IS a 529 Plan Right for your situation

529 College Saving Plans

529 Plans for college saving. There are numerous questions about saving for college. I believe that for many people the best ways to save for college are not in a 529 Plan. Many State plans have produced DISMAL results.. Previous news reports in the Columbus Dispatch have detailed poor performance in the Ohio plan even before the recent Market meltdown. Many states plan participants tend to invest in age based formula driven plan options with less risky products receiving a greater percentage of the funds as the students get closer to College age. That is a good idea but it may not be enough. With a 40% loss or more some plans are not likely to have enough time to fully recover before the funds are needed. She also adds that many families have had to cut back on funding the plans because of tight budgets in general.

It is important to continue saving something every month even if it is only $25 a pay period. You cannot alter investment allocation for existing funds in the plan more than once per year. Even though you may not be able to reallocate the existing funds you can immediately allocate the new contributions however you wish.

529 Plans have high funding limits. You can actually set aside $250,000 for your childrens education Tax free. Unfortunately if your children do not use the funds you will get penalized when you withdraw the funds. In some ways using a ROTH is better but the maximum contributions are much lower. You also have much more investment or savings flexibility with the ROTH

Seniors and SS benefits before retirement age 65

Seniors and SS benefits before retirement age 65

A recent survey of over 600 seniors shows that many people are planning on accessing their Social security benefits before age 65 to cover routine living expenses, healthcare, mortgages and utilities. This is a serious concern to me because it will reduce the SS benefits paid for the life of the senior. Tapping into SS benefits significantly reduces the amount you receive every month for life. It should only be utilized as a LAST RESORT in an Emergency situation. Several other measures should be evaluated before this drastic action is taken. Several steps we can evaluate include a HUD HECM Reverse Mortgage which improves cash flow by stopping mortgage payments as long as you and or your spouse are able to remain in your home. Another step is to review your existing life insurance policies, or increase income from your current assets.

If your assets are not currently growing by 6-7.2% per year you may be positioning your assets unwisely. If none of your assets are positioned to guarantee you a lifetime income stream you cannot outlive I Must ask Why not?? If you have lost money in the market turbulence of 2008 Let me ask why put up with that? None of the assets I manage for my clients have lost money this year! Let me repeat that NONE of my clients assets under management have suffered a market loss of value!

We can help clients with all of these things. How can we help you?
financial-services@live.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Inflation rearing its ugly head - What should you do about it?

There are several things every investor or saver needs to keep in mind as we move forward. Over the past 18 months inflation has been at above average levels it actually peaked at 5.6% back in July 2008. That represented a 17 year high. But even though it has dropped since then there are 8 months with a rate at or above 4%. The statistics show a 3.8% inflation rate for the CPI for all of 2008. Obviously we don't yet know the total inflation rate in the CPI for all of 2009. That means that any one using a bank for a safe money resting place has actually lost money while searching for a Safe Money Haven. Banks are still failing and they are still Failing to pay you a fair rate of return on the money you place in the bank at the same time they are charging a Record high rate on the money they loan out.

There are excellent Safe Money alternatives that can provide a better rate of return with excellent safety. They can even include upside potential if the market climbs while offering protection from market declines. Ask us how this can work and fit into your financial strategy
for the future. Non Bank Financial Alternatives still make excellent sense today. Protection from market risk makes just as much sense today as it made one year ago. We can help on both counts!

Are you interested in a Second Opinion about you financial nest egg. We can provide you with a no charge Second opinion and also help you position some of your assets in excellent safe money financial alternatives.

2009 Bank Closures now at 74

Two more banks have been closed down by the Federal regulators. This is a sign of continuing financial difficulties and the need for smart savers to implements Safer Money Financial Strategies. Colonial Bank is a medium size bank with about $25 B in assets. This represents the largest bank to be closed this year. The other institution was a small Savings and Loan in PA.
In addition to this bad banking news all of the major indexes ended the week with a loss. The S&P finished the week down by 0.85%, the Dow ended down by 0.82% and the NASDAQ ended the week down by 1.19%

Considering the continuation of bad financial news does it make sense to take some portion of your financial assets and position them so you are protected form all mark risk but still get some upside market potential. Contact us to find out how to accomplish both of these things without assuming any market risk.

Visit the website for more information at www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

or our e-mail at

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

How To Avoid Financial Meltdown

Just wanted to share an experience I had this week with a Revocable Living Trust client. This client is a retired physician and his wife's estate. They had set up a Revocable Living Trust. I was working with them on a Trust and Estate planning review. Here is what we found with the review we just completed. The trust was properly executed but not properly funded. The result of not having funded the trust properly before now could have been a Disaster for the heirs if the couple had died before the review or before they complete the implementation of these strategies. They hold real estate in three states leaving potential probate liability in all three states. They have approximately $2 million in real estate value. Conservative estimate of current probate risk is anywhere from $150-400K. It actually could go higher but it is unlikely to be less. This is unnecessary and avoidable risk for the estate. Our attorneys tell us that Properly funded trust owned real estate avoids the probate process and all of that unnecessary expense. Saving for the estate if they complete the funding process would equal$140-390K using the recommendations identified through the review process. The attorneys we work with can take care of all the legal paperwork for a very reasonable price. Failure to complete the process is likely to result in the need to sell the beach condo and ski condo in order pay the probate costs on both properties.

Then with the financial portion of the review process we identified other potential problems and offered other suggested solutions. The financial assets are currently exposed to far to much market risk considering the clients ages. In fact like many potential clients they have lost over 35% of their liquid assets to this market turbulence. Repositioning of assets into more age appropriate categories will protect the clients assets from virtually all market risks. Some percentage of their assets will still remain exposed to market risk or to inflation risk. You can not avoid 100% of risks with all assets and still maintain adequate liquidity. The financial review process is designed to help determine the right mix or risk money, safe money and liquidity ratios need to protect the clients best interests. When this is completed the clients will never again have to worry about the impact of market turbulence on the majority of their assets. We can actually guarantee this family the prospect of roughly doubling their money over the next 10-11 years with additional upside potential if market conditions turn around. We can do this at the same time that we protect the bulk of their assets from risk

A fairly recent study discussed in the Wall Street Journal indicated that approximately 75% of high net worth individuals are either moving all or most of their assets to new financial managers. It is no surprise considering the losses suffered by most individuals. However, NONE of the assets I have positioned for my clients have lost money!!! We have never lost money for any of our clients.

All in all we would say that was a nice days work! How can we help you protect and grow your assets, increase your income, and or increase your legacy for your loved ones. Feel free to contact us. How can we help you to find out what strategies are right for you and your unique
situation?

website address www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
email address polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Your 401K Performance

Most peoples 401K plans lost between 25-39 % last year. However that is not necessary. It is possible to have a 401K plan that cannot loose money. Obviously it has to be a Company decision to offer performance options that can give you reasonable growth without market risk. We can actually design a 401K Plan that does just that!

Retired employees have the option of taking their entire balance out of an existing 401K plan and putting it into a rollover IRA that allows you to to utilize Safer Money Financial Alternative products that do not loose money in market downturns and in fact can guarantee an annual increase of over 7% in the income account value. In addition to market protection from downside risk it can also give you the ability to create a lifetime income stream with your assets. Lets find out if these products are right for you.

We can also help protect you or minimize your risk due to inflation risk. This is something a bank deposit, or a bank CD does not accomplish. Often times when you subtract the tax rate and the inflation rate from a bank interest payment the ACTUAL Rate of Return is a net negative number. This means you gave them the use of your money for years and you actually can end up with less buying power than you started with!!! Do you think this is fair? I Don't!

Lets talk about your reasonable alternatives!

Current market conditions review

We just finished the worst Jan ever recorder in the Dow and the S&P 500 indexes. The Dow was down over 8.8% and the S&P was down over 8.5%. Banks are still being closed by the FDIC. Six new bank closures in January 2009. The only good news is that we have not fallen below the market lows set in November 2008. That trend has convinced many analysts the worst may be over. Most Economists are still predicting a weak economy throughout 2009.

With this continued market weakness is now the right time for you to be looking for Safer Money Financial Alternatives for your assets. My average new client from early 2008 will see a 6-12% increase in their Income Account Value on their 12 month aniversary. This is not a home run by any means but consider what has happened top those invested in the market. Are you ready to join the better than 75% of the high net worth individuals who a recent study found are ready to change their financial advisors. If you are interested in protecting your assets from market downside risk while participating in upside potential contact us. We can help!