We want you to provide the best products you can to your clients. That is why we have specialists available no matter what type of situation you may run across.

Below are the APS tips for becoming a top Advanced Planning Advisor

• Don’t try to do everything yourself. When it comes to advanced planning it’s impossible to know everything about every advanced technique.
• Don’t let your client go without advanced solutions— team up with a specialist.
• Don’t wait to expose your client to advanced concepts. You’ll lose your client to a competitor.
• Cultivate relationships with other advisors in different categories, such as attorneys, CPAs and casualty agents.
• Products alone are not solutions, but a product combined with legal document and a constructive use of the tax code often is a solution.

Increasingly, corporations are using executive benefit programs to attract, reward and retain key executives.

Plans can be constructed to address the specific needs of the executive and employer as well as provide tax favored tailored solutions to the executive’s particular needs. We provide customized retirement plans with input and feasibility studies conducted by the industry’s leading actuaries. We analyze the various qualified planning options and identify the most efficient plan specific to the client’s needs. Defined and Executive Benefit Plans may include: 401(k), 403(b), ESOP, 412(i), Deferred Compensation, Split Dollar and Business-Continuation plans.

A Section 79 plan is group term insurance with permanent benefits. Used appropriately, this plan can result in the corporation taking a deduction for contributions to the plan and the owner/employee is simply required to make an adjustment to his W-2 for the plan year. Term insurance is typically purchased for the employee pool. Whole life insurance is typically used to fund the plan for participants that elect permanent benefits.

Every employer’s needs differ and no one plan type can meet the needs of all situations in today’s financial environment. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you find the right solution for your client. Call 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com.

Currently there are two major trends in the life insurance industry: 1) lower credit interest rates on cash value policies and 2) lower guaranteed term insurance rates. These trends are significantly affecting the performance and competitive position of existing life insurance policies. In addition, these trends are influencing the way people determine the type of policy that best meets their insurance needs. Knowing the type of policy and how well it is priced or performing may provide new insight into whether a particular policy is still needed, and, if so, whether it meets the needs of the policyholder, suits their current circumstances, and can be disbursed to survivors properly.

If a policy was purchased to fulfill a specific need, such as survivor income protection, the policyholder should determine whether that need still exists or has been replaced by other needs. For example, has the need to provide for one’s spouse and children lessoned, only to be replaced by a need for insurance for retirement or estate planning? If coverage is still needed, adequacy of the death benefit should also be examined.

Irrevocable life insurance trusts are a cornerstone of sophisticated estate planning and wealth management, but trust-owned life insurance (“TOLI”) is hard for trustees to manage. Surveys have shown most trustees have not established TOLI risk management procedures. Most do not conduct regular policy reviews even though 40% of in-force TOLI policies require active premium adequacy and policy value management. 25% of those will lapse before or within five years of the insured’s life expectancy. A life insurance trust is a special purpose trust and TOLI is a concentrated investment. A trustee’s basic fiduciary duty is to maximize the probability of a favorable outcome to the trust estate.

It is vital to conduct regular life insurance policy reviews. Life insurance policies are complex financial instruments and all possible options should be discussed with the insured. These may include; keeping current policies in force, replacing some or all of the policies that are not performing, or selling the policy in the secondary market where the sale price may benefit the client more than cashing them in or replacing them.

Have a policy you would like help in reviewing? Please contact us at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com to see how we can help ensure your client’s have the right policy to fit their needs.

Premium financing is an alternative method of paying life insurance premiums. The idea behind premium financing is that a wealthy client has a present need for life insurance protection. Moreover, the client also has sound financial reasons not to liquidate high performing investments.

Premium financing may offer high-net-worth individuals the ability to borrow the premiums to pay for an insurance policy, allowing them the use of funds they might have otherwise used to pay for the insurance. Premium financing makes most sense when the individual has a definite need for insurance. The goal of a well-structured premium financing program is to have the individual pay as little out-of-pocket as possible for life insurance, balanced against the risk that the interest rate of the loan will exceed the performance of the policy. Premium loans can be repaid in three different ways: 1) during life, from the borrower's available assets, 2) during life, from policy cash values, and 3) at death, from policy proceeds.

Premium financing enables individuals with a high net worth to purchase life insurance without depleting other assets or changing their normal cash flow. They are able to protect net worth, continue business development, and pass their financial legacy to future generations without altering other financial objectives.

We only use carrier approved premium financing programs that assist as a planning tool in the advanced estate and business planning marketplace. Well designed and properly administered premium finance programs can meet the personal, financial and estate planning needs of qualified insured’s.

Want to learn more about premium financing? Contact us today at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com.

One of the biggest surprises wealthy individuals often encounter is learning that their qualified plan assets are potentially going to be taxed at the highest tax rates applicable; approximately 74%. This 74% is a composite between IRD taxes, income taxes on assets of a deceased person that have never been subject to income taxes, plus estate taxes. That’s right—qualified plan assets are subject to both income tax and estate tax and as a result heirs often realize only 25% of the asset value. There are many strategies available to avoid this; including using the assets for retirement income, using a stretch IRA format, and taking annual distributions to use in the purchase of life insurance.

When the assets are not needed for retirement purposes, then we can use a qualified plan transfer to provide assets to the next generation far in excess of what can be achieved within the plan. One option is for the client to take a distribution from the plan and have them gift the net amount to a trust, leaving a reserve to pay the income taxes. When the money is in the trust, you can borrow an amount equal to the taxes owed and make the client entirely whole again.

Another strategy for a participant in a qualified plan to minimize the impact of taxes is to use the pretax assets to purchase life insurance. The insurance policy can be purchased by an ILIT (irrevocable life insurance trust) at a significantly discounted value and eventually be transferred to the client’s heirs. If wealth transfer is not the main goal of the client then the life insurance policy may be distributed or purchased by the client and sold for a premium or retained for the death benefits.

To learn more about pension maximization, contact us at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com.

A Captive is an insurance company that is formed by a parent company to underwrite the insurance needs of the parent’s other subsidiaries. Captives are attractive for clients with businesses with substantial insurance risks and consistent excess positive cash flow in excess of $500,000 per year. Typically, captives are established to fill gaps in insurance coverage where the conventional insurance market either cannot provide coverage, or where the cost is considered economically prohibitive. Captive insurance arrangements have boomed in the last five years, with 90% of all S&P 500 companies having captives. Vermont captives alone took in over 11 billion in premiums in 2006.

Captives combine income and estate tax efficiency in a legal and fully-transparent fashion. Captives may invest in life insurance such as; Key Man, Split-Dollar, Buy-Sell and Employee Benefit Plans. You may exit a captive by liquidating it and paying long term capital gains or cease writing insurance and make an S election. Many advisors are only now becoming aware of the concept of the captive insurance company and introducing it to their clients. In addition to serving as an insurance function, captives can also legitimately serve an intergenerational wealth transfer function and be an integral part of advanced estate planning. We assist advisors in evaluating the financial and life insurance products that support the captive solution. To learn more about this option, please contact us at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com.

Seniors are the fastest growing age group in America. They are more active than ever before with an increased average life expectancy. Seniors hold 1.8 trillion in home equity and trillions more in other real estate. Accessing this equity can assist seniors with estate planning needs and provide funds for travel, debt reduction, home improvement, long-term care insurance or additional investments. We provide 3 unique solutions to helping senior clients use their equity in planning.

Traditional Financing: A mortgage can create cash for income needs and estate planning. Homeowners will need income to qualify and have available cash to service the debt. A reverse mortgage can also provide cash for income needs and planning, but creates an accelerating debt and requires the homeowner to live in the home full time.

Equity Key: This solution will provide debt free cash to the homeowner (age 65+) in exchange for a percentage of the future appreciation of the property. The homeowner’s current equity remains theirs. The money distributed is not a debt. EquityKey accepts the risk of the real estate depreciating in value. Equitykey shares in 50% of any appreciation over the initial appraised value of the property.

Life Equity Plus: Real estate can be split in two parts, a life estate and a remainder interest. A life estate is an estate planning tool which allows a homeowner to live in their home, but effectively removes the entire personal residence from the estate at the time of death. The purchaser of the remainder interest pays the purchase price to the homeowner today and receives ownership of the entire property at the time the life estate owner dies. This solution is ideal for people who enjoy living in their current homes and do not wish to eventually move into a retirement home. They have high equity, but may lack cash flow and do not wish to add debt to their property.

Interested in learning more about using equity in financial planning? Contact us at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email info@apshome.com.

People over age 65 represent the fastest growing segment in our industry today. They can also face the most challenges when trying to get approved for coverage. Most major diseases become more prevalent with increasing age and in the past underwriting professionals were more conservative when underwriting this age group. However, due to new methods of testing and streamlined underwriting, we are currently seeing better offers made than ever before.

We have a staff of in house underwriters who have over 100 years of combined underwriting experience in the life insurance industry. This team together has helped our company redefine its medical underwriting process and has given Advanced Planning Services a marketing advantage by providing a level of expertise that most companies don’t have. The knowledge base and personal relationships we have with carriers help ensure the best obtainable offer is made on any given case.

Have an underwriting question? Please contact us at 619-220-8116 ext. 118 or email underwriting@apshome.com.