By Mason Salisbury

Every state has its own set of “Exemption” statues. In them you will find perhaps the only unassailable creditor protection available and it can be extensive. Not planning retirement savings, home ownership, and life insurance purchases around your state’s exemptions is foolish indeed. I am a South Carolina attorney and this article is about South Carolina “Exemptions” only. What dollar amount of home equity, 401(k)s, IRAs, life insurance, annuities, cars, jewelry, tools of your trade, and household furnishings are safe from creditors no matter what.

By Lawrence B. Keller, CFP®

As I now enter my twentieth year in the financial services business, I can say that the more things change, the more they stay the same and disability insurance is no different. This article will discuss where the disability industry has been, where the industry is going and serve as a primer to help you find the policy to best suit your individual needs in today’s marketplace.

By Andrew Schwartz, CPA

HSA's save you taxes in many different ways, including tax- deductible contributions, tax-deferrend growth, and tax-free withdrawals. As the cost of healthcare continues to skyrocket, taking advantage of the various tax breaks offered by HSAs is one way to make your family's medical costs a little more affordable.

By Lee Adelson, LUTCF, CLTC

This article briefly and simply discusses the main concerns of Long Term Care, understanding what is covered, how policies work, and how to decide what company is right for you. It also discusses how to design a plan that is right for your particular needs.

By Lawrence B. Keller, CFP®

Female physicians often find themselves paying too much for their disability insurance as they are not aware that often times unisex premium rates are available, which can reduce their costs by 35-60%.

By Michael Lewellen

By Christopher R. Jarvis, MBA, David B. Mandell, JD, MBA, Jason O'Dell

Like many successful people, you are likely so busy dealing with your professional and personal life that you never take the time to deal with the important challenge of creating a tax-wise estate plan for your family. In fact, in our practice, we have found that fewer than 5% of clients who come to see us have a proper estate plan in place when they walk in the door for the first time.

In this article, we will examine three of the most significant mistakes business owners and physicians make when creating (or ignoring) their family's estate plan. We'll also cover simple tools that the doctor can use to help avoid such mistakes and allow one's family to elude the unnecessary costs which come with poor planning.

By Christopher R. Jarvis, MBA, David B. Mandell, JD, MBA

According to the US Census Bureau, the average American family earns less than $49,000. That translates to an income tax liability of less than 12%. 98% of American families will NEVER be worth more than $2,000,000 and owe an estate tax. Lastly, the average American is an employee, not an employer, and doesn’t have the government determine how much income they receive for their work. As a result, most people will never be sued because of work-related activities and don’t have to worry about their income dropping substantially each year. Therefore, there is no need for most people to address protection from lawsuits or to take advantage of every possible tax benefit when times are good. Does the situation above sound like your life? Of course it doesn’t.

By Carole C. Foos, CPA, David B. Mandell, JD, MBA, Jason O'Dell

As a physician, do you realize that – between income, capital gains, Medicare, self-employment and other taxes, you spend 40 to 50% of your working hours laboring for the IRS and your state? That is a lot of time with patients for someone else’s benefit. Given the significance of this fact, shouldn’t your advisors be giving you creative ways to legally reduce your tax liabilities? How many tax-reducing ideas does your CPA regularly provide you? If you are like most physicians, you probably get very few tax planning ideas from your advisors.

Given these sobering facts, the purpose of this article is to show you five ways to potentially save and possibly motivate you to investigate these planning concepts now, before the end of the year. Let’s examine them now:

By David B. Mandell, JD, MBA, Jason O'Dell

As an attorney and consultant to thousands of physicians across the country, we are constantly astounded by the attitudes of physicians regarding the sale of their medical practice. Most often today, we hear the complaint that doctors do not feel they can sell their practice for any significant value. They generally do not feel the practice is “worth anything,” especially if they do not have younger partners to buy them out.

Even in medical practices that are larger, and have a significant number of younger physicians, most doctors maintain the same complaint. While they may typically have a right to a few of months of payments from accounts receivable (AR) after they retire, this is a pittance compared to the value they have brought to the practice over the years. We would agree with them in this assessment -- a few months of AR certainly does not compensate a physician for 20+ years of building a practice and its reputation.