My Blog
Life Insurance
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Paul Berlin: Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:49 AM
 A Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation (NQDC) Plan typically is an unfunded and unsecured promise by an employer to pay compensation to one or more of its employees in the future (usually beginning at retirement). The plan is “non-qualified” because it does not meet the requirements of IRC sections 401 to 417 (participation, vesting discrimination, etc) that are satisfied by a qualified pension or profit-sharing plan.
Under a NQDC plan, the employees may voluntarily elect to defer a part of their compensation, or the employer may defer “extra” compensation, or both the employee and employer may make contributions that will lead to distributions to the employee at some specified future date. |
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Paul Berlin: Posted on Thursday, March 08, 2012 6:21 PM
 Lots
of insurance producers are utilizing a premium finance program to purchase
large amounts of life insurance without any cost. Always remember one thing, if
it sounds too good to be true, chances are it is. Insurance producers are
promoting using a loan to pay for premiums on an indexed universal life policy,
illustrating a loan rate of maybe 4-5% and a indexed crediting rate of
7-8%. On paper anytime one can make 2 -3 percent year after year seems
like a good deal.
The promise behind an
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Paul Berlin: Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2012 10:31 AM
 In
January the federal reserve said it will likely not raise interest rates at
least until late 2014, much later than it had said previously. Why is this
important? Because key interest rates that are used for estate planning
purposes will continue to be low allowing greater wealth to be transferred
outside the taxable estate.
The
IRS established short term, mid term and long term interest rates called the
Applicable Federal Rate (AFR). These rates are found in section 1274(d) of the
code. |
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Paul Berlin: Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2011 1:31 PM
 Insurance producers and companies are pushing indexed universal life as the next hot product. But is it? What the insurance company does is tie your cash-value growth into the S & P Index. However, the index provided by the Insurance company does not include dividends because they don't actually invest directly in the S & P Index. What the insurance company does is buy options on the S & P Index. They take part of your premium and hedge against the index. |
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Nina Stillman: Posted on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 1:38 PM
 "I am too young to have a will". or "Really, Me??? I don't have anything to plan for. These are the most common excuses I hear when younger people meet me and I tell them that I am an estate planning attorney. Business owners always tell me that they will take care of that when they make their money"! I have take n the liberty of adapting from a Wall Street Journal Blog an article about estate planning for all ages. "There’s a misconception that |
Attorney, Wills, Estate Planning, intestate, married, minor children, no will, single, Life Insurance, succession planning, taxes, guardians, power of attorney, Trust, aging parents, asset management
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Nina Stillman: Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 5:06 PM
 The other day I was at my mother's house with my sister and my mom pulled us into her bedroom and sat us down. It was a little scary, but then she pulled out all of her jewelry and said its time to have some fun! She wanted us to tell her which pieces we wanted when she was no longer here and to tell us what she had already set aside for my niece. I reminded her that she also needed to put something aside for my brother even though he was not there with us. It brought her joy to hear the stories that we associated with the jewelry, hear her stories of pieces that had been handed down to her and peace of mind for her to know that her prized jewels were going to be in good hands. |
Attorney, Life Insurance, Business, Business law', business valuation, corporation, exit strategy, sale of business, succession planning, retirement, Family Business
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Nina Stillman: Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:35 AM
 It is National Estate Planning Week! (ok so we had to declare it for ourselves!) What is estate planning and what are the basics you ask? Why is it important? Estate planning is a process utilizing the advice of trusted advisers to assist you with decisions about how to protect and distribute your assets(including your business if you own one) when you pass away, who should pay your bills and take care of your monetary affairs for you in the event that you are living but unable to take care of them yourself, and also who should make medical decisions for you based upon your wishes in the event that you are injured but cannot communicate your desires clearly. |
Wills, Estate Planning, minor children, Life Insurance, tax savings, Business law', business taxes, buy sell agreement, corpoation, corporation, dissolution, exit strategy, partnership, sale of business, succession planning, taxes, trusted advisor, disability, retirement, guardians, power of attorney, Charity, asset management
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Paul Berlin: Posted on Thursday, October 06, 2011 4:17 PM
 A formal buy sell agreement is between owners of a business to determine how the ownership of the business shall be disposed of upon the death or other circumstances of exit of one of the owners. The owners commonly use life insurance to fund the value. With two business owners, a cross purchase plan is the preferred method of ownership of the life insurance. This is where partner A owns a policy the life of on Partner B and vice versa. These policies are individually owned, and can be paid for from company money. |
Estate Planning, divorce, married, Life Insurance, tax savings, Business, Business law', business valuation, buy sell agreement, contracts, corporation, dissolution, exit strategy, financing, Limited liability, LLC, LLP, partnership, succession planning, trusted advisor
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Nina Stillman: Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 7:02 PM
 I had the wonderful experience a few weeks ago thanks to my friend Pete Laffertyof Merril Lynch, to volunteer for a day at a Habitat for Humanity site and help build a house in North Minneapolis. You will all think that I am crazy, but I and 6-7 other volunteers spent about 5 hours swinging hammers and staple guns and the other hour was spent eating lunch and "putting a few things" together. It was fabulous!!!! The wall sections of the house were pre-made for us and we sheathed them with plywood (the hammering) and then we covered the plywood with water barrier paper( the staple guns). |
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Nina Stillman: Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 8:02 PM
 You would sound an alarm if someone walked off with half of your money or your household possessions right? If you are a business owner with partners and have not put a Buy/Sell Agreement in place you could watch part of your business walk right out the door and never know what hit you. A Buy/Sell Agreement is a must. This is an agreement between business owners that spells out the terms by which any of you are allowed to be compensated for your share of ownership of the business upon certain events occurring. |
Attorney, Estate Planning, divorce, married, Life Insurance, Business, Business law', business valuation, buy sell agreement, corporation, dissolution, exit strategy, financing, LLC, LLP, partnership, sale of business, succession planning, bankruptcy, criminal, disability, fraud, retirement
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