First Financial Coach

If you are working with a financial planner, asking some of the following tax questions may assist you in locating a truly innovative person to work with. By discussing some of the following questions, you will be demonstrating that you are on top of one of the newest strategies being use to save money spent on borrowing and taxes.

First, ask your financial advisor if he knows who R. Nelson Nash was, and if so has he read Mr. Nash’s book, Infinite Banking Concept. This book was written about 25 years ago and formed the basis of creating the innovative Infinite Banking system. Hopefully your advisor has been introduced to this book.

Next, ask if he or she knows what structure is used to set up one of these “personal banks.” If they are informed, the answer will be that a special whole life insurance policy is sold by a mutual life insurance company. The policy has been altered to reduce the cost by lowering the life insurance amount offered, increasing the policy’s ability to create cash value quickly.

After that, see if your professional knows what the purpose of this system is. Again, the informed counselor will be able to tell you that the goal is to create a special place you can safely invest your money, be in control of it, and also borrow money yourself. This is where Mr. Nash came up with the term “infinite banking.” You are creating both an investing and borrowing system that benefits from your activity.

Lastly ask how the system might help with lowering your tax bill. The answer in this case is that when the policy investment returns come back to you, they can pay in dividends, which have a special status tax-wise.

So, as you can see if you ask these tax questions you may find out if you are dealing with a very well informed financial professional, or not.

For more details: www.thepersonalbanker.com

Health care expenses are rising and singles and married people will rest more comfortably knowing that medical expenses that occur throughout life will not deplete the savings account that have grown larger and larger as the years have passed by. The cost of health care insurance might seem high until someone in the family requires surgery and there is no plan in place to replace the lost income. Families will incur debts through the medical needs for children. The expenses of delivering a child alone could be disastrous for a family that had no financial planning in place to prepare for it.

A health care insurance plan with a maternity rider or clause would provide insurance compensation on a normal delivery and provide for extended hospital stays if the child is premature, which at the current market rate is close to 56,000. All of the services performed by physicians after the birth can be covered under the plan as well as all medical care received by the Mother. While these medical expenses may be high, financial planners that work in the Government health care system have supplied some relief. The Internal Revenue Service could consider every dollar paid toward medical expenses for deductions on tax returns if the amount exceeds the medical expense limits in place. Deductions for medications are included in the tax plans, and families can make other financial plans for the refunds that come from filing income taxes each year.

Every investment decision could be affected by the current tax structure and by planning the purchase of stocks and bonds, and participation in mutual funds the financial expenditures through taxes can be lessened in many ways to allow people to retain more cash year after year. Timing is critical for payments into individual retirement accounts because these monies are tax free until they are withdrawn later in life and by planning for the payment of those taxes, a person will feel that they have a solid financial plan established for when they finally retire.

There are many ways in which you can plan for your financial retirement. The first step in making the right moves is always the step that involves actually creating a plan of action that you can follow as a family. Many people focus too much on the now or too much on the later and have a great deal of difficulty when it comes to creating a happy medium for savings and investing.

Throughout our lives we will have both long and short-term goals that need to be assessed, addressed, and often revisited. Whether you need to find a way to pay for your children to attend college, home improvement projects, or a method for saving for your retirement you can find information and assistance for all these things and so much more if you seek the services of a qualified financial advisor.

A good financial advisor will help you find that balance that so many people and families lack. He or she will also help you assess your means in comparison with your long and short-term needs in order to see where your funds would experience the greatest return in order to suit your specific needs with minimal risk.

It is important to remember that going with a financial planner or advisor does not eliminate the risks that are an integral part of investing but it does help you learn to better calculate those risks.

Investing is a risky business. Learning how to weigh the odds and go for the prize is the best way to earn the biggest possible return on your investment no matter how modest your investment may be.

We are all starting from different means, isn’t it amazing to know that we could all end up with very similar abilities when all is said and done and we are living out our ‘golden years’?

Good financial planning is the key to success when it concerns your financial retirement. With so few people around the world adequately prepared to retire it is great to know that there are options and assistance that is available to help you get started on your retirement no matter how late in the game it is.

Even better is the knowledge that limits are lifted a little once you reach the age of 50 and retirement is much more eminent. This allows those who got a late start on their retirement planning or who have hit a speed bump or two along the way the opportunity to ‘catch up’ on their investing and work up to the place they need to be in order to establish a more comfortable retirement for themselves and those they love.

401 (k) plans offer some of the best retirement benefits your money can buy at the moment. They certainly allow you to make the maximum possible investment for your money. If you aren’t taking your company up on their offer to match your investment in a 401(k) then you should seriously rethink that thought. Seriously, you’re throwing away free money.

When it comes to the murky water of retirement investing it helps to have a guide to get you through. Utilizing the services of a financial planner may be the best move you’ve ever made in your life when it comes to the financial health of your family and your retirement.

Insurance Agents And Financial Planners: Do You Really Know Your Market?

If you ask a group of agents or planners what they believe their market wants, they will rattle off their opinions with conviction. But if you ask them how they know, chances are they will say they have been in the business for a number of years, and they just know. The problem is, if these agents and planners really knew their market, they would have their agencies filled to the brim with prospects waiting to fill out applications.

Knowing your market is an essential ingredient to the success of any insurance agent or financial planner. Knowing your market allows you to craft marketing messages and close sales faster and easier than anyone else in your field. Because if you really know your market, you know how to create desire for your financial products and services by addressing your clients core needs and wants and adapting them into your presentation and promotions.

So how do you find out exactly what you market wants and needs? Here are a few tips:

A very inexpensive way to find out this valuable information is to simply ask them. If your market is seniors, or you want to target seniors, call or mail your senior clients. Explain to them that you are conducting a survey and you would appreciate their assistance. Reward them for doing so.

If you don’t have any senior clients, ask your current clients for referrals to seniors. But don’t ask for the referral, if your intention is to sell them something. Tell your clients that you are conducting market research in the senior/retiree market.

A second alternative is to send out a survey to a list of seniors and reward them in some way for filling out the information. You can even insert a survey in a newspaper or newsletter that caters to seniors.

The information you glean from these surveys will not only give you valuable information on your market’s needs and wants, but you will also build a solid list of prospects.

A more expensive alternative is to test ads and find out which ones are getting the best response. For example you could test a product offering, like long-term care, but instead of marketing the product, offer free information on long-term care. Then test another ad that offers another product or service. Once you find out which and gets the best response and produces the best revenue, you can roll out your advertising on a larger scale.

Identifying what your market requires research. Otherwise you are just guessing, and guessing at what your market wants will not only waste your time, but you will waste a significant amount of advertising dollars.

Accounts Receivable Financing – The Fine Art of Happiness

Four thousand years ago, a long time before banks were invented, the concept of accounts receivable financing, or factoring, was invented somewhere in the midst of the Roman Empire. Why did this make merchants happy? Because they would be paid for their merchandise many months before payment for their merchandise was received. With this cash in hand, suppliers, employees and Imperial taxing authorities could be paid. These financing agreements were based on long term relationships and trust.

Two hundred years ago accounts receivable financing evolved in the United States of America, primarily for the textile industry, for the same reason: to accelerate growth and profitability by accelerating cash flow. Again, long term relationships and trust were the main basis for these financing arrangements because there was no effective court system to enforce international contracts for the purchase of European fabrics for American factories.

Thirty years ago the concept of accounts receivable financing, or factoring, was considered to be on the fringes of respectable financing for products or services other than textiles. It was considered radical to finance the accounts receivable of relatively high risk businesses. Since then accounts receivable financing has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. Long term relationships and trust are still very important because when you utilize accounts receivable financing you are entrusting a commercial finance company with the lifeblood of your business- your cash flow.

Let’s make some assumptions. The purpose of life is to be happy. As a business owner, you are happier if your customers pay immediately when they receive your invoice as opposed to many months later. As a business owner, you are happier if you are more profitable when you are selling more goods or services at greater profits.

Accounts receivable financing may be the enabling tool for more capacity, more flexibility, more fluidity, more efficiency, and more sales if you have to give credit terms to your customers and your internal cash flow, or bank financing will not keep up with you need for cash to grow. So you need to ask yourself, are you happy with the status quo? Do you feel like you are stuck because your capital expenditures and operational costs are too high? In the life of your business, do you feel like you are being held back from succeeding- like receiving the “Do not Pass go, do not Collect 0” card from the game, Monopoly?

Here are some questions to ask yourself regarding overcoming obstacles to your happiness and success: What is your market? Is it local, national and/or international? What are your short term and long term challenges? What is your customer base? What is your company sales and distribution strategy? What is your strategy for accelerating growth, market presence and penetration? Do you have strong gross margins with additional opportunities to drive operating efficiencies as you business scales upward? Will you realize increasing margins as a result of increasing sales? Query: could your business be expanded exponentially if you had virtually unlimited financing? Is this a reasonable goal and would this make you happy?

You need to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of accounts receivable financing versus the scalability and capability of your own company. Accounts receivable financing may be your solution to the fine art of happiness and your success as a business owner.

We all know that a perfect or optimized behind any concept can offer us with expected or desired outcome no matter it might be catering the different unavoidable conditions. The same fact goes true while making worth countable decisions about financial investments or depositing. Such highly important decisions and suggestions can be best provided by a financial planner.

This is because he is an expert who can offer an individual with sound advices after diminishing the risk factors and estimating the exact losses that might be incurred unexpectedly. He can very well perform his responsibilities to such fiscal problems associated with financial conditions and its related issues by releasing the stress of his clients and customers. The main objective behind all these planning is to provide an optimum and satisfactory solution meeting all the demands and expectations of the clients of a financial planner. These issues are planning based on education, cash flow management, planning related to an investment, retirement planning, planning of profitable insurance and also risk management factors. Planning on tax benefits, real estate investments and planning on business prosperity are some of the other notable sectors in which these financial professionals try to offer a perfect stress free solution.

Financial planning also includes the equity services that are basically based on providing optimal solution to an individual running in continuous financial crisis. For instance if an individual is in unceasing distress of problems mountings on the conditions of economy and finance but also needs to investment on an asset or need to purchase a property, then a financial planner can come into active play to sort out the discrepancies by offering relieving strategies to meet the demands and fulfill the desires of the client.

Issues related to investment when the same needs to be paid in the installment basis, even then these financial experts can offer the best advice as a part of the equity services where topics concerning loans and tax payment are covered quite comprehensibly. Benefits behind a long term investment or a short time investment can be best elaborated by these professionals to their clients. This is because these individuals are trained to deal any financial condition at ease and such experiences make them solve the issues related to economy and finance after understanding the demands and conditions of customers and clients that approaches or hires these people.

It is an internationally recognized certification which upgrades the knowledge of all aspects of personal finance. It is one of the fastest growing professions across the world. It signifies the importance of understanding the complexities of the financial products and services. It is a mark of big picture approach which is a pre-requisite for giving solution to the long-term financial problems of different individuals.
There’s a huge demand and supply mismatch in financial sector. Industry demands more than 1,50,000 CFPCM professionals while we just have a little over 700 Certified Financial Planners in India.

Some interesting facts about CFPCM:

1) In countries like USA & Australia a person cant sell financial instruments like insurance, Mutual funds without having a CFPCM certification.

2) CFPCM is the only qualification which covers all aspects of personal finance.

3) FPBS, India is the only board which conducts CFPCM exams round the year.

4) By clearing any module of CFPCM curriculum candidate gets AFP ( Associate Financial Planner ) certification.

Advantages:-

1) It provides a cutting edge over other financial professionals.

2) It makes one a part of global financial arena.

3) It provides a rewarding career by developing analytical and comprehensive approach in the financial sector.

4) It is recognized in over 23 countries across the globe offering global transferability.

5) It enhances the skill of delivering financial services to the clients.

In countries like USA & Australia a person cant sell financial instruments like insurance, Mutual funds without having a CFPCM certification.
CFPCM is the only qualification which covers all aspects of personal finance.
FPBS, India is the only board which conducts CFPCM exams round the year.
By clearing any module of CFPCM curriculum candidate gets AFP ( Associate Financial Planner ) certification.
Course-offering structure of IIFM:
Regular Classroom Program:

It is a weekend batch of 3 hrs. each on Saturday and Sunday. The session is designed to cover the course based on case-studies. This helps in developing analytical approach towards different aspects of finance.
It is for every eligible student who is atleast 10th pass and for professionals from both financial and non-financial fields.

Advantages:

1) It facilitates regular interaction with the faculty and classmates.

2) Periodical revision and doubt clearing sessions help in better understanding of the course.

3) It develops a sense of competitiveness among students to enhance the productivity and enforces diligent efforts from their side.

Good financial planning is a necessary requirement for the smooth functioning of an organization. A profit making organization always endeavours to keep its functions running smooth without any problem. The problems created by the shortage and the mismanagement of the finances are the ones which most commonly affect its functioning and can even lead it to its bankruptcy. There have been many instances where big multi-national conglomerates have gone bankrupt due to their imprudent financial decisions. It is not that these were not having the best of financial planners or managers but due to over-ambitious and greedy nature. It is for this very reason that stress is laid on the ethics in the Certified Financial Planner course.

Ethics is one of the 4 Es of this financial planning certification, which is recognized world over for creating financial planners with demonstrate ability to manage the finances in the crucial financial sectors. The other three Es which are stressed in the Certified Financial Planner course are: Education, Experience and Examination. Education refers to obtaining a theoretical and practical knowledge of financial planning at the university level. That college or university shall be registered with the CFPBS. Experience refers to the work experience that an aspirant must have. The course requires one to have the experience of a minimum of three years in a capacity which directly related to some kind of financial planning. It is even better to have an engagement which is substantive and in-depth with that financial role.

Examination refers to the requirement of passing a 2 day, 10hour exam in financial planning. The topics covered in the exam are:

1. General Principles of Financial Planning
2. Insurance Planning and Risk Management
3. Employee benefits planning
4. Investment planning
5. Income tax planning
6. Retirement planning
7. Estate planning

The Ethics are also held to be quite sacrosanct to this course and it is not just for the purpose of obtaining the financial planning certification that these shall be duly considered but also for the purpose of maintaining ethical conduct throughout the practice of this profession. At the final leg of the certification process, the candidate must pass an ethics review and agree to abide by the standards outlined by the Board. Throughout the practice, the Certified Financial Planner is required to strictly adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility developed by the Board.

Ethics become vitally important, over and above the knowledge of finance, at all levels of working of Certified Financial Planner in an organization. These pertain essentially to act with utmost integrity without letting the greed take over you. It also pertains to offering financial services that are objective and based on the needs of the clients. This means that the client shall be shown the right way all times and shall never be misled to take such decisions or actions which can bring him disrepute. If the planner is found to have engaged in an unethical act, then suitable action can be taken against him by the Board.

When you choose a financial planner to manage your funds, you are actually putting a lot of faith in the individual’s capability for fund management. Since you are almost entrusting a third person with a substantial portion of the money that you have saved up for yourself and your family, the decision demands proper research into the qualifications and background of the financial planner that you select. To ensure that you have made the right choice of financial planner that you can trust, make sure that the financial planner that you choose has the following: – Compliance with RG146/PS146 : These are the regulatory guidelines that have been detailed by the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission). The financial planner or the financial planning company that you chose should be fully compliant with these guidelines. – Member of FPA or AFA : Being a member of either of these two organizational bodies ensures that the financial planner not only follows the legal rules of the system but also adheres to the ethical code of conducts and professional conduct that has been dictated by these institutes. – Ask for a referral : A financial planner who has provided good sound advice will not shy away from referring his clients to you so that you can check with them about how happy they were with the services provided. – CFP professional : If you are really looking for the top notch financial planner for yourself and your family, you may need to check if your shortlisted financial planner has CFP certification. This certification is the epitome of qualifications and signifies global understanding and accomplishments in the finance market.

To become a financial planner, you first must know what their job profile is. Financial planners help in determining the financial resources required to meet the company’s operating program.  They also help in forecasting the extent to which these requirements will be met by the internal generation of funds, and the extent to which they will be met from external sources. It’s the job of financial planners to develop the best plans to obtain the required external funds. They also help in establishing and maintaining a system of financial control governing the allocation and use of funds. Financial planners formulate programs to provide the most effective cost-volume-profit relationship. It’s the job of financial planners to analyze the financial results of operations, report the facts to the top management and make recommendations on future operations of the firm.

To do all these functions efficiently, financial planners first need to establish the financial objectives of the enterprise. Both long-term and short-term objectives should be established for the effective utilization of the financial resources. Then comes the next step of formulating policies. Policies are broad guidelines. Financial policies relate to procurement, administration and distribution of business funds. The next step financial planners have to do is to formulate procedures. Procedures are the specific order of doing things. They are formed for ensuring consistency of actions. In financial procedures, the financial executives decide about the control system, develop standards of performance and evaluate the performance. Lastly, they have to forecast the future. In order to take proper action to achieve the objectives established, it is necessary to know the future positions. This is facilitated by forecasting the future.

While doing these activities, financial planners must take into perspective the cost of finance and nature of business. In any assessment of the financial needs of the firm, the cost of finance is the basic criterion. This is so because only projects with net positive cash flow can be selected.

Financial planners can provide valuable assistance when you need help making smart decisions for your future.  They can offer advice in areas from choosing the right types of insurance to cover all of your needs sufficiently, to basic household budgets, to what kinds of mortgages and home loans are best.  When you need someone to help you run your family’s financial affairs, you may consider hiring a financial planner.  Putting someone in charge of your family’s financial future is a decision that should be made with careful consideration.  You need to hire someone who has your best interests in mind and someone who you can trust and feel comfortable with.  You should talk with several financial planners and find the one that is the right fit for your financial needs.  In order to determine who is the best financial adviser for you there are several questions you should ask based on recommendations from The Australian Investments and Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

1. How long have you been a financial planner and/or what experience do you have? Listen for an answer that details lots of history.  You want to know that your  potential financial planner is experienced in areas of personal finance dealing with individuals verses businesses or corporations.  Experience in other banking industries, while helpful, is not the same as having direct financial planning experience.

2. What are your qualifications? You can ask them if they are a  Certified Financial Planner (CFP).  If so you can check them out through the agency that offers the certification.  Many professionals in the financial world claim to be financial planners but have little or no expertise in this field.  Also, find out if they are a member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia, an agency that governs ethics in the financial planning industry.

3. Ask them a question to get them talking. For example you might want to ask them what their ideal client is like or to describe a particular service to you.  You want to hear answers that make you feel comfortable.  Do they describe a client similar to you?  Are they talking in terms that you can understand?  Are they trying to relate to you and make you feel comfortable?

4. What services do you offer? Some financial advisers only offer certain services based on credentials, licenses, and experience.  Ask to see their approved products and services list so you know if what they are experienced in is in the areas of financial planning that you need assistance with.  Not all financial planners offer advice in the area of mortgages and home loans, so be sure you find someone who does if this is an area you will need assistance in.

5. Will you be the one working with me? You do not want to hire a financial planner that you feel you can trust and will work well with you, only to find out that your account will be handled by someone else in the office.  Be sure you are familiar and comfortable with other staff in the office and get to know anyone who could possibly be working with you if you were to hire this planner.

6. How are you compensated and/or how much do you charge? It is not being nosy or pushy to want to know how your potential financial planner gets paid.  If they make their commissions directly from you paying them, they are more likely to look out for your best interests.  If they are paid by an outside agency based on products or services sold, be leery.

7. Can I have it in writing? Your financial planner should be willing to give you a written agreement of all of the services and fees you have agreed upon.  There should be no hidden costs or extras that you are unaware of.