Futures Contracts.  These are more sophisticated investment vehicles that involve contracts written against market performance, arbitrage on mergers and acquisitions in the market as well as foreign currencies. Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of valuations that are perceived as mispriced in the market.  They often involve smaller high-risk investments that are targeted for outsize returns.
• Commodities and Currencies. Typical commodities are of Oil and Gas, Precious Metals (i.e. Gold or Silver), Base Metals (i.e. Copper or Aluminum), Agricultural Products (i.e. Wheat or Soybeans). They can be held directly (i.e. Gold Coins) or they often take the form of futures contracts that are traded in the own unique markets that may or may not be correlated to the Stock and Bond Markets. One of the newer investment vehicles that may fit into this category are cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. This is could be considered as an undeveloped market that is highly speculative and volatile.
• Private Debt and Private Equity. One of the newer investment vehicles is the private placement of debt for mid-sized companies that too large to borrow from banks and too small for a debt offering in the Bond Market. Business Development Companies (BDCs) organize these offerings and sell them privately to sophisticated investors through the Broker/Dealer network. There are also offerings organized to pool investor funds and invest in start-up or later-stage financing of growing companies looking to raise equity privately.
• Conclusion. Alternative Investments are a good way to diversify and round out an Investment Portfolio without further exposure to Stock and Bond Markets. They are often used to dampen volatility (market price swings) and stabilize of a portfolio to smooth out investment returns. Many Alternative Investments also produce regular cash payments that may greater than the Bond Market but can be obtained with less risk. They should be considered as part of a sophisticated Investment Portfolio. Some of these Alternative Investments can only be obtained through a full service Financial Advisor.

Read More About Our Service

Views, opinions and analyses expressed in this presentation are those of Southwestern Retirement and not those of Independent Financial Group, LLC.

Registered Representative offering Securities and Advisory Services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a Registered Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC.

 Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC.

OSJ Address: 4041 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

The post Alternative Investments appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

Your first move should be debt reduction. This frees up money for the other moves you can make and lessens the amount of money you pay to others, instead of yourself, each month.

Consider attacking your highest-interest debts first rather than your largest debts. If you have big credit card balances, high-interest car loans, or similar financial obligations, that borrowed money may be extremely expensive. Credit bureau Experian says that monthly household credit card balances in this country hover around $6,375. According to personal finance website NerdWallet, the average interest rate on a credit card right now is 14.87%, and the average U.S. household pays out $904 a year just in credit card interest. A constant debt of $6,000 is bad enough, but having to pay roughly another $1,000 a year just for the opportunity to borrow? That really hurts.1

Whether your major debts are larger or smaller, think of the progress you could possibly make by devoting thousands of dollars you pay to others to yourself. Say you direct $3,000 you would otherwise pay to creditors during a year into an investment account returning 6%. Say you do this for 10 consecutive years. At the end of that 10-year period, you are looking at $47,287, not simply $30,000. That is what compound interest – the best kind of interest – can do for you financially.2

Across longer time periods, compound interest has a proportionately greater positive effect. Stretch the above example out to 35 years and those annual $3,000 investments at a 6% return grow to $377,421. (Keep in mind, you may be able to save and invest considerably more than $3,000 annually as you earn more money per year.)2  

Save or invest whatever you can. Setting aside a little cash for yourself is good, too. You want to build some kind of emergency fund with money you can touch; money you can get at right away if you need it quickly.

Many retirement savings vehicles offer you tax breaks. The common workplace retirement plan or IRA is tax favored: money within the account grows tax free, and it is subtracted from your paycheck before taxes. You only pay taxes on the money when it is withdrawn. In addition, many employers will partially match your contributions if you meet a certain minimum. Roth IRAs and workplace plans allow both tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals, provided Internal Revenue Service rules are followed. While you get no up-front tax break for contributing to a Roth account, you also have the potential to withdraw the money tax free for retirement, which is a great thing.3

Not using these saving and investing accounts could be a big mistake. Some people are skittish about Wall Street investments, but largely speaking, those are the kinds of investments that have the potential to return better than 5% a year (think about the scenario from a few paragraphs earlier). In fact, the S&P 500, the broad benchmark of the stock market, gained an impressive 19.42% last year.4

Parking too much money in cash and avoiding all risk can come with an opportunity cost you may not be able to afford. Sallie Krawcheck, the former president of the investment management division of Bank of America and CEO of Ellevest, estimates that a woman making $85,000 annually who puts 20% of her yearly pay into a bank account rather than an investment account could effectively forfeit more than $1 million after four decades of doing so.5

Now is the ideal time to plan to get ahead financially. Think about your future, and make the wise money moves that give you the potential to make it bright.

Kurt Rohrs may be reached at (480) 812-8640 or kurtrohrs@SWRetire.com

Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc.

3800 S. Alma School Road, Suite 123

Chandler, AZ 85248

www.SWRetire.com

Registered Representative offering securities and advisory services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a registered broker-dealer and registered  investment adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC

Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC

OSJ Branch: 4041 MacArthur Blvd. Ste. 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

This material was prepared by MarketingPro, Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – tinyurl.com/ybxskou6 [2/19/18]

2 – bankrate.com/calculators/savings/compound-savings-calculator-tool.aspx [2/22/18]

3 – fool.com/retirement/2017/05/20/taxable-vs-tax-advantaged-savings.aspx [5/20/17]

4 – ycharts.com/indicators/sandp_500_return_annual [2/22/18]

5 – money.cnn.com/2017/03/08/pf/financial-moves-sallie-krawcheck/ [3/8/17]

The post Wise Money Moves Young Women Can Make appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

It can be easier to dedicate yourself to a goal rather than a hope or a wish. That level of dedication is important, as saving and investing usually comes with a degree of personal sacrifice. When you dedicate yourself to a saving/investing goal, some positive financial “side effects” may occur.

A goal encourages you to save consistently. If you are saving and investing to reach a specific dollar figure, you likely also have a date for reaching it in mind. Pair a date with a saving or investing goal, and you have a time horizon, a self-imposed deadline, and you can start to see how you need to save or invest to try and achieve your goal, and what kind of savings or investments to put to work on your behalf.

You see the goal within a larger financial context. This big-picture perspective may help you from making frivolous purchases you might later regret or taking on a big debt that might impede your progress toward reaching your target.

You see clear steps toward your goal. Saving $1 million over a lifetime might seem daunting to the average person who has never looked at how it might be done incrementally. Once the math is in place, it might not seem so inconceivable. The intimidation of trying to reach that large number gives way to confidence – the feeling that you could realize that objective by contributing a set amount per month over a period of years.

 Those discrete steps can make the goal seem less abstract. As you save and invest, you may make good progress toward the goal and attain milestones along the way. These milestones are affirmations, reinforcing that you are on a positive path and that you are paying yourself first. 

Additionally, the earlier you define a goal, the more time you have to try and attain it. Time is certainly your friend here. Say you want to invest and build up a retirement fund of $500,000 in 30 years. If you save $500 a month for three decades through a retirement account returning 7% annually, you will have $591,839 when that 30-year period ends. If you give yourself just 20 years to try and save $500,000 with the same time frame and rate of return, you may need to make monthly contributions of about $975. (To be precise, the math says that over two decades, monthly contributions of about $975 will leave you with $501,419.)1

When you save and invest with goals in mind, you make a commitment. From that commitment, a plan or strategy emerges. In contrast, others will save a little here, invest a little there, and hope for the best – but as the saying goes, hope is not a strategy.

Kurt Rohrs may be reached at (480) 812-8640 or kurtrohrs@SWRetire.com

Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc.

3800 S. Alma School Road, Suite 123

Chandler, AZ 85248

www.SWRetire.com

  Registered Representative offering securities and advisory services through Independent Financial Group LLC,

a registered broker-dealer and registered  investment adviser. Member FINRA/SIPC

Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors, Inc. is not affiliated with Independent Financial Group LLC

OSJ Branch: 4041 MacArthur Blvd. Ste. 240, Newport Beach, CA 92660

This material was prepared by MarketingPro, Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.

1 – bankrate.com/calculators/savings/compound-savings-calculator-tool.aspx [4/26/18]

The post Set Goals as You Save & Invest appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.

Are you making charitable donations this holiday season? If so, you should know about some of the financial “fine print” involved, as the right moves could potentially bring more of a benefit to the charity and to you.

To deduct charitable donations, you must itemize them on I.R.S. Schedule A. So, you need to document each donation you make. Ideally, the charity uses a form it has on hand to provide you with proof of your contribution. If the charity does not have such a form handy (and some charities do not), then a receipt, a credit or debit card statement, a bank statement, or a cancelled check will have to suffice. The I.R.S. needs to know three things: the name of the charity, the gifted amount, and the date of your gift.[1]

From a tax planning standpoint, itemized deductions are only worthwhile when they exceed the standard income tax deduction. The 2017 standard deduction for a single filer is $6,350. If you file as a head of household, your standard deduction is $9,350. Joint filers and surviving spouses have a 2017 standard deduction of $12,700. (All these amounts rise in 2018.)[2]

Make sure your gift goes to a qualified charity with 501(c)(3) non-profit status. Also, visit CharityNavigator.org, CharityWatch.org, or GiveWell.org to evaluate a charity and learn how effectively it utilizes donations. If you are considering a large donation, ask the charity involved how it will use your gift.

If you donated money this year to a crowdsourcing campaign organized by a 501(c)(3) charity, the donation should be tax deductible. If you donated to a crowdsourcing campaign that was created by an individual or a group lacking 501(c)(3) status, the donation is not deductible.[3]

How can you make your gifts have more impact? You may find a way to do this immediately, thanks to your employer. Some companies match charitable contributions made by their employees. This opportunity is too often overlooked.

Thoughtful estate planning may also help your gifts go further. A charitable remainder trust or a contract between you and a charity could allow you to give away an asset to a 501(c)(3) organization while retaining a lifetime interest. You could also support a charity with a gift of life insurance. Or, you could simply leave cash or appreciated property to a non-profit organization as a final contribution in your will.[1]

Many charities welcome non-cash donations. In fact, donating an appreciated asset can be a tax-savvy move.

You may wish to explore a gift of highly appreciated securities. If you are in a higher income tax bracket, selling securities you have owned for more than a year can lead to capital gains taxes. Instead, you or a financial professional can write a letter of instruction to a bank or brokerage authorizing a transfer of shares to a charity. This transfer can accomplish three things: you can avoid paying the capital gains tax you would normally pay upon selling the shares, you can take a current-year tax deduction for their full fair market value, and the charity gets the full value of the shares, not their after-tax net value.[4]

You could make a charitable IRA gift. If you are wealthy and view the annual Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your traditional IRA as a bother, think about a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from your IRA. Traditional IRA owners age 70½ and older can arrange direct transfers of up to $100,000 from an IRA to a qualified charity. (Married couples have a yearly limit of $200,000.) The gift can satisfy some or all of your RMD; the amount gifted is excluded from your adjusted gross income for the year. (You can also make a qualified charity a sole beneficiary of an IRA, should you wish.)[4,5]

Do you have an unneeded life insurance policy? If you make an irrevocable gift of that policy to a qualified charity, you can get a current-year income tax deduction. If you keep paying the policy premiums, each payment becomes a deductible charitable donation. (Deduction limits can apply.) If you pay premiums for at least three years after the gift, that could reduce the size of your taxable estate. The death benefit will be out of your taxable estate in any case.[6]

Should you donate a vehicle to charity? This can be worthwhile, but you probably will not get fair market value for the donation; if that bothers you, you could always try to sell the vehicle at fair market value yourself and gift the cash. As organizations that coordinate these gifts are notorious for taking big cuts, you may want to think twice about this idea.[7]

You may also want to make cash gifts to individuals before the end of the year. In 2017, any taxpayer may gift up to $14,000 in cash to as many individuals as desired. If you have two grandkids, you can give them each up to $14,000 this year. (You can also make individual gifts through 529 education savings plans.) At this moment, every taxpayer can gift up to $5.49 million during his or her lifetime without triggering the federal estate and gift tax exemption.[8]

Be sure to give wisely, with input from a tax or financial professional, as 2017 ends.

This material was prepared by MarketingPro, Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.

Citations.
1 – tinyurl.com/y8dkleed [8/23/17]
2 – forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/10/19/irs-announces-2018-tax-brackets-standard-deduction-amounts-and-more/ [10/19/17]
3 – legalzoom.com/articles/cash-and-kickstarter-the-tax-implications-of-crowd-funding [3/17]
4 – irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-iras-distributions-withdrawals [8/17/17]
5 – pe.com/2017/11/04/its-not-that-hard-to-give-cash-or-stock-to-charity/ [11/4/17]
6 – kiplinger.com/article/taxes/T021-C032-S014-gifting-a-life-insurance-policy-to-a-charity.html [11/17]
7 – foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/18/edmunds-what-to-know-about-donating-your-car-to-charity.html [10/18/17]
8 – law.com/thelegalintelligencer/sites/thelegalintelligencer/2017/11/02/with-2018-fast-approaching-its-time-for-some-year-end-tax-planning-tips [11/2/17]

The post Year-End Charitable Gifting for 2017 appeared first on Southwestern Retirement Planning Advisors - Retirement Planning Chandler, AZ.