Taxes

• Income Tax
  Permanent life insurance such as Indexed Universal Life Insurance offers in general tax-deferred growth on the cash value. There are several methods of utilizing your policy’s cash value. Each has advantages and disadvantages and is subject to different tax consequences. Surrenders of, withdrawals from, and loans against a policy will reduce the policy’s cash surrender value and death benefit and may also affect any dividends paid on certain policies. As a general rule, surrenders and withdrawals are taxable to the extent they exceed the cost basis of the policy, while loans are not taxable when taken. Loans taken against a life insurance policy can have adverse effects if not managed properly. Policy loans and automatic premium loans, including any accrued interest, must be repaid in cash or from policy values upon policy termination or the death of the insured. Repayment of loans from policy values (other than death proceeds) can potentially trigger a significant tax liability and there may be little or no cash value remaining in the policy to pay the tax. If loans equal or exceed the cash value, the policy will terminate if additional cash payments are not made. When we use the words “tax free” we are referring to taking income tax free loans from permanent life insurance in a manner that does not trigger a lapse of the insurance policy.

Investment

• Investment Management
  Hermes Econometrics provides investment management services designed to reduce the impact of market risk on stocks/equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). read more
• Mutual Funds
  Since the inception of Hermes Econometrics, Paul Gusciora assisted Maia McGehee with technical aspects of operating Hermes Econometrics. This included computers, software, networking, databases, numerical methods, and software programming. Paul collaborated with Maia McGehee to incorporate signal processing technology and stochastic processes into a proprietary econometric model. Maia McGehee used the proprietary econometric model to help decide when to move Hermes Econometrics clients assets between stock mutual funds and money-market mutual funds. Later Maia McGehee used the same econometric model to help decide when to buy and sell individual stock issues.

Planning

• Annuities
  Hermes Econometrics is a Registered Investment Adviser based in the San Francisco Bay area. Founded in 1994, the firm specializes in the risk management of mutual funds and variable annuities.