PERSONAL Planning
PROTECT AND MAXIMIZE THE IMPACT OF YOUR WEALTH
You may know some people who seem to turn everything they touch into gold, while others may spend a lifetime working diligently with little to show for their efforts. You may see your destination, but the steps for getting there are often less obvious. At Scott Jones Financial, we believe that successfully reaching your personal financial goals requires a studied view of your financial landscape, integrated advice, and a customized plan that manages not only the opportunities, but also the risks you may encounter.
Using our Business of Life™ planning process, as well as our numerous tactical processes, we integrate your personal financial goals by utilizing business assets and cash flow to provide you with the desired lifestyle at a point in the future.
HOW WE CAN BENEFIT YOU
IMPROVE YOUR LIFESTYLE
We explore income enhancement and expense reduction strategies which may improve your lifestyle and create discretionary income.
MINIMIZE TAXES
We help identify ways to minimize taxes which may free up cash for spending and investments.
REDUCE STRESS
We help organize your financial information which may help reduce uncertainty and stress.
PRIORITIZE YOUR GOALS
We help to define and prioritize your financial goals to articulate your expectations.
STAY FOCUSED
We develop, plan, implement and review recommendations to help you stay focused on reaching your goals.
STRATEGY
We help you strategically utilize business assets and cash flow to provide you with your desired lifestyle.
PROTECT WHAT MATTERS
We design risk management strategies to help you protect the people and things that matter to you.
WEALTH TRANSFER
We work with you and your advisory team to review your estate plan and recommend how you may want to direct the transfer of wealth on your terms.
ACCUMULATING WEALTH FOR RETIREMENT
Reaching the Retirement Summit with the ARC Process™
Like mountain climbing, retirement planning begins with the goal of reaching the summit. The key to achieving that goal is planning and preparation. Our unique ARC Process™ (“Achieving Retirement Clarity”) lays out a clear path for accumulating assets for retirement and covers three important checkpoints:
- Cashflow Management—directs how resources are earned, spent and saved.
- Wealth Accumulation—assesses your current financial position and identifies the most efficient path for reaching your goals for retirement as well as other needs such as children’s education.
- Income Protection—helps safeguard your path from obstacles that can prevent your financial goals from becoming reality.
Watch our video to learn how you can achieve clarity and peace of mind while building your retirement fund.
MANAGING WEALTH IN RETIREMENT
Reaching the Summit and Returning Safely with the RISK Process™
While climbing to the top of a mountain is considered to be a major achievement, the real goal of climbing is not simply to reach the top, but to reach the top and return safely. Most business owners focus on accumulating enough assets for retirement. However, the biggest risks facing retirees occur during the income distribution phase when we retire and begin to live on our retirement savings.
Our unique RISK Process™ (“Retirement Income Survival Kit”) simplifies the complexity of postretirement planning and guides you through our effective, time tested approach which:
- Transitions your retirement savings from traditional asset allocation to income allocation.
- Determines your sustainable withdrawal rate throughout retirement.
- Addresses the key risk factors you face in retirement including: market conditions, sequence of returns, inflation, liquidity, longevity, taxation, health, and legacy risks.
Watch our video to learn how the RISK Process can help you safely navigate the income risks and opportunities in retirement.
MANAGING RISK
A Versatile Multi-Purpose Planning Tool
Two important aspects of financial planning involve managing risk and transferring wealth to the next generation. In many instances, the tax advantages of life insurance make it a preferred vehicle for purposes such as:
- Providing income replacement for your family and business
- Passing family and business wealth to future generations
- Providing supplemental tax-free income for retirement
- Funding business strategies such as buy-sell agreements and deferred compensation programs
- Charitable giving
Making The Most Of Your Insurance Portfolio
Few people are aware that the life, disability and long term care insurance policies they purchased as recently as five years ago might be unnecessarily costly or lacking critical new benefits due to the availability of a new generation of insurance products. That’s why it’s important to regularly review all of your personal and business insurance coverages.
With years of experience reviewing thousands of complex insurance arrangements, Scott Jones Financial has the expertise and proprietary analytical tools to evaluate your policy and the strength of the insurance company that is guaranteeing the policy.
A CLOSER LOOK
AT OUR INSURANCE PLANNING SYSTEM
Whether you are evaluating existing coverage or seeking new insurance, Scott Jones Financial uses a four-point system process called Life Assurance 360™ to make certain that your policy fits your current needs and continues to serve its intended purpose for the duration of the policy. The steps below reflect the professional evaluation process you can expect when working with us.
1. LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY EVALUATION
This step involves a due diligence review of:
1. The company’s financial strength. We consider over 30 quantitative and qualitative metrics gathered from numerous sources; then assess this objective data in light of the economic environment, accounting practices and regulatory issues to develop a comprehensive financial picture of the carrier. Next we rank the company according to its claims paying ability, overall competence and financial performance, and repeat this process quarterly as new financial data is released.
2. The company’s past practices, especially its demonstrated commitment to policy holders in the form of guarantees
3. The company’s product portfolio in regard to its suitability for sophisticated planning needs in custom financial, business, and estate plans.
2. PLAN DESIGN
This step involves an examination of the product and plan structure to ensure they are suited to the client’s intended purpose. In the process, we examine the five elements that will have the greatest impact on the overall design of the plan.
1. Safety—the degree of protection provided by the death benefit and the equity in the policy.
2. Flexibility—the ability to modify the plan as needs and circumstances change.
3. Equity—the ability to accumulate accessible cash value in the policy.
4. Certainty—the degree of certainty that policy design parameters will perform as expected, including an examination of the product’s potential performance in a variety of circumstances using stress tests.
5. Competitiveness—The product’s relative price and quality competitiveness with other similar products in the marketplace.
3. UNDERWRITING ADVOCACY
The life insurance application process can produce many unintended results if it is not managed proactively and with the proper level of expertise. We have found that the key to avoiding unwanted surprises in this critical step is to have knowledgeable professionals advocating at the insurance company level on your client’s behalf.
Using our knowledge of how insurance company underwriters, medical directors and actuaries make decisions, we leverage our insight to confidentially represent, clarify and coordinate the details of the client’s application throughout each phase of the underwriting process.
By proactively addressing negative information, we position your client’s information in a positive light to the insurance company and remove as many surprises as possible to obtain favorable underwriting offers that can effectively lower the cost of insurance.
4. ONGOING POLICY MANAGEMENT
Without proper maintenance, even the soundest structures are prone to failure. That’s why we believe that the final element in crafting a sustainable insurance plan is ongoing maintenance.
In addition to continuous monitoring of the client’s policy, annual reviews should convey critical information required for the upkeep of the plan, including:
– Comparing the policy’s current performance with the most recent design specifications to determine if any recalibration is required in regard to death benefit, premiums or asset allocation of sub-accounts.
– Summarizing and reporting policy activity since the last policy review.
– Updates on the insurance company’s financial strength.
– Updates on new or beneficial policy features available.
LIFE SETTLEMENTS
Situations may arise when you no longer need or want your life insurance policy, generally due to:
- Changes in your planning needs (e.g., retirement income needs, changes in estate taxes, business changes, etc.) and/or;
- Changes in the policy structure (e.g., carrier-imposed premium increases, reduced duration of coverage, and other policy performance problems)
When these situations occur, we work with you and your advisors by first analyzing the existing policy and examining the potential for a life settlement. Based on our findings and your objectives, we provide detailed analyses and recommendations of various options that may include:
- Allow the policy to lapse
- Surrender the policy for cash value
- Restructure the policy
- Exchange for a new life policy or an annuity
- Pursue a life settlement when a higher net value seems likely
CASE STUDIES
REASONS FOR SETTLING POLICIES
ARE YOU A LIFE SETTLEMENT CANDIDATE?
LIFE SETTLEMENTS BROCHURE
Learn more about Life Settlement Advocacy including what is a life settlement, how the process works and when you should consider a life settlement
In a life settlement agreement, the current life insurance policy owner transfers the ownership and beneficiary designations to a third party, who receives the death proceeds at the passing of the insured. As a result, the buyer has a financial interest in the seller’s death. When an individual decides to sell their policy, he or she must provide complete access to his or her medical history, and other personal information, that may affect his or her life expectancy. This information is requested during the initial application for a life settlement. After the completion of the sale, there may be an ongoing obligation to disclose similar and additional information at a later date. A life settlement may affect the seller’s eligibility for certain public assistance programs, such as Medicaid, and there may be tax consequences. Individuals should discuss the taxation of the proceeds received with their tax advisor. ValMark Securities, Inc. supervises all life settlements as a security transaction. ValMark Securities, Inc. and its registered representatives act as brokers on the transaction and may receive a fee from the purchaser.
LEGACY PLANNING
In addition to providing for the orderly transfer of your business, our integrated approach to personal wealth transfer involves determining and documenting what you want to have happen to all of your personal assets and possessions at your death. The process can feel overwhelming and oftentimes people do not know where to start. We use our Business of Life™ planning process to help reduce stress during the planning process with the goal of achieving peace of mind and family harmony.
During the planning process, we help you first focus on the big picture of what you want to see happen with your assets, family and charities when you are gone. From there, we work with you and your other advisors to develop a game plan of action items that will ensure your most important wishes are realized. This includes mapping out where your assets would flow upon death and to whom they will go. We also look at the tax consequences of your wealth transfer and develop recommendations to help you optimize and preserve the amount of money being transferred.
More Than Money
We believe that legacy planning is not just about protecting your financial assets but also about preserving family relationships. With that in mind, our planning process is designed to help you address your family’s personal concerns such as:
- How do I optimize my plan without giving up control of my assets?
- How can we get all of our family members on the same page so that there is less conflict?
- How can I take complex planning techniques and make them understandable for me and my family?
- Are my children’s assets protected from divorce, creditors, etc.?
CHARITABLE PLANNING
Moving up The Planning Pyramid
After you have made provisions for your personal and business needs throughout your lifetime, you may decide to move to the pinnacle of the planning pyramid which is social capital legacy.
Gifts to charitable causes or organizations need not come at the expense of your own financial needs or providing for your family and business. With the right kind of planning and expertise, you can usually redirect assets otherwise earmarked for taxes to causes and organizations that will achieve the kind of social impact you hope to make.
This is taking involuntary philanthropy and transforming it into voluntary philanthropy. Your redirected tax liabilities, along with additional wealth not required by you or your family, make up what we refer to as your “excess” wealth. Most people don’t know they have it, but they often do. If you knew you did, might you do some things differently? Live more? Give more? Let Scott Jones Financial show you how.
Customer Relationship Summary (CRS)
