Wilson Investment Consultants specializes in Comprehensive Private Wealth Management, which includes:
Management Principal
Preservation Assured
Income minimize
taxes Social
Security
Annuities LIFE
INSURANCE
WEALTH ACCUMULATION
Continue to grow your money to preserve your purchasing power and your standard of living.
Wealth Accumulation
A financial plan can be broken down into three essential phases: accumulation, protection, and distribution. The first phase, accumulation, involves the years before retirement and the transition into retirement. This is a period in which you will accumulate the bulk of your funds for retirement, as you will still have earning power.
Within the accumulation phase of retirement planning, time plays a significant role and in a few different ways.
Time Span
The earlier you can begin to save and allocate funds into strong financial vehicles, the greater your retirement nest egg will be. This is especially true with cash value products like fixed indexed annuities and universal life insurance policies. Your time horizon for retirement will depend on your desired retirement lifestyle and how long your accumulated wealth will last.
Timing
When and how you transition your accumulated wealth into a retirement resource is absolutely critical. This is tied to the nature of your retirement accounts and the rules surrounding when and how they can be used. Structuring your portfolio is key as you move toward retirement. A properly coordinated and sequenced portfolio will ensure that you get the most benefit out of your retirement accounts.
Although the accumulation process can seem like a linear process—you save, gather wealth, and then retire happy—it is not always simple. Life events can interrupt the process. Depending on when you begin to save for retirement you may face events or needs that put more pressure on you financially, things like buying a house, having a child, financing a college education, or an emergency.
This means the accumulation of retirement resources is a dynamic and creative process, requiring diligence and expertise.
At Wilson Investment, we can guide you through all steps of the process to ensure that you retire with a robust and sustaining portfolio.
PRINCIPAL PRESERVATION
Protect your assets from devastating and irreversible mistakes and losses.
Asset Protection
Having experienced extreme market volatility over the last few years, asset protection is at the forefront for many individuals planning for their retirement. Asset protection serves as a corrective to ongoing market sensitivity and ensures that you get the most of your accumulated wealth, especially when you are going to need it most—during retirement.
Modern asset protection requires more than asset allocation. It involves careful structuring and sequencing of assets to avoid loss of principal and boost growth. A properly balanced retirement portfolio may include employer-sponsored retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s or IRAs, as well as cash accumulation vehicles like fixed indexed annuities and universal life insurance. In a retirement portfolio such as this, asset protection depends on a great understanding of how these accounts hold their funds and how they are treated by tax rules.
More importantly, every consumer is unique with different retirement goals and asset mixes. This means that protecting your growing retirement nest egg depends on expert care to shepherd your assets to the finish line. Not only can Wilson Investment help develop your financial plan, we can help guide your retirement resources as they grow and ensure that you get the most out of them.
Financial planning is generally not a set-it and forget-it activity. It requires evaluation and reassessing. Reviewing your programs, accounts, and funds regularly is at the core of asset protection. Let Wilson Investment be your key partner in achieving your retirement goals and protecting what you have spent your life earning.
ASSURED INCOME STREAM
Cash flow is the King of retirement. Without an assured strong income stream your retirement will be compromised. Wilson Investment Consultants makes sure you don’t outlive your money.
One of the key challenges retirees face is outliving their money. Due to longer life expectances, individuals need to plan for the income to last longer. There are a few approaches to anticipating this problem.
- Save as much as you can, and hope it lasts
- Work in retirement once you exhaust your funds
- Secure a regular stream of income
If you knew exactly how long you will live, the first approach might work, provided you had enough time to accumulate the wealth to meet your needs.
The second approach is not ideal for most individuals. Generally speaking, most people who return to the workforce in retirement want to do so for the sake of pursuing a hobby or a passion, not out of necessity. If you are forced to work in retirement, your quality of life—after so many years of working—can be dramatically reduced.
With regards to the third approach, it is possible to secure a regular, consistent stream of income, thanks to a feature available on many financial products call a lifetime income benefit rider. The specifics of this feature will vary based on the contract you select, but these can secure a source of income that cannot be outlived, often on tax-advantaged asset-gathering solutions you may want to consider in the years before retirement.
In the case of something like a fixed indexed annuity—which offers principal protection, a guaranteed rate of return, and tax-advantaged growth—the addition of a lifetime income benefit rider can provide you peace of mind throughout all phases of the financial planning process.
If you are ready to explore solutions to secure a stream of income that cannot be outlived, contact Wilson Investment for a complimentary consultation at 918-610-7771.
MINIMIZE TAXES
Proper estate planning allows you to receive wealth and pass on your wealth during your lifetime and at death in the most tax advantaged way. As the experts say, the score at halftime doesn’t matter, only the score at the end of the game counts! Do not give 50% of your hard-earned money to the IRS if you don’t have to.
Broadly speaking, estate planning is the process of structuring your assets to provide maximum efficiency when transferring to heirs at minimum expense and effort. Without a properly shaped estate plan, your financial wishes may not be fulfilled, and your beneficiaries could be needlessly burdened—both emotionally and financially.
Although the basics of estate planning are sometimes as simple as designating beneficiaries in wills and on policy forms, the actual mechanics of transferring wealth to the next generation can be quite difficult and complicated.
Why is Estate Planning Important?
With federal estate taxes set on the excess of $11.70 million in 2021, it may seem that estate planning is only a concern for the wealthiest of the wealthy. While most estates won’t be subject to this current estate tax rate, individuals still need to think about the impact of taxation on their assets issued to beneficiaries. This is because received assets will generally be subject to ordinary income tax, which can whittle significant amounts away from the accumulated value of an estate.
Certainly, different asset types will be taxed differently, but someone’s life wealth can be reduced—in some cases by nearly half—through ordinary income taxes. This gets more complicated when the asset is not monetary, but rather physical, such as property, land, or houses. For many individuals that work hard their entire lives to leave wealth to their heirs, this prospect can be unsettling.
Thankfully, many strategies can minimize the tax burden heirs may face. This can involve things like annuities, trusts, and life insurance policies, structured to ensure that beneficiaries receive the maximum possible. To properly establish an estate plan that works in concert with your specific retirement plan, assets, and legacy goals, you should seek out a financial professional that provides an expert hand.
Every estate plan is unique and should be designed to reflect the needs and goals of the individual or couple. At Wilson Investment, we assist and support you in this process. Don’t put off estate planning until it’s too late. Contact us today at 918-610-7771.
ANNUITIES
Before we begin to discuss what annuities are and how they work, let us first describe the four main challenges all retirees face. They are:
- Inflation
- Market Volatility
- Taxation
- Longer Life Expediencies
Due to inflation, your retirement assets’ real value may not be sufficient to secure a robust source of retirement income. Because of this, many consumers seek out growth opportunities. The drawback is that many vehicles for growth are directly exposed to market forces. Young earners may be able to weather a rocky stock market. However, for those nearing retirement, losing capital means also losing time, as in you have less time to make up your losses.
Because people are generally living longer, their retirement assets have to stretch further. And taxation—that is both the tax treatment of an asset as it accumulates and the unknown tax environment it faces upon distribution—can be concerning, if you are seeking to retain as much retirement income as possible.
An Annuity is a financial product that can accumulate value on a tax-deferred basis. For individuals seeking a way to safely grow assets or convert existing assets into a stream of income, annuities may be a viable solution.
Addressing the Four Main Retirement Challenges
By gathering value in a tax-deferred manner, many annuity contracts allow for more growth before facing a tax liability. This helps to hedge against inflation and diminish the impact taxes have on your assets. Because many annuities have guaranteed rates of return and do not directly participate in the stock market, they are less susceptible to market volatility. And with a Lifetime Income Benefit Rider, it is possible to secure income that you cannot outlive.
Annuity Structure
There are two basic phases to annuities: an accumulation phase and a distribution phase. In the first, premium payments gather cash value at a pre-determined rate. The accumulated value is then issued as benefits during the distribution phase, which is triggered by an event such as retirement. How long benefit payments last depends on the type of contract purchased, the total accumulated value, monthly benefit amount, and different features available.
Types of Annuities
While there are numerous versions of annuities, there are a few basic categories.
- Fixed (FA)
- Fixed Indexed (FIA)
- Single Premium Immediate (SPIA)
- Deferred Income Annuities (DIA)
- Variable (VA)
Fixed Annuity
A Fixed Annuity, sometimes referred to as a Traditional Fixed Annuity, provides a guaranteed interest rate as well as an initial interest rate. The actual interest rate may vary over the life of annuity but will not fall below the guaranteed minimum interest rate (GMIR). No matter stock market performance or the overall interest rate environment, the policy will continue to grow at the declared rate. There are Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities (MYGA) that provide a particular interest rate over longer periods of time.
Fixed Indexed Annuity
A Fixed Indexed Annuity, sometimes referred to as an Equity-Indexed Annuity, gathers interest based on the performance of a specific stock market index, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Standard & Poors 500. Some FIAs include a guaranteed rate of return or floor, securing a base return. While a Fixed Indexed Annuity is tied to the performance of a stock index, it does not directly participate in the markets. Additionally, FIAs are protected against negative index movements. Within FIAs, there will be many interest rates capturing and crediting methods to choose from.
Single Premium Immediate Annuity
Unlike Fixed or Fixed Indexed annuities, which provide tax-deferred growth, Single Premium Immediate Annuities do not have an accumulation or deferral period. Rather, as the name indicates, they are purchased with a lump sum of money. Benefits are then triggered within a year of purchase. The payment amounts you receive from a SPIA will depend on the lump sum used to purchase the contract, your life expectancy, and your gender, and other factors.
Deferred Income Annuity
A Deferred Income Annuity combines elements of Deferred Fixed Annuities and Single Premium Immediate Annuities. Like SPIAs, Deferred Income Annuities are purchased with a lump sum. However, benefits can be delayed for a set period of time, allowing the contract value to grow, increasing the benefit payment amounts upon triggering distribution. In addition, it may be possible to contribute over the initial purchase amount, which can increase benefit payouts. Because DIAs typically have a Lifetime Income Rider built into the product, they are sometimes referred to as “longevity insurance” or a “longevity annuity.”
Variable Annuity
A Variable Annuity shares many features with fixed and fixed indexed annuities. However, they are directly exposed to the stock market through underlying securities of the contract. The carrier guarantees a minimum payment, but the rate of return will vary based on the performance of the underlying securities. Superbia does not provide variable product services; rather we focus directly on fixed products with guaranteed returns.
Lifetime Income Rider
A Lifetime Income Benefit Rider is an optional feature available on some annuities the provide a stream of income that cannot be outlived. Generally, a lifetime income benefit rider will require additional fees on the contract.
The information on this page is a high-level overview of annuities and their applications. To determine whether an annuity is appropriate for your situation, you should consult with a knowledgeable financial professional.
LIFE INSURANCE
Why Do You Need Life Insurance?
The simplest answer we can offer to the question above is this: security and/or protection. A life insurance policy provides your household financial coverage in the event of your deal and can also be an effective way to transfer wealth to the next generation.
However, life insurance coverage has many benefits that go beyond a death benefit. Cash value insurance can provide an accessible source of income during life. With the addition of a long-term care or chronic illness rider, you can receive benefits from your policy should you face a debilitating condition. And a life insurance policy has a number of tax benefits attractive to many individuals, such as tax-free cash value tax-free exchanges, and generally no income tax for beneficiaries.
What Type of Coverage Is Right For You?
Your life insurance coverage should match your specific needs and objectives. Determining this can be difficult, which is why a financial professional is so helpful in evaluating your options.
Many different types of policies exist; however, life insurance can be split into two basic categories:
Term Life Insurance
Term Life Insurance provides temporary protection for the term of the policy. This type of coverage typically comes with a low initial premium, which remains level for the specified duration of the policy (e.g. 10, 20, or 30 years). Most term life policies can be renewed (usually at a recalculated premium) or converted into permanent coverage if the policyholder outlives the duration of the term. These plans are well-suited to meet shorter-term, temporary needs, but do not build any cash value.
Cash Value Life Insurance (Permanent)
Cash Value Life Insurance policies carry higher premiums than term policies but provide lifetime protection and pay death benefits as long as the policy is kept in force. They can be used as investment opportunities as they accumulate cash value that can be drawn upon during the lifetime of the policy holder. These types of plans can be set up to include either fixed or flexible premiums, guaranteed or interest rate-based cash values, and level or increasing death benefits.
Kiho Sohn and Superbia Financial & Insurance Services will work with you to identify which type of coverage best matches your goals and design an individualized policy that will help meet them.
With You Every Step of the Way
We don’t need to tell you that life never sits still. As your life changes, so should your life insurance policy. Superbia Financial & Insurance Services will be there by your side to make sure your policy remains updated and viable as we go through the journey of life together.
Have you recently experienced a life change? If so, your policy may need an adjustment. Here are just a few reasons to speak with us about your current policy.
- Major family changes (marriage, divorce, new child or grandchild)
- Purchased a new home or recently (within 6 months) refinanced home mortgage
- Change in health for you or your spouse
- Providing personal or financial care for an adult family member (parent, grandparent, etc.)
- Providing assistance or long-term care for child or grandchild
- Opened a new business or expanded upon an existing business
- You or your spouse received an inheritance or another large sum of money
If you have experienced these or any other major life changes, call or email to schedule an appointment.
