Taxes

• Tax Planning
  Tax rules can be difficult to navigate on your own. This is particularly true when they are in a state of flux due to changing politics and economic conditions. Blakeslee & Blakeslee’s tax planning services help you consider the tax consequences of your investments. While paying taxes is inevitable, there are ways to reduce your tax burden and end the year with more financial assets.
• Estate Taxes
• Tax Deductions
  Donating an old life insurance policy to your favorite charity can be a win-win proposition. In general, the full transfer of an existing life insurance policy to a qualified charity entitles its donor to a charitable income tax deduction. The amount of the deduction will be the lower of (i) the fair market value of the policy or (ii) the aggregate premiums paid into the policy by the donor. The fair market value or cash value would be reduced by any loans that are outstanding. In cases where the cash value is actually larger than the total premiums paid for the policy, the deductible contribution would be limited to the aggregate premiums. It’s important when gifting life insurance policies to a charity that you give up all incidents of ownership in the policy. Any continuing rights in the policy are likely to be treated as a so-called “partial interest,” resulting in the loss of both income tax and gift tax deductions. This means, for example, you can’t donate the cash value and still retain the right to name the beneficiary. If you plan on continuing to make the premium payments on a donated life insurance policy, you should donate the money directly to the charity and let them make the premium payments. If you send a premium directly to the insurance company, you won’t get a charitable deduction for that premium. Donating a fully paid-up policy that has long outlived its usefulness to you can be an easy way to be benevolent without noticeably decreasing your resources. The charity can either cash it out or keep it and collect its face value when you die.
• Income Tax
  As people tax plan, they often pull out prior tax returns to use as a guide. It’s not uncommon to occasionally discover an error or an overlooked deduction. Taxpayers don’t usually jump at the chance to amend a prior year’s tax return if it means they’ll owe the IRS money. Instead, most sit tight, hope the error isn’t noticed, and wait for the statute of limitations to expire. However, people’s attitudes rapidly change when they find an error in their favor, have a net operating loss carryback, or a neglected deduction that would give them a refund. You can amend your last three income tax returns. Form 1040X needs to state the reason why the amended return is being filed. You need to use facts and figures that clearly show the changes between items shown on the original return and the amended return. Treat items in the same manner on your amended return as on your original return. You can’t switch from a joint return to married filing separate, for instance, nor can you change accounting methods from cash to accrual, for example. If you are divorced and are amending an old joint return because of a net operating loss that you want to carry back, you can do so, and you would receive the tax refund. People sometimes worry that if they file an amended tax return, it will call them to the attention of the IRS. It won’t, nor will it extend the three-year statute of limitations regarding the amount of time the IRS has to audit a return unless, of course, you have filed a fraudulent return.

Investment

• Investment Management
  The best investment planning services account for your individual goals and circumstances. A strategic investment plan can help you grow your wealth, responsibly manage your resources, and save for the life you want to live.
• Mutual Funds
  How do you get children interested in the stock market and instill a lifelong appreciation for the need to save and invest? The earlier you start interesting children in investing and saving, the better their prospects for a financially independent future. One way is to buy shares of specific stocks that kids recognize. Unfortunately, online brokers that charge minimal commissions usually require a minimum purchase of $1,000. Even through discount brokers, commissions on purchasing just one or two shares can be expensive. Rather than purchase individual company shares, you may find it’s cheaper to invest in a mutual fund that holds some of the above companies in its portfolio. There are a few that allow an opening investment of just $100. With a mutual fund, it’s easy for the child to make additional investments with cash gifts from birthdays or special achievements. You and your child will need to first decide on the companies and then compare your options based on convenience and cost-effectiveness. Regardless of whether you or your children are actually buying the stock or mutual fund, purchases for minors under the age of 18 must be made through a custodial account. An adult, usually one of the parents, is registered on the account as custodian for the child. That parent controls the account. The account bears the child’s social security number, not the custodial parent’s.
• Bonds
• Wealth Management
  At Blakeslee & Blakeslee, we believe financial planning and wealth management is for everyone who wants to plan for a secure future. Our clients come from all walks of life—from small business owners and busy working families to soon-to-be and recent retirees. Through our personalized service, we help each client understand and reach for their unique financial goals.

Accounting

• Accounting Services

Planning

• Financial Planning
  Diane provided daily financial planning tips on her nationally syndicated radio show, Dollars & Sense, which ran for over two decades. Below are some entries from her archives.
• Retirement Planning
  Ideally, retirement planning starts when you earn your very first paycheck. However, we understand that this is not the reality for most of our clients. According to
• Annuities
  Blakeslee & Blakeslee, Inc., conducts business primarily in mutual funds, annuities, and 529 college savings plans. Our firm does not engage in trading of individual equities and does not perform any type of clearing function for itself or others.  Transactions are sent to investment or insurance companies directly via “application way” and any further transactions are performed via phone call or form to those companies.  These entities execute, clear, and settle our orders.  Our firm services primarily retail customers and we do not engage in private placements..
• Long Term Care
  Roughly four out of ten people age 65 or older will need at least some long-term care, either at home, in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home. The majority of people who live into their eighties or even nineties do so in relatively good health. For those that aren’t that fortunate, care can be expensive. Traditionally, care for an elderly relative has been given in the home by unpaid members of the family. With fewer family members available to stay at home and provide this needed care, demand is growing for professional help. Professional help is expensive. Lifetime care costs for an Alzheimer’s patient can easily be as much as $175,000. Be aware that Medicare and Medigap policies cover only a portion of long-term care costs up to 100 days of skilled nursing care and only if the need follows a hospital stay. Although one third of the nation’s long-term care costs are born by the individual from his or her savings and income, one out of three families who care for a seriously ill family member completely deplete their savings. One way of preserving some of the family’s assets is to buy a life insurance policy that pays out a long term care benefit each month until the face value is exhausted. Another solution is to purchase a long-term care insurance policy. These vary in cost, coverage and benefits. It’s important to discuss your options and the need for a long-term care policy with your financial planner before you arbitrarily “sign-up”.
• Living Trusts
  It used to be there were only three generations in a family, the grandparents, the adult children and the grandchildren. Now folks are living longer and we’re seeing fourth and fifth generation families. The financial impact of the demographic change from three to five generation family units has caused the family to focus on financial issues that cross generations. Aging parents who used to only live a few years after retiring are now living 15, 20, 30 years or more. When these retirees run out of money, it’s their children who will be called upon to supplement their parent’s income and potentially face the high costs of long-term care. It’s important to have heart-to-heart talks within the family about finances. Adult children always knew they’d need to set aside money for educating their own children. When it comes to caring for their aging parents, they may not know what they’ll be facing. To relieve some of the financial pressure on working couples, or avoid having ones’ parents dependent on Medicare, it may be advisable to purchase long-term care insurance for parents. It’s also important to have a hear-to-heart talk about estate planning. Business succession, gifting, Living Trusts, charitable donations, a Durable Power of Attorney, or Living Will are all things that need to be discussed now in anticipation of a time when such discussions may become uncomfortable or impossible. Schedule a family conference with an estate planning attorney and financial planner to help in facilitating these discussions. Please, don’t procrastinate!
• College Funding
  Risen steadily over the last decade, making education planning more crucial than ever. However, financial planning for college doesn’t have to be complicated if you have the right financial advisor in your corner. Blakeslee & Blakeslee provides education planning services in San Luis Obispo, CA, Paso Robles, CA, and across the Central Coast.
• Reverse Mortgages
  If you’re house rich and income poor you may be considering a reverse mortgage. Just beware of the pitfalls. Nationwide many people have taken advantage of a technique that lets them pull equity out of their homes. It is called a reverse mortgage. Unlike a regular mortgage where you make monthly payments to a bank or mortgage company and each year more and more of those payments go towards reducing your loan principle and less and less goes to pay interest, a reverse mortgage pays you. With a reverse mortgage each monthly payment made to you is a loan. The interest on that loan compounds. Not only that, most of these loans are loaded with extra costs. Unfortunately there’s a lack of regulation in this relatively new industry. This makes it easy for lenders to take advantage of elderly homeowners. Usually the specifics of these reverse mortgages are in the fine print. It’s not uncommon to find loan origination fees of several thousand dollars, loan discount fees, a processing fee and mortgage insurance fees. These plus a shared equity can all become part of an expensive reverse mortgage package. Reverse mortgages attract older folks who find their Social Security checks no long provide them with enough income. They have made the common mistake of thinking financial security at retirement means a house that’s free and clear. A better choice, if they had had extra dollars when they were working, would have been to salt those extra dollars away into a side fund. That side fund would be there to supplement their retirement checks and they wouldn’t need to be considering reverse mortgages.