Obama and the estate tax

Take a look at this post in the WSJ.

Qutoed from the WSJ

"President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders plan to move soon to block the estate tax from disappearing in 2010, suggesting the levy might outlive the "Death Tax Repeal" movement that has tried mightily to kill it.

The Democratic stance on the estate tax contrasts with Mr. Obama's reluctance to press forward with his campaign pledge to raise income-tax rates on top earners, which he worries could have an adverse economic impact during a recession.

But Democrats are determined to act quickly to prevent the estate tax's scheduled repeal. Elimination of the levy on big inheritances was approved by Congress under President George W. Bush in 2001, with rollbacks phased in slowly and its full elimination slated to take effect next year.
The Senate Finance Committee will move within weeks on legislation to reverse that law, and Mr. Obama is expected to detail his estate-tax preservation proposal in his budget next month, congressional tax writers said.

Under the Obama plan detailed during the campaign, the estate tax would be locked in permanently at the rate and exemption levels that took effect this year. That would exempt estates of $3.5 million -- $7 million for couples -- from any taxation. The value of estates above that would be taxed at 45%. If the tax were returned to Clinton-era levels, it would exclude $1 million from taxation with the rest taxed at 55%.

In making their case for the restoration, Democrats contend that such a large additional tax break for the rich shouldn't go into force halfway through Mr. Obama's proposed economic-recovery package. They argue that the deficit is already in record territory, while their plan wouldn't have any impact on the economy since it would merely keep the estate-tax rate at its current level. Mr. Obama and his party also say that the affluent already have benefited handsomely from the Bush tax cuts."

I would not be suprised if we saw the 1MM threshold put back into place. The government needs money, badly..

For more on the exemptions, exclusions and more information on the estate tax head on over to http://centerforplannedgiving.org/

Guaranteed Universal Life Challenges!

Gee whiz...




Working as an Aspen insurance broker doing high level advanced estate planning utilizing guaranteed universal life insurance in Aspen Colorado sure can get complicated!




I recently worked on a fairly large replacement policy for an out of town client that is substantially cheaper than the original policy by reducing the death benefit in addition to better health ratings. The initial insurance co that shall remain nameless has stated to me that they will not allow the insured to surrender their policy to less than 65% of the current face value. Zoinks I said, that was not in the original contract, nor was it ever represented as such to either the client or myself, "well that is company policy", policy my behind! If it is not in the illustration you can not force the insured to abide by it, a contract is a contract.






The new coverage is thousands per year cheaper and the investor needs far less coverage than previously because of significant market declines in the estate.




Said insurance company got a heavy duty earful from me and my team and the matter has been escalated then satisfied and now all will be safe for democracy in the land of skiing, fishing and snow sports, Aspen CO!



Have a great one. I will advise and check out The Center for Planned Giving also look for another article in the Aspen Times shortly.

BIG Powder at Snowmass!

Great Day to be alive.

18 inches of fresh powder really revitalized the waning ski season here. I managed to ski Snowmass with out of town clients most of yesterday and really showed them a good time.

Garrets gulch, Powerline, and a host of other runs were spectacular.

Today back to focusing on helping others with financial guarantees. The market is really tough despite the recent bounce, with huge dividend cuts the fixed income set is suffering greatly. Hoping for a rebound in banking and a couple of other sectors, but news continues to be grim..

Question, do you think that advisory or fee only advice is going out the window with this market. Who wants to pay 1% to loose 40%??? People say annuities are expensive. Not really compared to 40%!!

Call me if you want a guarantee on your money.

Stay safe, be well, diversify and do not pay an IAR 1.5% to watch your money go away.

Published in the Aspen Times

I am kind of proud of my article that was printed recently in the Aspen Times on Feb 24th at http://tiny.cc/d1Eso check it out. I think that it is pretty great. Also you could check out my press release at http://tiny.cc/sM7lT

Things are going well with several large cases pending. Also selling a lot of annuities... A 7% compound interest guarantee seems like a lay down in this market.

Hope things are good with you.

Skiing is going away at a rapid clip, trying to do a hut trip this year but may or may not pan out.

Fishing season is upon us! I will keep you posted.

Sleds to the moon

Hey dear readers,

Have you ever watched anyone flip not once but twice a 450 pound machine? At the X games I was amazed and thrilled to watch these young whippersnappers do all manner of flips with snowmobiles sometimes even landing with no hands!!

Amazing. If you can ever see it live it has a much more guttural feel to it than watching on TV.

http://searchaspenrealestate.com

Commercial Lending Blues

It is too bad that commercial loans are very hard to get now. I am hearing of 6 to 8 month turn times and if you dont show enough income to personally qualify (even if the income off of the business is great) you may have a very hard time getting a loan, especially if you need $ 30MM.

However, I am still having sucess with very well qualified buyers on the commercial front but gee whiz it is hurry up and wait then wait some more, oh and wait some more. Hopefully it will loosen up shortly however I dont have a whole lot of hope as stated in previous posts banks are just using TARP funds for CY-ing their A. Mostly.

All for now, check my commericial lending site at http://commercialmortagebrokerage.com

It may have some interesting stuff on it to keep you busy thinking about.

Banking system problems

The following quote from Bridgewater Associates succinctly puts the current problems that we are having in focus.

"The root problem is that debts that were incurred to finance assets at high price levels remain in place at their original amounts even though the assets that they financed are now worth far less. Debt that was incurred to finance extrapolated high incomes remains in place at its original amount even though incomes are now much lower. And, debts that were incurred to finance loans remain in place at their original values even though the loans that were made cannot be repaid. Until the debts are brought in line with the assets and the income, there is no moving forward no matter how much liquidity is provided or how eloquent the speech. And, until this happens, the self-reinforcing nature of the debt squeeze will only reduce incomes and asset values further.

"There is no easy way out of a debt restructuring. Someone will have to bear the cost of prior bad decisions. The people who should bear the cost are those who made the bad decisions to make the loans or those who financed the people who made the loans. They intended to profit and would have profited if they were right. But they were wrong, so they should lose. The government needs to allow the losers to lose and focus their actions on minimizing the knock-on effects of their failure on people who didn't do anything wrong (to minimize systemic risk). They should then take action to minimize the future exposure of the innocent to the future dumb decisions of the small minority, because no amount of regulation will ever eliminate dumb decisions, so you have to plan for them (through much lower bank leverage limits to cushion losses, bank size limits and non-bank entities playing bank-like roles to improve diversification, safety nets to prevent losers from poisoning the whole system, etc.)."

I really do like the part about there being no regulation possible that will eliminate dumb decisions. The government needs to be very careful to not overstep and cause more problems than the market has created already.

Banks shoring up their balance sheet with TARP 1,2,3,4 will continue to act in their own best interest which includes NOT LOANING money. Regulators are all over them, and they need to save their money as a hedge for future defaults. How to fix it, I do not know for sure, however as my first post alludes to and explains, the free money party went on for a long time and there is going to be a whale of a hangover for those that drank the most at the liquidity fountain of the FED's creating.