Wall Street Journal reports trend changing Financial Advisors

A Wall Street Journal article reports that " Fully 90% of investors with over $1 Million or more in investable assets plan to take money away from their current financial advisor and 70% plan to leave their (current) advisor altogether." The Wall Street Journal October 2, 2008

This makes sense now even more than it did in October since we have continued to see market drops almost daily. Why would anyone stay with a financial advisor who has contributed to your loss of as much as 30-40% or even 50% of your financial portfolio? There is a better way! Have you suffered enough to justify a one hour investment of your time in order to find out?

Some people have said why move assets now? The answer is the same answer I have been giving to my clients and potential clients since early September. Any assets that you reposition now are protected from future market turbulence. You still get to participate in any market rally. You have the possibility of double digit gains of as much as 20% or more depending on what product we select for your needs. Some products even offer a bonus of from 5-15% to help ease the sting of the market beating you have suffered. For people consumer with fear take control of your future. We can set up a program to dollar cost average by committing some cash now and more later.

None of the client savings assets that I manage have lost a dollar due to market risk in two down market cycles since 2001. That is an achievement I am proud of. Can you say that about your current financial advisor or banker? Even a bank CD today is suffering a loss due to inflation risk! My average client over age 40 has seen a gain in their income account value of 6-7.2% in the last 12 months. My average new clients have seen a total return of 11-12.2% in the past year. I choose, to only offer my clients Safer Money Financial Alternatives that can provide most or all of the following benefits.
1. Protection of principal from market risk.
2. Minimum performance guarantees protecting you in market downturns.
3. Upside earning potential in good years.
4. Long term earning growth that outpaces inflation.
5. The possibility to create a lifetime income stream you or you and your spouse cannot outlive.
6. Limited penalty free liquidity provisions may apply
7. Some products offer client bonuses of from 5-15%
8. The ability to sleep well at night because you are protected from market turbulence.

These products are not right for every client. There are minimum dollar contributions needed to participate. These products have a long term focus. Surrender charges may apply if you withdraw more than the penalty free amounts in any given year before the Surrender period expires.

We offer a free initial consultation. There are a range of helpful products and services available.
All products are offered by licensed professionals. Does this sound good to you? How can we help you better weather the financial storms??

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Indexed annuities beat Bank Cd and S&P 500 indexed fund

A recent study completed by the advantage Compendium was quoted as reporting that over a 5 year period the performance of a fixed Indexed Annuity tied to the S&P 500 outperformed bank CD's and S&P 500 index funds. The five year study found that indexed annuities overall increased by 5.4% per year over the 5 year time period. This beat inflation and resulted in a real growth of asset value in the study period. The Bank CD rates averaged 2.78% per year over the 5 year period. The comparison was based on sequential one year CD's. A 5 year CD would have improved on the Bank CD yield but would not have doubled the effective yield. So even compared to a five year CD the indexed annuity out performed the CD. According to Bankrate.com website the most recent national average one year CD rate is 3.48% and the most recent 5 year rate is 3.88 or a 0.4% difference in annual yield.
The study went on and pointed out that the 5 year performance of an S&P indexed fund with a 0.15% management expense ratio performed at a rate of 5.05%. The study data actually was generated before the most recent market turbulence. What would the data look like if we went back 5 years from todays date?

Why might a smart client want to consider a Fixed Indexed Annuity for some portion of their Safe Money Assets? Several key reasons come to mind Inflation beating performance. Market Risk Free financial growth. Tax deferred growth.

How can we help you?

Current Hot Interest Rate Deals

Periodically we update clients and readers on great current interest rate deals. These are guaranteed rates for the term listed and are subject to change. Contact us for details or to determine minimum amounts required and determine suitability to meet your needs. These rates apply for both qualified and non qualified money sources.
10 year 6.5%
7 year 6.0%
5 year 5.7%
3 year 4.8%

Now lets compare these rates to those listed at bankrate.com Please remember that although FDIC Insurance protects you principal it does not guarantee the earning rates if the bank gets into financial difficulty. This little know fact was reported in an article in the Columbus Dispatch earlier this fall. The first set of interest rates are approximately 50 % higher than the rates listed below which are the bank rate national averages listed today on the bankrate.com website

5 year non qualified money 3.88%
5 year qualified money 3.67%
1 year non qualified money 3.48%
1 year qualified money 3.12%
The first set of interest rates are approximately 50 % higher than the bank rate national averages listed today on the bankrate.com website. Why would anyone want to earn a 50% lower rate of return than they can earn.

How can we help you prepare for your financial future?

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Current Top Interest Rates Available

Best Interest Rates Available For Savers

Here are the national bank CD rates from the bankrate.com website

1 year 3.49% non qualified money

1 year 3.22% IRA CD rates

5 year 3.87% non qualified money

5 year 3.68% IRA CD rates These rates are not very attractive. Would you like the opportunity to earn a greater rate of return and do it safely?

Periodically I like to report on high interests rates available for savers. I do this to keep you aware of viable and safe options.

Multi year interest rates best deals this week

3 year fixed rates 4.37%

5 year fixed rates 5.46%

7 year fixed rates 6.1%

10 year fixed rates 6.36%

All of these financial products offer you protection of principal and guaranteed interest rate.

Rate change weekly and minimum initial $ amounts apply. Unlike bank CD rates it does not matter whether you commit tax qualified or not tax qualified funds. These products may not be available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Contact us to find out if they are suitable for you in your particular situation.

The second set of interest rates look more interesting to us. What about you?

How can we help you achieve your financial goals and objectives.

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Current rate guarantees

Periodically I provide updates on current high interest rate available on products offering protection of principal and multi-year interest rate guarantees.
$15,000 + 5 year fixed term guarantee rate 5.65%
$100,000+ 5 year fixed term guarantee rate 5.75%
$100,000+ 10 year fixed term guarantee rate 6.11%

Other products for clients over 40 years of age saving for retirement offer 6% or even 7.2% increase in Income Account Value when used for creation of lifetime income.

Products may not be available in all states or may not be suitable for every saver. The only way to determine if they are suitable for you is to contact us. These rates are subject to change until funding is completed. How can we help you plan for your financial future?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Why Tolerate Low Current Yields

In Jan 2009 Social security payments are increasing by 5.8 % Remember that this is linked to partially compensate for the general inflation rate. It is not designed to increase the spending power of SS recipients. This means that the inflation rate is actually higher. When we look at the government Consumer Price Index data there are several possible numbers for the past
12 months they range from about 4.5-7.6%. Lets take a mid point at something like 6%

Now lets consider some current Yields on Traditional safe money Financial products
6 Month Treasury Bills Currently paying 1.44 %
30 year Treasury Bonds Currently paying 3.96%
10 year Treasury Bonds Currently paying 3.66%

This weeks Average Bank Cd yields
6 Month Bank CD---------Currently paying 2.17%
1 Year Bank CD ----------Currently paying 2.70%
5 Year Bank CD ----------Currently paying 3.46%

Investment in any one of these products means that you have less buying power than when you started at the beginning of the year.Even with the highest yield you will still have 2% less purchasing power after you hold the product for one year.

John Waggoner wites for USA Today . His article titled "Whats so great about Bonds? They Are not Stocks" appeared in todays paper. It is a nice overview of Bonds and how they work and why the are different from Stocks. He quotes numbers from Morningstar about this years performance averages. Short Term Bond Funds have lost 3.5%,Intermendiate Term bond Funds have lost 6.4%, and Long term Bond funds have lost 12.3% this year. Junk Bond are down an average of 22.8%.All of these numbers are quoted from Johns article. he also makes a point that when stocks do poorly bonds often do better.

The Ideal Safe Money Financial Alternative products Must do two things. They must protect your principal from risk and also has to have the chance to beat inflation!! Do any of the products listed in this article do both? There are other thing the Ideal Safer Money Financial Alternatives should do as well. They should have a minimum guaranteed rate of return. They should be able to participate in strong economic growth cycles. They should help insure potential lifetime income streams that you can not outlive.

Smart Retirement Options

There was an article in the Columbus Dispatch yesterday about managing your retirement assets. It was titled "Panic Is A Mistake In A Bear Market" The author is Mark Miller. He recommends sitting tight through a bear market. Although panic is not a good thing taking steps now rather than waiting may be a smarter strategy to implenment to insure your financial future. He identifies a problem made by many people with their retirement assets. He says that many people were overly aggressive in their asset allocation with some having 80% or more of their retirement assets invested in stocks. and not enough invested in financial products offering more safety. He shares some general wisdom when he says people should reduce their holdings in stock as they age and approach or enter retirement. He basically only talks about two alternatives Stocks and bonds. Stocks offer tremendous upside potential as well as awful downside risk, Bonds generally have less upside and may counteract modest market declines, Treasuries offer modest rates of returns and when they run out of money they go and print more, Banks offer miserly low rates of returns that may not beat inflation and offer no upside potential.

This is where I strongly disagree with his philosophy. He ignores Safer Money Alternatives. He does not say he dislikes them but he just does not even bother to mention them. Maybe he does not understand them and what they can do for any individual. I believe there is a logical place in every portfolio for Safer Money Alternatives. Young savers might start with 25-30% and increase the percentage as they age reaching 50% in their 50's, 60% or more in their 60's and as much as 70-80 % later. You need to always keep some liquid assets for future needs.

Safer Money Alternatives: How do they work and what do they do? They must offer protection of your principal. They need to provide some measure of income guarantee. They need to allow for upside potential to capitalize on improvements in the market conditions. You must have the possibility of growing your purchasing power after correcting for inflation. Some of these products pay you a bonus of 5% or 10% when you purchase them. All of the money you commit immediately goes to work earning interest and growing for you. Some of these products even allow you to create a Lifetime Income Stream that you cannot outlive. There are financial products that can do all of these things in the same product. If your current financial advisor has not told you about them are they really looking out for your best interests or retirement assets? Perhaps its time to talk to an advisor who will look out for your financial interests.

Back to the article. He asks what if you sell the stocks and invest in Bonds. You only have a 5% chance that your assets will last 30 years in retirement. That is the result of relative safety but low rates of returns. He Says if you keep the stocks in the portfolio only withdraw 4% or maybe less of your portfolio value per year your chance of having your assets last 30 years increase to 89%. Thats pretty good. Now look at the numbers if a portfolio is worth $100,000 you get $4,000 per year maybe for life and maybe not. Is there a better way? I think there is! I can help you sleep better at night and improve your cash flow in retirement, in the process. Lets take a 60 year old retiring at 61. Give me the same $100,000 to manage. At age 61 they can have an income stream of not $4,000 per year like the stock and bond balanced plan, but an increase in annual income of $1,200 dollars more, for a total of $5,200 per year for the rest of their life Guaranteed! Which sounds better to you? $4,000 per year maybe for life, or $5,200
per year for life! what if you retire at age 65? The great news is it only gets better with age!
Retiring at age 65 increases the annual income to $5,720 per year. Want more income give me more assets to manage or give me more time to grow your assets. For example at age 55 give me $100,000 to manage and retire at 65 you will have at least $200,000 in Income Account Value guaranteed and you will be able to take over $11,000 per year in income guaranteed for your life!!

Does This sound interesting?

How can we help you?

Contact us
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
or visit our website
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Positive Economic News For A Change

The Associated Press wrote a news article today titled "Leading Indicators Rise For First Time in 5 Months" Unfortunately this was September data not October data but it is still good news. Deliveries and orders rose by a very modest 0.3% but an increase is still an increase. This shows the economy is trying to grow!! Lets compare that to July with a 0.7 drop and August with a 0.9% drop. However we will still be down between 3-4% for the year.

AP out of DC also had some serious economic news and it wasn't as positive as that from the NY report. They found that only 15 % of those surveyed believe the economy is moving in the right direction compared to the 28% who felt that way just a month ago. With all the Economic turmoil less than 60% are happy with what is happening in their own lives. Everyone from all levels of society are concerned with the economic developments. 1/2 are concerned about their mortgage and credit cards, 1/3 are concerned about keeping their jobs and 70% are concerned about their investments falling and the impact on things like their retirement, medical bills and college costs.

In spite of all the bad news or maybe because of it you need to take positive steps to minimize the impact on you! Protect yourself from any further drops in value. No this does not mean putting everything under your mattress. You need to look at products that do the following things. Protect your principal at all costs, Get guaranteed growth from at least some of your assets currently its possible for a 40year old to get a minimum of 6-7.2% per year increase in Income Account Value, Maintain the upside potential of making more when the economy starts to recover, Make sure you have a chance of beating inflation with your assets so you don't loose buying power over the long term.

We can help you achieve all of these things in you financial arena! Does that sound interesting?
How can we Help you? Get in touch with us or send an email.

website www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
e-mail polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Americans Need Help Preparing For Retirement

Americans are loosing confidence in their readiness for retirement. We are not talking about a small drop we are talking about a major shift. Almost half of Americans surveyed are less confident in their ability to retire tody than they were one year ago. News reports tell us why. Markets down 30-40%, 401K Plans assets have lost well over 20 % and now approaching 30%. Less than 15% were more confident than they were one year ago. I have to wonder what planet that 15% are living on!! Only 12% of the study participants say that saving for retirement is a major priority right now. Why is this number so low. It must be related to the following number that 57% of respondents are "Struggling Just To Get By." Almost 60% want the government to get off their fannies and fully fund Social Security.

Another interesting point that they made is that more than 25% want their 401K Plans to offer them the option of providing investment choices that guarantee lifetime income. Traditional 401K Plans do not offer this option. traditional brokerages do not generally recommend this option. Employees in companies with 401 K Plans tell you employers that you want this option! Employers reading this we can help you modify your 401K Plan and move your plan to a TPA that Encourages this kind of Safer Money Alternatives. We can do it in qualified plans, SEP, SIMPLE Plans and both Traditional and ROTH 401K Plans. We also do it cost effectively.
Employees over age 40 can actually get a guaranteed rate of return of 6 or even 7.2% increase in your Income Account Value. employees under age 40 have a lower guarantee but both have the potential to make more than that 6% or 7.2% annually in good years. We also can create a lifetime income you or your employees cannot outlive. WOW! Protection of Principal, Safety, Above average rate of return, and Lifetime income when you want it. It may even be possible to get a 5% bonus on all assets switched into the program, or on new contributions made during the first year. This is applied to the employee contribution and the employer match.

Economy Impacts Students College Plans

In tough economic times students may be tempted to cut out or scale back
college plans. That's a tough nut to swallow and not necessarily the best alternative
to follow. Certainly one should investigate all possible funding alternatives before
canceling or scaling back college plans. Dropping the level of the schools you apply
for may be a good strategy alternative especially if the career choice is not going to
be a top level income career choice. As an example if your goal is to be a corporate
lawyer the top schools may help you achieve that goal. On the other hand if you
want to work in company in a department full of computer programmers a local
university or even community college may meet that goal with a substantial
reduction in the total cost of the education.

Cappex.com LLC just completed a study of almost 3,000 prospective college
students. Over 15% have indicated that they are putting their college plans on
hold because of the concern that they won't be able to fund college. Over 55% are
considering downgrading the quality of the school they will be applying to in an
attempt to make their college costs more affordable. An even larger percentage
are increasing the amount of time spent on searching for scholarships in an
attempt to reduce the costs. All of these were strategies included in the study.

All of these are valid strategies. One should also consider seeing if alternative
strategies may be able to increase your college affordability. This is an area where
some professional help might be appropriate. We have two different alternatives
that may help.
First lets find out if we can increase your eligibility for need based financial aid. We
utilize the information needed for the (FAFSA) Free Application for Federal Student
Aid. This information is what is used to generate your Expected Family Contribution
or (EFC). This is the dollar figure that you have to come up with before you are eligible
for financial aid. We can often lower your EFC and that makes you eligible for more
financial aid.
Second there are a number of Corporate programs available that can help you pay for
school. Some of these programs are not need based and do not discriminate against
families with significant financial resources. Some of these are available to our clients.

Critical Economic and Financial Trends

The Bloomberg News Service listed headlines on October 6, 2008. It read "Broken Wall Street Means Merrill Model Succumbs to Independents"

Are you are frustrated and looking for a Safer Money Alternative?

Prince & Associates INC. completed a market survey in September 2008. Obviously this is before the most recent Blood letting happening in October. There are two very interesting qoutes from that survey that I want to share.
"70 percent of customers say they want to fire their broker"
"90 percent of customers of major brokerages say that they plan to withdraw at least some of their money"

Are you part of that 70% or 90%?

The Bloomberg News Service and the market survey actually have a related message. It would appear to be that the people currently managing my money are not doing a satisfactory job protecting and growing my money. Remember almost everyone has lost 20%, 40% or more in this economic turmoil.

You may or may not agree that that is the take Away message. If that is the way you feel
we would be happy to talk to you about Safer Money Alternatives offering protection of principal and the chance for significant upside growth. For Clients over 40 or 50 years old the minimum performance can be as high as a 7.2% increase in Account Value annually over a period of 5-10 or more years. These products are not right for everyone. They may not be available to people in all states. The only way to determine if this approach is right for you is with a brief no obligation consultation. This can be done face to face, by phone or by email! If its right for you and you qualify we would be happy to help you protect and grow your assets.

Lets find out how can we help you?

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Economic Roller Coaster Ride Continues

Market plummet almost 800 points recovering over 900 the next day then plummeting again today by another 733 points. You need to understand something.The upwards bounce we saw the other day is a good thing but the markets fall today is a reminder that FEAR RULES. No one know when or at what level the markets will hit bottom. What we can all count on is that it will continue to be a rough ride. The Asia Pacific markets also dropped again today. We don’t know when it is going to be over. No one Knows! You must decide to protect yourself!

How can you protect yourself. Take action now to set your own bottom limit below which your assets can not fall. Equally important is taking steps to allow yourself to participate in the upside. In most States if you are over 40 or 50 years old I can get you a 5% bonus to help compensate for your losses with a total guarantee of 12.2% increase in your Account Value during the first year. You need to act now! Why wait for the markets to drop another 1000 points or more! In future years you can get 7.2% per year increase in Account Value. This will double your money over the next 10 years regardless of the ups and downs in the market. You might get more but you won’t receive less. Haven't you suffered enough losses already?

Does it make sense to take at least some of your assets and protect them? We believe it does!

How can we help you protect you and your family?

polarisfinacialservices@gmail.com

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

The Columbus Dispatch: How Low Can Stocks Go? Article

Thursday October 9th Lead article in the Columbus dispatch was an article titled "How Low Can They Go?" The bad news is that they could go a lot lower before they correct and start to recover. Recoveries usually take longer than market collapses. The average Bear Market has lasted 16 months and an average decline of 31%. The great depression recovery took over ten years and the tech bubble / Sept 11 drop recovery took over 4 years to recover. We are now back close to that level again.

The good news is if you are interested we can eliminate your downside market risk! We can do it while protecting you principal and giving you upside market potential whenever the market recovers! Depending on your state of residence, your age and financial situation we can guarantee no loss due to market risk or as much as 7.2% per year increase in Income Account Value.

How do you win? One great way is to protect yourself from the downside risk. Make sure you participate in the upside market recovery. WE CAN HELP YOU DO THAT!!! We CAN DO IT SAFELY!! We specialize in No Market Risk Financial strategies! Still accepting some new clients.

How can we help you meet your goals?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinacialservices@gmail.com

Safe Money and Safe Money Places

We were reading industry finance information and found a really interesting web Site. We decided to share it with you our readers. It is http://www.safemoneyplaces.com/default.asp
It talks about the concept of Safe Money defining it as money you cannot afford to loose and the places where you should consider holding your safe money assets. It basically identifies three major categories and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The three broad types of safe money products identified are, Insured Deposits in FDIC Insured Banks or S&L Associations, Treasury Securities, and Fixed or Fixed Indexed Annuities. It talks about the levels of protection each entails including FDIC Insurance, Taxing power of the US Government and the State Insurance Guaranty funds. All three are identified as very secure places for your funds.

Of the three the one which probably can deliver the greatest rate of growth is the top Fixed Indexed Annuity products. None of our clients have ever lost even one dollar of their money to market risk while those funds were under our care.

We can help you to meet your twin goals of safety of principal and optimum growth rates.

How can we help you Grow your assets?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Indexes hit 5 year lows.

All three major indexes reached 5 years lows. S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrials have fallen too the level not seen since October of 2003. The S&P 500 sunk to 984 and the Dow fell to 9258. The Nasdaq has fallen to 1740 this is the level it was at in September of 2003. This is almost the level of the days following 9-11.

Are you tired of the Roller Coaster? How can we help you ??

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Retirement plans have lost $2 Trillion

Headlines for USA Today read "$2 Trillion wiped out in retirement funds." This article is written by Sandra Block. I generally like her writing but am surprised that she does not get a little more supportive of Safer Money Alternatives. It may be licensing or it may just be a limitation in her background. In the article Kurt Brouver was quoted as saying "This is a financial panic right now, and one reason it feels so bad is that everything is going down." Another quote rightfully pointed out the need for upside potential in the financial strategy you utilize. We offer both Safety and upside potential!

You need to know that there are alternatives. We can help you with Qualified and nonqualified money. We can offer Safer alternatives for your retirement plans including company 401K Plan assets, SEP Plans, ROTH and Traditional IRA Accounts.

We can take new clients today and if they are over 40 guarantee them either 6 or 7.2 % per year increase in account value per year or more. Over a 10 or 12 year period that guarantees that they will double their money. That is the minimum performance guarantee. They can make more even double digit returns of 10-20% if the economy rebounds. We all know that eventually it will rebound. The only question is have we seen the bottom or do we have another 10-30% downwards ride before things start to get better. We don't know if we have hit bottom yet. We have chosen to protect the majority of our assets from market risk!! This is also what we recommend. we only recommend Safer Money Alternatives

We can deliver at least a 10-12 % total rate of return on new money in the next 12 months for all new clients we agree to take on and offer the protection of principal besides. These products are not right for everyone and we need to discuss their suitability for your particular financial situation. You might not make quite as much as you would make if you are fully in the market, and assuming that the market has already hit bottom and starts back up immediately but we can guarantee that you will sleep better at night. If you look at the indexes over history recovery almost always takes more time than the declines. The declines are the result financial weakness and of panic selling wheras the recovery requires the rebuilding of confidence. Which do you think takes longer.

How many of you readers know of Wil Rogers the famous humorist. He was once quoted "I am more concerned with the Return Of My Money than I am with the Return On My Money" Return Of My Money is SAFETY and The Return On MY money is GROWTH. We can help you with BOTH!!!

If your current financial advisor has not told you about them I have to ask just one question. WHY NOT??? Whose interests are they looking out for?? How can we help you protect and diversify your assets??

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Current Hot Interest Rate Deals

Periodically I include an update on recent top rates for guaranteed products
Here are some of the highest rates currently available. These are Safer Money Alternative products and are guaranteed rates. Rates are subject to change until confirmed at time of order placement. These rates typically are subject to change at least monthly and sometimes biweekly.
Products may not be available in every state and minimum commitment is required.

10 Year 6.0 %
7 Year 5.7 %
6 Year 5.55%
5 Year 5.5 %
4 Year 5.2 %

Contact us for details and to determine if this is right for some part of your financial assets.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

College Funding

Would it be worth one hour of your time to learn about a scholarship program that does not penalize you for too much income. That starts at $5,000 for a single parent or at $10,000 for a couple. It also grows every year until you begin using it by $2,000. It is available with no cost too the family or the student. The funds can be used at over 200 private schools in about 30 states including 15 private schools in the State of Ohio. No public schools participate in the program. To participate a student must be enrolled by June 30th at the end of their Sophomore year. You can enroll earlier. Schools vary in the allowable amount you can use but it can be equal to 25% of each years tuition for a 4 year scholarship. It does not apply for graduate studies.

In addition to this scholarship program we work with families to improves their eligibility for need based financial aidthrough the use of the FAFSA Application. We help you estimate the Expected Family contribution (EFC) and in many cases we legally help clients increase their eligibility for financial aid by reducing their EFC.

How can we help you and your family? Please contact us to find out.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

FDIC Insurance Limits

FDIC limits may be increased. USA tToday ran an article By Sandra Block. The article title is "FDIC Limit could bump up to $250,000"
both presideental candidates are in favor of the change. As is typically the case with Congress there is a flaw. The article says "the FDIC Insurance limit would be TEMPORARILY increased to $250,000." I don't like Temporary fixes when it comes to my money. The article goes on to talk about the 13 banks that have failed this year. We have been blogging on many of those stories this year. The article further states that 37% of bank deposits are uninsured. I need to ask whats wrong with those people?
First of all the banks generally don't pay a fair rate of return on the money you keep at the bank. They load you to death with excessive bank fees, and they charge most people way to much interest when they loan money to customers. The Large banks overpay their officers using the excessive profits generated on the spread between the interest rates charged and offered. And then they dont even practice reasonable levels of financial responsibility in managing our assets in their care necessitating this massive bailout.

There are Safer Money Alternatives for your funds that will earn you substantially more interest over time and do it with guaranteed performance and principal protection.Does that make sense for at least part of your money.

How can we help you earn more and protect your assets? Contact us for a free initial consultation

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Bank CD alternatives

W came across several alternatives to Bank CD's that might be right for some clients and wanted to give you the nuts and bolts summary to review If this peaks your interest we would be happy to discuss it in more detail and determine if it might be right for you.
The first product offers.
4.63 % guaranteed for three years. Compatible with Qualified retirement plans like IRA
or Roth IRA. Purchase minimum for retirement assets is only $2,000 but obviously you can contribute much more. Non qualified money contribution requires a minimum of a $5,000 contribution. Product is tax deferred until funds are withdrawn. If you want to move to a no
risk financial product for a short term period this is a good choice. Penalty free withdrawals are available under certain conditions including Nursing Home need, Terminal Illness diagnosis, unemployment or death. Suitable forages up to 90. Product not available in every state. Interest rate subject to change until issued.
The second product offers.
4.73% interest per year for three years. In exchange for the slightly higher interest rate the free withdrawal provisions are not offered. Low minimum amounts to purchase $2,000 qualified and $5,000 with non qualified money. Also available for people up to 90 years old. Not available in every state. Tax deferred until funds withdrawn.

There are also other financial options available to meet your specific needs. We would be happy to discuss your needs and particular situation.Some products have current rates approaching 5.0 %. Rates are subject to change until purchase. Different lengths of time, amount of purchase and other features are available.

How can we help you meet your financial needs in these very difficult financial times.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
financial-services@live.com

What Happens To Bank CD Rates In A Bank Takeover

I read an interesting article today in USA Today September 29, 2008. It was titled Whats next for failed WaMu's customers? Several interesting points were made in the Q and A style article. First point as you know qualifying accounts under the $ 100K FDIC limit are federally insured. What you may not know is the point made later in the article by Charlie Scharf JPMorgan Chase Bank's head of retail business was quoted as saying Cd rates for WaMu products will remain the same "as we figure out how to merge the companies". The article goes on to state "But it is unlikely that Chase will honor the rate on WaMu's 5%CD rate through maturity" said Bankrate.com senior analyst Greg McBride. The key point here is that although the principal is guaranteed the INTEREST RATE PAID IS NOT GUARANTEED!!! OUCH!! not only do banks not pay the best rates available but if they screw up you may not even get the promised rate.

If you are thinking about buying a Bank CD or facing a rollover date now might be a very good time to consider non bank alternatives. If you are looking at 1-5 year terms guaranteed rates of close to or over 5% are available and if you are over 40 years old we can offer products with a superior guaranteed yield of 6-7.2% in a five year, a ten year or longer timeframe with the additional benefit of a 5% initial bonus credited to the principal on day one if you choose the 10 year product. These interest rates are the contractually guaranteed minimum rates and the rates can be as much as two or three times as high in good years. A percentage of the funds are available annually without penalty. At any time you can convert the account balance into a lifetime income stream you cannot outlive. In effect you can convert this into a personal pension plan at your option any time you wish. No bank CD offers you these three things Competitive minimum interest rates, significant upside potential earning and a lifetime income stream. Does this make sense for some percentage of your assets?

This product should be in your portfolio for some portion of your assets if you are qualified to purchase these products. You have to meet suitability and minimum initial contribution limits. It is not necessarily available in all 50 states. Contact us if interested.

How can we help you prepare for difficult financial times or for retirement?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Outlook On Low Risk Investments Not So Bad- Says USA Today

Sandra Block writes for USA Today in the Money section. This weeks article reflected in the title above "Outlook On Low Risk Investments Not So Bad" She is a supporter of lower risk investment strategies and her picks seem to include money market funds,Fixed Annuities, variable Annuities, and Insured Deposits. She admits that "several money market funds have suffered a principal loss due largely to investment in Lehman Brothers" that tanked. HER view is that risk here is minimal.
IN Annuities she talks about Fixed and Variable Annuities. She admits that "variables are not covered by the State Insurance guarantee funds and that. Fixed Annuities are protected up to state limits."
Insured deposits are bank deposits up to FDIC $100,000 limit. One should never have more than that in a bank! My reasoning is that then you have no insurance and you are also getting an inferior interest rate. We specialize in Safer Money alternatives.

If you are looking to diversify we can help. How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Now Who Is Next?

Two of the last major investment banks are being reorganized to try and avoid their collapse. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are being reorganized and commercial banks and will now fall under traditional bank regulators and will have to change the way they do business as a result. These two monsters have helped drive our market economic engine in good times and have helped cause some of the bad times as well. This will make it more difficult for small firms or less known firms to raise venture capital in the stock market.

I still say there may be more bloodshed in our future and diversification is the key to riding out this mess we are in. Diversify and do it with guarantees. We can help you!

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Pick a Retirement Plan

Money Magazine in the Octber issuehad a short article by Mina Kimes. She talks about the diferent options for small business retirement plans. She ranked them from the simplest and least expensive to the most complicasted and most expensive plans. Her ranking starting from the simplest first. 1 SEP-IRA Simplified Employee Pension, 2 SIMPLE IRA Saving Incentive Match Plan, 3 Solo 401K Plan, 4 Traditional 401K Plan, 5 Defined benefit Plan. She also left of two more versions The ROTH Solo 401 K Plan option and the ROTH 401K Plan for multi-employee companies. All seven of these options have their own individual advantages for a business owner. For example the largest ammount you can set aside is with a defined benefit plan and the least expeensive plan to set up is the SEP-IRA.They also have their own downsides. SIMPLE plans are the most limited in the amount you can shelter, and the 401 K Plans, and defined Benefit plans are the most expensive to run administratively.

Polaris Financial has Saving vehicles that work with each of these plan options and has plan administrators set up to do the federal paperwork for your business. We also offer very cost effectiive administration of your plans. In addition we work with you to determine which plan is the best for your particular situation.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

College Financial Aid

Friday in the USA Today Newspaper Money section there was a short piece about Financial aid policy experts fears that the system is too complicated for many families to even consider or navigate. It is true that the system is complicated. They would like to eliminate the complicated FAFSA Application I do not believe that they will be successful. When has the government ever simplified anything related to Taxes or income? I believe they would be lucky to shorten the form. If it gets to simple than the colleges will probably institute their own forms which would mean many conflicting forms and systemss and that could acttually make the process MUCH MORE COMPLICATED. Right now its obligatory just for the government programs but most private funders use it as the basis of their decisions as well. I do not believe that that would continue to be the case if they eliminate or overly simplify this current application process.

There are people or companies like ours that can help families navigate the process and even estimate what the financial aid picture will look like under the currents situation. We can even help a family determine not only what they are currently eligible for but we can also help determine what we might be able to reduce it too by making some legal changes to a family's financial picture. It only takes a bout 10 to 15 questtions to analyze or estimate the current situation and then we can do a series of what if analyses to determinge if we can improve on that current sitiation. The estimate of current eligibility is done at no cost and the what if analysis is an option.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

A Tough Weekend for Financial Markets

This was a really bad weekend for the US Financial Markets and the economy. First we had Hurricane Ike hitting the Texas Coast and whipping a stretch of the USA all the way to the great lakes. Second we had the financial melt down of Lehman Brothers who were turned down by the Federal Reserve in their bail out request. There only alternative after that was the declaration of bankruptcy. This was followed almost immediately by the Merrill Lynch announcement of their sale to Bank of America. Im not convinced that this is a good thing for the investment community. This is beginning to look like a monopoly but that's a topic for another day.

A local radio station told about a man at a gas station saturday. When he arrived at the station the gas was priced at $4.01 per gallon. while he was pumping his gas the station changed the price to $4.16 per gallon. He was forced to pay the new HIGHER price even though the contract ie gas purchase was initiated at the lower price.

How can we help you weather this financial storm?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Struggling with Finances

An article this week in the Columbus dispatch make me think about all of the seniors out there struggling to pay the energy bill their gasoline bill their RX costs and even their food bills. On a fixed income this has got to be a very difficult year. Inflation in the Consumer Price Index is now 6%. The cost of fuel is up 100% in two years. Heating and air conditioning costs are expected to be up between 30 and 50 % this year alone.

What is a retired couple to do? Here are a list of things to consider beyond using less heat and air conditioning energy, considering more energy efficient appliances, using CFL light bulbs wherever possible, buy a more fuel efficient car and consolidate your trips. and shopping for bargains at the grocery store and buying generic medications if available and if you doctor believes it will be ok for you.Once you have considered these things lets look at the next steps.
1.Where is you emergency money kept? What interest rate are you currently earning? If less than about 3% you are making a mistake.
2.Next level are you parking some money in a bank CD? What interest rate are you earning? If you are making less than about 5% you could be making more!
3.Where have you positioned most of your retirement or long term assets? Have you every lost money where you are currently parking you growth assets? Do you have less assets there today than you did in 2006 or in 2007? Would you like to stop the bleeding in your financial assets or at least protect some portion of those assets from market risk? Would you be interested if you knew that you could earn a guaranteed 6-7.2% rate of growth in your income account value each year over a ten year period and still retain reasonable access to those funds with penalty free withdrawals meeting certain conditions? Would you like to be able to create a lifetime income stream with some portion of your total assets? If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions we should talk about a safer financial alternative strategy.
4. Do you need to significantly reduce your expenses and improve cash flow? Are you still making mortgage payments? Are you and your spouse if married both over age 62 years of age?

Are you willing to reallocate assets to improve your financial conditions? Would you like to arrange an initial no fee consultation to assess your current situation and determine if we could help you improve your financial health. How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Newspaper Article on Rolling Over 401 K Plan

Yesterdays Columbus Dispatch had an article by Mark Miller called "Rolling over 401(K ) might not be best." Mark's article talks about a hypothetical investment scenario in which an employee quits their former employed and either leaves the funds in the 401 K plan or removes the funds and rolls them into a self directed IRA. In this hypothetical situation the funds have grown to $1.13 /M in the self directed plan and $1.25 in the Employers plan. It is conceivable that the employers plan will outperform the individual plan, however it is equally conceivable that the employers plan will underperfom the individuals plan. This would appear to be a coin toss to me.

What is certain is that you have far less control over the plan assets if you leave it in a former employers 401 K Plan. The Employer may at some future date decide to toss you out of the plan as once happened to me. This was a purely arbitrary decision on their part and had nothing to do with anything I did or said within the 401 K Plan. Secondly they may decide to arbitrarily impose fees on your plan participation which we have seen happen. Third, depending on how you left or were forced out you might or might not want to provide any benefit to the former employer by helping them get more discounts in fees because of the larger asset base under management. Fourth, the employer may not permit you to utilize some very attractive product options that are not currently offered in most corporate 401 K plans.

Federal rules require that they give you several plan options. Some low risk usually low growth option, some moderate risk moderate growth options, and usually some higher risk high potential growth options. What these plans generally do not provide is a no risk of market downturn product with a guaranteed rate of return that also offers significant upside potential for double digit returns. Clients over 40 can guarantee themselves an increase in their Income account Value of 6 or even 7.2% per year as their worst case scenario. This is independent of market increases or market decreases. Every years gains are locked in and the worst case is that you double your money in 10 years and quadruple your money in 20 years. I have never seen this offered in any of the corporate plans that I have had a chance to review. It is available for small corporate plans or for individual 401 K Plans or rollover IRA plans. In addition a separated employee who is consulting during a time of transition or permanently after a corporate downsizing can utilize these products. Notice I say downsizing not rightsizing because these corporate barons never seem to be able to get it right. Why would you want to let them continue to have any control over your hard earned assets anyway?

One more set of benefits if we set up a small business 401 K Plan.
1 The Plan costs are reasonable.
2 The client can add much more to their own 401 K or SIMPLE Plan than they could ever save in an IRA
3 The client can set up a hybrid plan that combines funding both a ROTH and Traditional version of their very own 401 K Plan. Although this is legal most corporate plans do not offer this option.
4 If you choose to set up your own plan a direct rollover is a tax free event.
5 It is possible to set up a plan where you will never see a loss in principle due to market turbulence
6 You can split the assets into two categories one with Zero risk of market loss, and the other can be invested as you wish.
7 YOU DECIDE! You are in control!

If any of this is interesting to you feel free to contact us to determine how we can help you implement this alternative to leaving your funds in a former employers plan.
How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@live.com

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Failure

Both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are expected to go into US federal Receivership. The cost for the US Taxpayer is expected to top $25 B. The current value of Mortgages owned or guaranteed is over $5.3 Trillion. They are the two largest guarantee holders or owners of US mortgages. Beside the Taxpayer cost what is the expected cost for US investors. The Columbus Dispatch on Sunday indicated that the Shareholders are expected to loose virtually everything! Ouch! Talk about Market Risk! Many financial analysts, brokers or writers have historically considered Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to be safe investments. I think I have heard that before! I wonder what the shareholders are thinking tonight!

We specialize in Safer Money Alternatives without market risk. Sound interesting? Want to learn more? If you are looking for safer ways to position your assets or part of your assets for your future we might be able to help you.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Long Term Disability Benefit for Small Business

Long Term Disability LTD coverage can be a great benefit and group LTD can sometimes be purchased for groups of as few as 2-9 employees. This protects the employer owner and the employees. Most employees don't have enough assets to get through an extended period of Disability. Social Security may not cover all the costs. Both Group Disability and individual Disability policies are available.

Did you know that the risk of an employee becoming disabled is greater than the risk of death? The employer does not need to cover 100% of the cost of the premiums.

We work with the top LTD carriers in the industry. How can we help you find out if this benefits makes sense for you and your employees.

Website
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
email
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Update on Multi Year Interest Rates

Periodically we give an update on some of the top interest rate deals available in the USA. All of these rates are for products that offer the protection of principal against market loss. We always want to compare it to national average rates for Bank CD's. These figures are found at Bankrate.com and are the most recent rates available.
1 year CD 3.63% 1 year IRA CD 3.26%
5 year CD 4.16% 5 year IRA CD 3.93%

Now lets look at some safe rates with bank alternatives. You tell me which you would rather have working with your money.

3 year guaranteed rate 5.00%
3 year staggered rate 1st year 5.80% year 2-3 rate 4.80%
5 year 5.20%
5 year staggered rate 1st year 6.10% years 2-5 rate 5.10%
7 year 5.45%
7 year staggered rate 1st year 6.25% years 2-7 rate 5.25%

Contact us for additional information and to determine if they are suitable for your financial situation. Minimum $ contributions apply and so do surrender charges for early withdrawal beyond any authorized amounts. Not all products are available in all 50 states.

How do these rates sound to you?
How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Invitation to Small Group Financial Seminar

In September We will be hosting two small group seminars on Financial Topics. If you like what you read in our Blog entries or on our website we would like to invite you to join us in person for a seminar or seminars on various financial topics. The first mini seminars will be held in the northern suburbs of Columbus, Oh. Future seminars will be held in other areas depending on the interest shown. Initial topics for the first two seminars will be the following.
1 Safer Money Financial Strategies
2 Increasing Seniors Financial Security Through Asset Reallocation Strategies
future topics will include
College funding
Reverse Mortgages
Alternatives for Long Term Care
Other topics as selected by readers

Please note:
These will be small groups probably 10 or less per group. If we get 28 people We will do 3 small more personal groups rather than 1 large group. Its my personal choice and is less intimidating for the attendees.
No money will be accepted at the seminars. Leave your checkbook at home
If you want to schedule a follow up face to face meeting we will arrange that following the mini seminars
You have no obligation to attend a follow up meeting
Being invited to attend a seminar is no guarantee of being accepted as a client
If interested in being invited to attend a seminar please respond by e-mail or through the website

Website
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
email
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Retirement How Much Can I Withdraw Yearly

A recent survey showed how little the typical American knows about retiring within their means. It was frightening to me. The survey showed that the average person believes that they can safely withdraw 10% per year and still retire safely and comfortably. How Wrong Could they Be!

Very Wrong!

A reasonable rule of thumb passed around the financial industry is that 4% is safe. Even that is sometimes dangerous. In periods of high inflation like 2008 and in periods of market turmoil like 2008 even 4% may be too much with a typical asset allocation strategy. Is there a trend here? Is 2008 turning into The Perfect Fiscal Storm? This is a play on words related to the Warner Brothers movie The Perfect storm released in 2000. the movie starred George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg and deals with the synergistic impact of two storms colliding and turning into "The Perfect Storm" a real monster.

What can you do about it?
We have products available that help you create a lifetime income stream that you or you and your spouse cannot outlive. In effect we can help you turn some portion of your assets into a personal pension. Sound interesting?

How can we help you? Contact us for a no charge initial consultation.

Business Owners and IRA holders and Loss In Asset Value

Business owners, Self Employed business owners and IRA savers.

We have a question for you. Have your retirement funds decreased in value over the past year or two? Does this upset you? It should! Would you like to prevent that from happening again in the future? We can fix it without the financial risk of market losses. Shouldn't that be your goal? Would you have more assets today if you never had suffered a market loss? In almost every case the answer is a resounding YES!

We can help design or modify a retirement plan to eliminate the risk of market loss and still provide a reasonable rate of return on your retirement assets. Initial bonus on your starting contributions or rollover contributions can help replace some or all of the losses suffered due to market volatility. Does that sound interesting? It doesn't matter whether your current plan is a 401 K Plan, a SIMPLE Plan, a ROTH or Traditional IRA Plan or even a KEOGH plan.
Would you be interested in offering as a plan option a ROTH 401K Plan? If we can't work with your current plan administrator we can switch to a Safe money friendly plan administrator. Why not permit your you or you and your employees to select a plan option offering a reasonable rate of return with no risk of loss due to market volatility. By the way we can also guarantee you and your employees a lifetime income stream that you cannot outlive all within the same retirement plan.

Contact us for a fee free initial consultation about your specific situation!

Savings and Inflation

There was an article in the Dispatch today August 24, 2008 talking about "Who's helping savers fight inflation"
The answer is it's not the banks or money markets. The article states the average inflation rate is close to 5%. More updated figures actually show that for the past 12 months the rate is actually 9.8%. This ties into some other blog topic I wrote about on August 21st. Bank CD rates were averaging 3.6% and average bank saving rates are 0.37% that is actually down from the 0.46% rate of last summer. It never ceases to amaze me that people will give banks their money for that poor a rate of return. You might as well burn 6-9% of your money per year if you insist on keeping large amounts of money in a bank. FDIC insurance up to limits exists but what about inflation risk? The comment I made about burning money is real and it represents the inflation risk! FDIC Insurancedoes not protect against inflation risk. That is your responsibility together with a good financial advisor who understands and endorses safe money strategies to PROTECT YOUR MONEY.

Almost no one is speaking out for the savers. Greg McBride an analyst for BankRate.com was quoted as saying "for the past 12 months there has been a double whammy for savers as interest rates have fallen and inflation has increased"

He is absolutely right. There are alternatives for smart savers or investors! It is not possible to properly plan for or take care of your retirement at these rates!!

How can we help you?

website
www.columbusfinancialplaanningpros.com

How To Minimize the Damage From A 9.8% Inflation Rate

Over the last 12 months the USA inflation rate is up 9.8%. Investing at a bank with an average yield of 1-4% means that before taxes you have a net negative return of 5.8-8.8%. Your buying power has actually decreased by that 5.8-8.8%. To make it worse you are getting taxed on the rate paid by the bank at a 15-33% rate even if you leave the money in the bank account. OUCH!! To asses the damage start with your earning rate subtract the tax rate you pay, then subtract the 9.8% inflation rate. This year that number looks like it will be a negative number for almost everyone. Minimize the damage! Protect your principal! Some years just staying even is a great place to be. Its better than a 20-30% market loss! Efficient money management is even more important in a bad year than it is in a good year. The impact on most people from 2001-2002 took 5-6 years to recover.

Let's repeat it again. Protect your Principal! Balance your assets with at least some no risk financial products. We can even create a lifetime income source that is not subject to market risk.

There has to be a better way! There is a better way! As long as the inflation rate stay this high there is no safe way to beat inflation and remain risk free. You owe it to yourself to get the best rate of return you can and maintain the highest degree of safety that you can in the process.

A 7.2% guaranteed rate of increase in an Income Account value with the potential of a higher rate of return depending on economic conditions seems to be about the best combination of risk-reward ratio I have seen in the last year. Hopefully the gas prices and commodity prices will continue to ease a little bit and the inflation rate for the next 12 months will be more moderate. Perhaps we will get back to a 2-3% increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). At that level you can actually grow your assets but until then most people will do well just to minimize the damage to their assets.

Contact us to arrange a no fee initial consultation. We can help you protect yourself in the bad years and take advantage of the good years all with little to no risk. If this is a philosophy that appeals to you we should certainly talk. Business owners and individuals can all benefit from these strategies. We can structure safer money planning into your retirement plans.

We can not help everyone, but how can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

5 Year Rate 5.10% Guaranteed

new higher rate on 5 yr MYGA

brand new higher rate has been released for 5 year single premium deferred annuity. Current best rate available. Year one to year five guarantee rate 5.10 %. This is a tax deferred product so you get no 1099 form until you begin to withdraw money.

Understand that the rate is subject to change until policy is written. Rate usually change once a month but may occasionally change more often.

How does this compare to national bank CD rates. I checked Bankrate.com today and found the national overnight rate on a 5 yr CD was 4.16% and for a 5 Year IRA CD the rate is 3.91%. The 5 year CD non IRA rates are taxable rates and you get a 1099 form for this years taxes. The annuity rates are almost 20% higher than the regular Bank CD rate and 30% higher than the Bank IRA CD rate. Why would anyone ever go to the bank for one??? We can get you the same rate on qualified (IRA money) and non qualified money.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

MSN Money video article Family In Financial Crisisn

MSN had an article and video on a woman and her family in financial crisis. Laurie Cook has been caught between a rock and a hard place. Her Mother has Alzheimers and her brother has significant medical problems as well. I had a client in St Louis with a similar situation.
They were facing foreclosure. The solution for my St Louis Client was a HUD HECM Reverse Mortgage. We stopped the foreclosure, paid off back taxes and set up a cash reserve to help pay the next couple of years taxes and condo fees. As a bonus they got to stop making mortgage payments as long as Mother was able to stay at home. This same approach might just work here as well. It is not perfect and only about 60-70 percent of people who want one are able to qualify for a reverse mortgage, in my experience.

If you know anyone in this type of situation there may be an alternative.
We can help!

website
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
e-mail
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Small Busines Retirement Planning

Business owners and self employed professionals. Cost effective 401K ROTH or Traditional plans are available. With Safe harbor plans you can maximize your contributions with minimal employee contributions. Self employed 401 K plans start at about $400 per year in administrative fees. Fees are higher if you have non owner employees. We can also help you implement no fee SIMPLE Plans as well.
Plans are available with guaranteed no market risk. Some options offer a minimum of 3-7.2% annual growth as a worst case alternative. There is substantial upside growth potential above the floor. We would be happy to discuss your plan needs in detail. Business owners can shelter as much as $45,000 per year from personal tax liability. The exact amount you can shelter is formula driven but we can get you a detailed quote.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Earn a 12 percent Bonus

If someone said that they would give you a 12% bonus when you decided to save money would you talk to them? Lets say you decided to save $20,000 for the next 10 years or longer. Your day one account balance would be $22,400. Would that get your attention? Every time you decided to put money aside for the next 5 years you can get an immediate 12% bonus. This works for your long term needs whether it is for your retirement or for college saving. This is in a ten year or longer saving vehicle, with a surrender charge if you decide to take your money and run before the surrender charge period expires. It does permit penalty free access to a portion of your funds annually.

You get a tax deferred growth strategy. No IRS 1099 form is generated until you withdraw money. You have a chance to make about 7% in an average year and the possibility of double digit gains of up to about 20 % in a great year. In a really bad year when many people are loosing 10-25% you won't lose a nickle! Each years gains are 100% vested. You have zero market risk of loss of principal. This is one option available from one of the top financial companies in the world. Oh by the way how about the ability to create lifetime income that you cannot outlive!

This is not too good to be true. It is available now but not for long. Numerous other products are available with similar features. A brief discussion can determine which is right for you.

Has your local bank offered you this? Probably not but maybe a toaster! Maybe 3-4.5%.
How about your local broker? Have they ever lost some of your money? If you are ready for diversification with safety we should talk. I am not saying do not put any money in a bank or a brokerage account. I have both. Banks pay low rates and brokers generally sell risk! Where is your safe money? Thats where we can help!

How can we help you!

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

new higher rate on 5 yr MYGA

brand new higher rate has been released for 5 year single premium deferred annuity. Current best rate available. Year one rate including bonus 6.70% years 2-5 guarantee rate 4.70 with a combined 5 yr rate of 5.09%. This is a tax deferred product so you get no 1099 form until you begin to withdraw money.

Understand that the rate is subject to change until policy is written. Rate usually change once a month but may occasionally change more often.

How does this compare to national bank CD rates. I checked Bankrate.com today and found the national overnight rate on a 5 yr CD was 4.15% and that compares to a rate of 4.16 last week. These rates are taxable rates and you get a 1099 form for this years taxes.

Long Term Care Educational Video

Our apologies. This blog entry is being repeated because the content very important and the original entry was lost as a draft.

Kiplinger Magazine and John Hancock Insurance Company have created a very informative 22 minute educational video on Long Term Care (LTC). It discusses who need it , where care is or can be provided, how much it costs for care, how much Insurance costs, and how to pay for it.
The link for that video is included on our website. Once in the website go to external links

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Caring For Your Aging Parents

There is a new book out . The title is "Stuck in the Midddle: Shared Stories and Tips for Caregiving Your Elderly Parents" It is written by Barbara McVicker.
She shares some of her own experiences in dealing with her aging parents. Any book like this can give you some ideas to share with your siblings and your parents in the context of starting a discussion of preparations for death or infirmity. It should be worth the read!

I wont agree with everything she says but I do agree with several key points that she makes.
First get your own papers in order and make sure that your parents have their papers in order.
Second make sure that you have a Durable Power of Attorney set up with some one that you trust absolutely.
Her suggestion about changing a will just because you move makes me nervous especially if there is any hint of memory impairment on the part of either partner. Even if your state only requires two witnesses I would think that three would be safer.


Financial records, Brokerage account statements, bank statements birth certificates, marriage certificates, Wills, Powers of Attorney, Living will, a personal list of special bequests for heirs Mortgage documents, property title, vehicle titles and Trust documents if you have one..
If you have more than a modest estate I would have to ask why do you not have one.

We work with Attorneys in Ohio to deliver Wills and Trusts for Ohio residents. We can also take care of general financial needs and planning and can help with LTC planning and providing LTC Insurance.

How can we help you??

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Why Gen Y is Broke

Here is an interesting link to an MSN internet article
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/WhyGenerationYIsBroke.aspx?GT1=33011


The quick summary is that many in generation Y are being swallowed in debt, student debt, credit card debt, expensive car loans, etc. They often don't know how to budget and they are not saving. It seems to be that this is a generation largely characterized by "I want it now, and I'm entitled to it" Please understand I know that not every one in this generation is so materially focused! I know that many are committed to worthwhile causes and volunteer efforts. However in general there is a spoiled attitude.

The cartoonist Stahler for the Columbus Dispatch pointed it out in a cartoon on July27th.
Two young Generation Y ladies are walking by a newspaper vending machine. The papers headline reads "Americans Don't Know how to save" The two ladies are carrying bags full of miscellaneous stuff the just bought at their favorite designer stores. One says to the other
"But I've got necessities: iphone, Wii games, My latte with a double shot..."Etc

I know of one young high school student that has wrecked 3 cars in under two years. Why would a parent continue to provide cars for that irresponsible idiot child? The child isn't paying for the cars. Why would there be a need for so many Starbucks stores selling overpriced $4-5 coffee drinks. Within 2 miles of where I am writing this there are at least 5 Starbucks locations. Who needs Starbucks at that price with 5 locations within 2 miles?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

College financing and Keno Cartoon

I like Stahler the cartoonist from the Columbus Dispatch. On August 5 his cartoon dealt with several financial issues. College finance, gambling, and the new KENO game from the lottery.
This cartoon has two college students looking at KENO Tickets. One asks the other how did you pick your 10 numbers. The second replied its how much he owed on one college semesters tuition. Very funny and scary too!

I am not a big fan of Lottery programs. They promise great things for education but the states schools have not gotten significantly better. Any of the lottery funded education $ have been counter balanced with a reduction in state funding from general revenues or at least thats how it looks to me. Net benefit is almost $0. A couple of people get instantly rich and often end up almost broke within 2-3 years. The companies and departments that run the Lotteries are the biggest beneficiaries. Many people who can not really afford to play spend way too much money on lottery tickets. It is different if someone with significant cash flow decides to spend $5 on lottery tickets for entertainment value.

College funding is really important and many people need some help with it.
We put together college saving strategies that work. It is a combination strategy, save more tax defer the interest earned, guarantee a reasonable rate of return on the funds committed.
Many times, we can also improve a families eligibility for college financial aid.
We can help!


www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Annuity VS Bank CD

Single Premium Deferred Annuity Rates offered by an A++ rated Company 5.o% Five Year Guaranteed (years 1-5) 5.25% Seven Year Guaranteed (years 1-7) 5.45% Ten Year Guaranteed (years 1-10) According to USA Today on August 5th the consumer Bank CD rates are 2.29% on a one year CD and 3.46% on a 5 year CD Bankrate.com on August 6 shows the following rates 3.5% one year CD rates 4.2% five year CD rates In either case the SPDA rates look really good by comparison. If you are tired of low rate paid by your bank on the money you let them use we have an alternative! how can We help you? www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Loans Without Banks

There are several internet site that help structture small to medium sized loans with the use of a bank. The concept is called "Peer to Peer Lending" This can be used for family loans or other network members to loan you money. Its an interesting concept! Some people can not get a bank loan and sometimes the bank rates are just too high to be realistic. These Peer to Peer loans can have competitive rates for the borrowers and improve on the money earned by the lender on the loan. There are almost certainly some risks as well that need to be taken into account. I do not know anyone who has ever tried these programs. I do know of business funding that has been done by Angel Investors. From a business standpoint I do know businesses that have used this informal Angel network to get operating funding or cash to expand when banks will not write the loans. I even used one almost 10 years ago when we were working to acquire a business.
You can learn more about the program through any of these three websites.
US.ZOPA.COM
PROSPER.COM
VIRGINMONEYUS.COM

Our website is
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

401 K Cartoon

Stahler is a great cartoonist who draws on life events for the Columbus Dispatch. This one appeard on July 29th 2008. Like the Doonsbury cartoon strip and the Dilbert cartoon strip they all draw on the corporate quirks, and political mismanagement in wonderful satire. I keep particularly pointed cartoons to remember painful or very funny life lessons. This is a painful life lesson! Painful lessons repeat themselves until you learn from them and CHANGE something. Id like to share this one.

First lets set the stage. Scene one Cinderella was riding to the
ball with her glass slippers beautiful retirement ball gown, riding in a golden horse drawn carraige. You all get the picture. It was not that long ago.
Now to the present!
The retirement is a mess the clothes are in tatters, Cinderella is dizzy and has lost her shoes . The golden carriage has turned into a very small pumpkin called 401K. If that is your Cinderella story we should talk!!

Business and individual plan help is available. Growth without risk is a possible option. How can we help you???

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Health Insurance

Basck in May we commented in the blog about the irresponsible posturing of a health insurtance carrier try to force insurance customers to pressure their doctors, or to switch doctors because of a contract dispute with health insurance providers. You can see the original blog string in our archives for May 2008 on this site.

Obviously the Ohio State Insurance Commissioner has agreed that this was not responsible behavior but was part of a business tactic not in the insured patients best interests. The State took action and justifiably so. They fined United health $250,000 for their actions. enough said and case closed!

Financial Crunch Hiitting Seniors

There was a great article that I just came across. I meant to include it in my blog over a week ago. My apologies for the delay in commenting on it. The article by Steve Wartenberg appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on july 20th, 2008. Many of you already know the financial difficulty he speaks about that is hitting seniors. In fact it is significantly impacts most of us. It is especially hard for those of us who are not at the peak of their earning years. It hurts the seniors most because of fixed incomes, The surplussed generation being discarded by irresponsible corporate management, and the young just starting out.

In any period of rapid price increases, like 2008, without a rapid rise in income much of the population is going to get creamed by the inflationary spiral of rising gasoline, rising home energy prices rising food prices etc. The article talks about the increasing percentage of bankruptcies that are filed by seniors over age 55. The percentage has actually doubled since 1991. General filings are up almost 18 % in 2008 alone. Inflation is eating them out of house and home!! Then there is the impact of medical expenses which another study not mentioned in this article indicated is responsible for almost 45 % of bankruptcies in the US.

If you know someone who is struggling let them know that seniors over age 62 years old who own their own homes may be able to get some relief. It might be possible to reduce their home expenses and even free up some of their income to help pay for unexpected medical expenses or repairs.

In many cases we Can help.

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Bank Instability and Your Alternatives

Recently in the news from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) Thairman was quoed as saying They do not expect any more large bank failure on the magnitude of IndyMac Bank. IndyMac Bank was a top ten mortgage lender in the USA. The FDIC at the same time said they do expect numerous smaller bank failure in the short term.

If I kept a significant amount of money in a bank what message would I take from this announcement. I should add that the bulk of our assets are never in a bank. The take away message is that you should never have money in a bank in excess of FDIC insurance limits. Perhaps the prudent will actually deal with lower personal limits than the FDIC limits. There are Bank alternatives that can do the following things. Earn a higher interest rate than banks will pay. This is usually easy to do. Find a financial product with a very high degree of safety. There are financial products available with no risk to principal due to market risk. There are even products available that do all of these things and can providetax deferred growth if you don't need the income immediately. Utilizing the tax deferred benefit may even reduce your current tax bill or if you are on social security may even reduce or eliminate taxes on your social security benefits.

Wee can help you achieve these goals with safety of your principal. Will Rogers once said "I am much more interested in the safety of my money than I am in the interest on my money". Long term financial products that protect your money.

How can we help you?

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Long Term Care

Kiplinger Magazine and John Hancock Life Insurance have put together a very informative 22 minute video on key topics of Long Term Care. It talks about who needs care, where can you get care, how much care costs, how much insurance costs and how to pay for it. The link is on our website. Starting from the home page follow links to external pages and click on the link to Kiplinger LTC Video.

Our website address is
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

We can help you with your LTC needs and help you decide which policy and how much coverage is right for you.

Long Term Care Video

Kiplinger Magazine and John Hancock Insurance Company have created a very informative 22 minute educational video on Long Term Care (LTC). It discusses who need it , where care is or can be provided, how much it costs for care, how much Insurance costs, and how to pay for it.
The link for that video is included on our website. Once in the website go to external links

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Long Term Care Options

Occasionally a client tells us that they do not want to buy Long Term Care (LTC) insurance.

They may feel that they cannot afford the coverage. This is often a erroneous perception. Especially if they buy the policy when they are still relatively young and healthy the premiums can be rather modest considering the massive amount of risk that the insurance is designed to protect the client from! It is relatively easy for a client or a couple to have a LTC risk of $1 million or more.

They may know that their medical conditions make purchasing a policy cost prohibitive if not impossible. There is a real risk here! The best solution for this risk is to buy the product early when you are still in good health.

Some clients want to self fund the risk. The funny thing here is that most of the clients who can truly afford to self insure the risk are also generally smart enough to know that they should not try and self insure a potential multi million dollar risk. When one self insures they are betting that they have decades for their assets to grow enough to be able to cover the costs. Unfortunately our collective crystal balls are less than perfect. We simply have no way of anticipating when we will have the need through disease, or accidental causes. A partially funded program without enough years to compound the growth of assets is just plain not good enough.

If you are one of the lucky ones that truly has the assets but just hates the thought of paying premiums for the next 10 years to life there are alternatives designed for you. These are asset based product and several types are available. Some of these actually include a money back guarantee. you can't loose with these. You get long term care coverage and your money back if you never need it.

Some clients just don't have the assets to protect and for these clients a Medicaid spend down leading to Medicaid covered Long Term Care is a reasonable option.


Regardless of your situation specifics we can help you!

visit our website or contact us directly

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Can you still retire

In friday July 11 issue of USA Today there was a good article about retirement written by Kathy Chu. The article talks about retirement and determining if your assets are adequate to last as long as you live in retirement. Although it is a good article thare are some key points missing and we will get to them in this blog entry. Kathy makes a number of excellent points about how important the early years are in permitting the asset base to grow and the terrible detrimental effect a couple of bad early years can have on your ability to have enough money to get through many years of retirement. She also shares the traditional rule of thumb that says take out no more than 4-5% of the assests per year if you want to maximize the length of time the assets will remain. She also talks about adjustments to withdrawals in the rule of thumb during one or more bad years.

It talks about postponing retirement if your assets need more time to grow and postponing Social security to get some additional monthly income. She adds that it is important to keep assets positioned in such a way that you have the ability to out perform the inflation rate. there are a number of references to food prices, gas prices, energy costs and healthcare costs. We all know the impact that each of those is having on our budget.

She also mentions diversification of assets and asset allocation strategies. All of these are good things but nowhere does she talk about the single thing that a boomer or retiree can do that will guarantee that the retirement asset pool will never run out as long as you live. She acknowledges that inflation adjusted pensions like Social Security are a good thing but she fails to tell the readers that they can create that for themselves with their own assets. This is something everyone with assets should be doing with at least a significant percentage of their retirement assets and their general assets.

The key points in the strategy we recommend are the following. Position a majority of your assets where there is NO risk of market loss due to economic market turbulence. Lock in each years gains protecting them from downturns in subsequent years. When possible shelter your assets during the growth mode from current income taxes. Deferred income taxes allow you principal and your previous years earning growth to continue to grow without creating a tax liability that you have to pay off when you file your annual taxes. You need to insure that your assets have the opportunity to grow at a rate that can beat the rate of inflation consistently. Remember that this year the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen at a rate of 5%. This is the highest CPI adjustment in a number of years. The products we are talking about do usually have early surrender charges on a sliding scale. These can be 10-15% but you have control over when you take the money out. Many clients never have to pay a surrender charge at all. By timing your withdrawals to the surrender charge free withdrawal schedule you can almost always avoid paying any fees at all! You are in control! Finally do all of these things usually without a collection of annual fees and charges that typically run 2% or more of total assets per year. Remember that if you hold those types of assets for 20 or 30 years the fees continue to add up and may have generated total fees that cost you an amount equal to 40-60% of your initial contribution. These fees certainly will reduce the asset value that you get to keep or walk away with.

What single product can and has consistently met all of these criteria? The answer isn't found at your bank and isn't generally offered through your local broker. There is only one type of product that offers all of the positive things discussed and doesn't have the annual fees and charges listed above. The products we are talking about are long term saving vehicles. Only Fixed indexed Annuities do all of the positive things listed above and usually, avoid the annual fees on the downside. When you do add a rider to a fixed Indexed Annuity the maximum rider charge is usually 1/2 of 1% or less. There are currently products that will guarantee an increase in Income Account Value of up to 7.2% per year. This doubles your income every 10 years and quadruples your assets in 20 years. When you do decide to begin withdrawing income from the product you can create a Lifetime Income Stream that you cannot outlive.

We can help!

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
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How to Increase Eligibility for Student Financial Aid

We work with clients to improve financial aid eligibility for college The amount of financial aid your student may qualify for is based on family assets and income. Saving in the form of stocks, bonds,mutual funds,savings and checking accounts,bank CDs, investment real estate and money market funds are all considered assets. Consequently, your net worth in these products count against you in financial aid eligibility determination used in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
We can help you reallocate your assets so your financial portfolio is treated favorably in the FAFSA process. We offer several financial instruments that provide safety and protection of your principal while also reducing FAFSA qualifying assets. You have absolutely no risk of market loss with these products!
If your family income exceeds FAFSA guidelines, we offer long term investment strategies that provide safe, secure growth. Products such as Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, 529 Plans, ROTH IRA Plans, and other general tax deferred savings vehicles all are available to help pay for college costs.
We look forward to assisting you and your student with college funding. How can we help you?
Please contact us here or on the website.
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com