Volume 4, Issue 1 Playing it Safe “Safe Collectibles” You can have a fun, and safe, time collecting everything from beer cans to wind-up action figures. And if you like, you might even make a buck or two trading them at swap meets or ... By Steve Dinnen
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personal finance “Beware Of the One-per-12-Month IRA Rollover Limitation Beginning In 2015” Early in 2014, in a tax court case, the court ruled that taxpayers could only have one IRA rollover per 12-month period. This was contrary to ... By Thompson Myers & Associates
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Safety Pins “ Identity Theft a Major Concern for the IRS”
Losses & Volatility Are Not The Same By: Dr. Jack Marrion
A while back I was having coffee with a financial professional, and he was chatting about the need to reduce volatility. I innocently asked if what he was saying was “if a person had a choice between an investment that plugged along paying 5% every year versus one that could make 2% to 20% every year, are you saying the person should choose the 5% one because the other one was more volatile?” He quickly responded by saying, “No, upside volatility is a good thing.” The point is this gentleman wasn’t really talking about avoiding volatility; he was talking about avoiding losses. Losses are an entirely different thing from volatility.
Tax-related identity theft occurs when someone uses your stolen Social Security number to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund. By Robert S. Kaspar, CPA
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Safe Retirement “Can you sell a portion?” Life settlement market has existed for over 20 years, there are still many options it can provide that simply aren’t acknowledged by insurance companies. The fact of the matter is that seniors can get cash for their life insurance policies ... Continue Page 12 By Leo LaGrotte
Safe For Life “Personalities” I had the privilege and pleasure of working with some outstanding personalities from the entertainment industry such as Joan Crawford and Loretta Lynn. I would like to give you a sense of what these people were like in real life ... Continue Page 13 By Norm Wilkens
Safety Pins ... “Losses & Volatility Are Not The Same” - Continued There’s a lot of talk on the financial channels about minimizing or managing stock market volatility, and generally it sounds like they think you should avoid it, but what they really mean is trying to limit the size of the loss. The way they typically try to do it is by splitting up the money between different securities and either let it pretty much sit there (also known as asset allocation) or they try to time the market by moving between different securities on a more active scale. Their goal is to keep score of how much volatility there is, because they believe that rising volatility makes losses more likely. How well do they do at avoiding losses by managing the volatility? Good question. Since the market has been heading up since 2009, there haven’t been any recent tests to see whether this all works. I guess we’ll find out when the next bear market occurs. There is a way to avoid volatility altogether and that is with a fixed rate annuity. This annuity pays a stated interest rate for
a stated number of years and at the end of the period you can either keep it in the annuity or move it someplace else. Of course, it doesn’t offer the upside potential of securities, but the last time I looked many of them were very competitive against certificates of deposit yields. A fixed index annuity eliminates downside volatility – you can’t lose what you have if the stock market goes down, but it keeps a bit of upside volatility in that the interest earned may be quite a bit higher than the fixed rate annuity earns. This combination of protection and potential explains why an estimated $50 billion of fixed index annuities were purchased last year. Wall Street folks seem to have a tough time saying the “L” word (loss), so they instead call it downside volatility. However, volatility is an entirely different thing. For example, with the fixed index annuity you benefit from volatility because it means you could earn more interest (and since it’s a fixed annuity
you never have to worry about the “L” word). As that financial professional said, “upside volatility is a good thing.”
About the Author: Dr. Jack Marrion Dr. Marrion’s research on senior decision making and the financial world have been featured in hundreds of publications including: Business Week, Kiplinger, Smart Money, and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of six books and a frequent media guest. Email: jack@safemoneyplaces.com
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Playing it Safe
Safe Collectibles By Steve Dinnen In 2013 an art enthusiast paid $5,212 for a 19th century painting of a church in rural England. Some folks thought he overpaid. That was in London. By early this year, when the painting got to a different auction house, in New York, art experts decided it was not painted by a follower of John Constable, the famed English landscape artist, but was a genuine canvas done by the master himself. New sales price? $5.2 million. Would that we all could be so lucky with collectibles. But those are once in a lifetime deals that fall to the very, very few. Still, you can have a fun, and safe, time collecting everything from beer cans to wind-up action figures. And if you like, you might even make a buck or two trading them at swap meets or selling them on E-Bay.
E-Bay is actually a good place to look for what’s selling – and for how much. Plus, it will give you a good look at the massive variety of collectibles that are out there. And the online auction website (they collect a percentage of each piece sold) has a decent library of information to make you better acquainted with what it is you’re buying, or want to collect.
Knowledge is key with collectibles. If you want to collect coins or stamps, for instance, go to swap meets and learn about what is rare, what is not. Yes, it may be 100 years old and thus seem valuable. But what if they printed 10 million of those stamps and 100,000 of them are still in collectors’ hands? Learn how to discern the ( Page 3)
Playing it Safe ... “Safe Collectibles” - Continued difference between a coin in mint condition and one that may have been chemically treated to make it look shinier, or in better condition. Aside from E-Bay, there are numerous helpful pricing guides. Kovels, www.kovel. com, and Miller’s Antiques and Collectibles, www. millersantiquesguide.com, catalog tens of thousands of items from jewelry to textiles to Coca Cola bottles to furniture. If it’s baseball cards or athletic memorabilia you’re into, try Beckett’s, www. beckett.com, which likewise serves as both a catalog and sales effort. And let’s not our national love affair with anything that moves on four wheels. For motorheads, Hemmings Motor News, hemmings.com, serves as an excellent resource guide to auto sales events and history of the industry and the sometimes very very expensive cars that made it famous. And know when to call in help. My mother and I learned this when she sold some kitchen
gadgets she found in a house she inherited outside of Toledo, Ohio. Somebody came out of nowhere and paid her what we thought was a huge amount of money for a 70-year-old egg beater. The whole house was full of stuff like that, and as I haven’t a clue as to what is or isn’t an antique, we hired a professional appraiser and got his opinion as to what the home’s contents were worth. Also, know when to name a collectible as just something to have around the house, something to amuse you. Over the years I managed to accumulate hundreds of books of matches that restaurants and hotels would hand out as pocket-sized advertisements. I quit smoking, the match business has gone kerplooie and I suspect these keepsakes aren’t worth a plug nickel. But that’s not the point. I collected them then to serve as reminders of my travels – hey, that was a fun bar! – and 30 years on, it doesn’t hurt a thing to revisit the old haunts without actually leaving my den.
About the Author: Steve Dinnen Steve is a freelance writer specializing in financial and travel news. He received his Bachelors Degree from Drake University and his Master of Journalism from Oklahoma University. Mr. Dinnen served as Sr. Business Reporter for the Des Moines Register, Business News Editor for the Indianapolis Star and served as Editor (freelance) for the Christian Science Monitor of its weekly personal finance column. Email: paudel2001@msn.com.
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PERSONAL FINANCE Beware Of the One-per-12-Month IRA Rollover Limitation Beginning In 2015 By Thompson Myers and Associates, PC
Article Highlights:
The tax code allows an individual to take a distribution from his or her IRA account and avoid the tax and early distribution penalties if the distribution is redeposited to an IRA account owned by the taxpayer within 60 days of receiving the distribution.
that taxpayers could only have one IRA rollover per 12-month period. This was contrary to the IRS’s long-standing one rollover per every IRA account every 12 months. This far more liberal position was also included in published IRS guidance. However, contrary to general public opinion, guidance provided by the IRS in their publications is not citable, carries no weight in audit or court, and only represents the IRS’ interpretation of tax law.
Early in 2014, in a tax court case, the court ruled
As a result, the IRS has adopted the Court’s more
• 60-Day limit • New interpretation • New one-per-12-monthperiod rollover rule • Types of plans included
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restrictive position, but will not apply the new interpretation until 2015, giving taxpayers time to become aware of the new restrictions. The IRS is modifying its published 2015 guidance to reflect this new position. The IRS announced in November that the oneper-12-month-period rollover rule also applies to Simplified Employer Pension Plans (SEPs) and SIMPLE plans. Included in the November announcement, the IRS indicated it would not count a distribution taken in 2014 ( Page 5)
personal finance ... “Beware Of the One-per-12-Month IRA Rollover� and rolled over in 2015 (within the 60-day limit) as a 2015 rollover. Not counted towards the one-per-12-month rule are traditional to Roth IRA conversions or trustee-totrustee IRA transfers where the funds are directly
transferred from one IRA trustee to another. Please call this office if you are planning an IRA distribution and subsequent rollover and are not positive it falls within the one-per-12-month limit.
About Thompson Myers & Associates, PC Accounting Firm Thompson Myers & Associates’ accounting and payroll staff have been delivering professional services to small businesses in Central Indiana for over 20 years. Having worked with hundreds of small business clients, we have significant expertise with a wide variety of service businesses in Indiana. We have especially strong experience and expertise in working with businesses in the healthcare (medical, dental, etc.) and food service (restaurants, caterers, etc.) industries. Phone Number: (317) 571-8080 Email: info@thompsonmyers.com Website: https://www.thompsonmyers.com/
SAFETY PINS
Identity Theft a Major Concern for the IRS By Robert S. Kaspar, CPA The Internal Revenue Service issued a tax filing season alert warning taxpayers to watch out for identity theft at tax time. The IRS continues to aggressively pursue the criminals that file fraudulent returns using someone else’s Social Security number. Taxrelated identity theft occurs when someone uses your Back to Table of Contents
stolen Social Security number to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund. While the IRS has made significant strides over the past several years to address this issue, it remains a top concern for the IRS, which is why identity theft remains on the Dirty Dozen again list this year as the IRS works to protect taxpayers and help victims. As
a result of these aggressive efforts to combat identity theft from 2011 through October 2014, the IRS has stopped 19 million suspicious returns and protected over $63 billion in fraudulent refunds. For 2015, the IRS will continue to increase both the number and efficiency of the identity theft data models and filters that are used to identify potentially fraudulent returns. These prerefund filters stop the vast majority of fraudulent returns. Additionally, the IRS continues to expand its partnerships with financial institutions to identity and stop fraudulent refunds. ( Page 7)
Safety Pins ... “Identity Theft a Major Concern for the IRS” - Continued Fighting identity theft is an ongoing battle as identity thieves continue to create new ways of stealing personal information and using it for their gain. Identity theft cases are among the most complex handled by the IRS. The IRS is continually reviewing processes and policies to minimize the incidence of identity theft and to help those who find themselves victimized. The IRS is working hard to streamline its internal process, but more work remains. In an effort to help victims, the IRS has issued approximately 1.5 million Identity Protection PINs (IP PINs.) The IP PIN is a unique, six-digit number that is assigned annually to victims of identity theft with resolved cases for use when filing their federal tax return. The IP PIN will allow these individuals to avoid delays in filing returns and receiving refunds. This year, the IRS will continue its IP PIN pilot program that allows taxpayers who filed tax returns last year from Florida, Georgia or the District of Columbia to
opt into the IP PIN program. Additionally, the IRS is offering approximately 1.7 million taxpayers the opportunity to opt in to the IP PIN program in instances where the IRS has identified indications of identity theft on their accounts. The IRS understands that identity theft is a frustrating, complex process for victims. While identity thieves steal information from sources outside the tax system, the IRS is often the first to inform a victim that identity theft has occurred. The IRS is working hard to resolve identity theft cases as quickly as possible. The IRS offers the following tips as ways to protect you from becoming a victim of identity theft: Don’t carry your Social Security card or any documents that include your Social Security number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Don’t give a business your SSN or ITIN just because they ask.
Give it only when required. Protect your financial information. Check your credit report every 12 months. Review your Social Security Administration earnings statement annually online. Secure personal information in your home. Protect your personal computers by using firewalls and anti-spam/virus software, updating security patches and changing passwords for Internet accounts. Don’t give personal information over the phone, through the mail or on the Internet unless you have initiated the contact or you are sure you know who you are dealing with. Robert S. Kaspar, CPA Managing Principal The Windsor Group, Ltd. 500 E. 96th Street, Suite 450 Indianapolis, IN 46240 Office 317.848.3005 / 800.678.1078
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Safe Retirement Safe at Home By Tom Lazzara
How safe is your home?
Now, I’m not talking about dead bolt locks, alarm systems, and motion detectors – all good ideas and excellent, beneficial deterrents to robbery and theft. Rather, I’m talking about other safe ideas, such as radon gas detectors! First of all, you can’t see smell or taste radon, but it may be a problem in your home. Radon is estimated to cause thousands of deaths each year, because when you breathe air containing radon, you can get lung cancer. For more detailed information on A Citizen’s Guide to Radon visit the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/radon/pubs/ citguide.html. The good news is that testing your home for radio is easy, and fixing the problem is not expensive. The safety-conscious homeowner checks his/her home on a regular basis to curb issues such as: poor air quality, allergy protection, mold reduction, dust mites infestation, unsafe drinking water, and other issues that can negatively affect the safety of your inside environment. The key to some of these issues is a dry home with no moisture problems. In most cases mold growth needs moisture. Leaks in roofs, plumbing, and basements can be eliminated with a good visual inspection every few months.
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Safe Retirement ... “Safe at Home” - Continued When was the last time you looked in your attic? A handy man can look for you if you can’t. Mold forming on rafters and other roof members is normally caused by poor attic ventilation and is easily correctable. Please visit Alliance for Healthy Homes at http://www.afhh.org for more information. One of my safe home projects is to suggest that my clients, customers, and friends get a carbon monoxide detector if they have gas hot water heaters, gas furnaces, or use gas fireplaces. Again, it’s an easy and inexpensive way to make your home safe. Two other ways to make your home safe include investigating for chemical issues both inside and outside of your home and
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examining the physical structure of the home itself. For example, most experts believe that lead poisoning, insecticides, and other risks that can be easily controlled are causes of health problems. Hiring a certified home inspector to look for these types of chemical issues will be an excellent investment in your family’s health and happiness. Also, checking the outside of your home can also contribute to a safe inside environment. Cleaning downspouts and gutters and keeping the grade (slope of the land) away from your home are other safe ideas. All of these simple ideas can help you to review your safe home environment and make inexpensive, though potentially life-saving changes quickly.
About the Author ... Tom Lazzara Tom Lazzara has been in the real estate business for over thirty-six years. Having purchased the first RE/MAX franchise from RE/MAX of Indiana, Tom was awarded the Ethics in Business Award for small companies in the State of Indiana. He is president of On Track Properties, Inc. and operates RE/ MAX Property Management, a full service residential sales and property management company. In 2008, the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors recognized Tom as Distinguished Realtor of the Year! He holds the Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) and Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) designations. Tom is an Alumnus of Ball State University. You may email Tom at: tom@tomlazzara.com or visit his website at: www.tomlazzara.com.
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Can you sell a portion? By Leo LaGrotte Life Settlement Market For many who choose to opt for a life settlement, selling the entire policy makes sense. When the insured doesn’t have a need for the policy anymore, or it just doesn’t make sense to keep paying the premium, a life settlement is the perfect option. But what about someone who wants to retain part of their policy? Whether they simply need to downsize their policy so they aren’t paying the full premium anymore or they want to ensure their heirs will still receive part of the death benefit, there’s an option for seniors to sell a portion of their life insurance policy as a life settlement while maintaining the rest. Here are some of the top reasons the insured may choose to surrender a portion of a life insurance policy: • Eliminate or lower unaffordable premium payments. Back to Table of Contents
• Use the money saved to purchase a more applicable policy. • Invest in other assets. • Improve quality of life. • Create cash from a dormant asset. This option allows the insured to have extra money for whatever life is throwing at them: whether for medical bills or a vacation. Consider a case in California Larry Grill, et al. v. Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., filed in federal district court in California. In this case. A man wanted to lower his premium payments, but not fully surrender the policy. He was told by the life insurance company that his only options were to surrender a portion of his policy, or to let it lapse entirely. He chose to surrender a portion, which lowered his monthly premium
payment, but also didn’t offer any cash value on surrender. The insured later learned about the life settlement option, where he would have been offered cash for the portion of his policy and could have retained the remainder. (There’s an ongoing court case between the insured and the insurance company.) Even though the life settlement market has existed for over 20 years, there are still many options it can provide that simply aren’t acknowledged by insurance companies. The fact of the matter is that seniors can get cash for their life insurance policies when they need it. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about this or any other life settlement topic. I can be reached at 888-849-0887 or llagrotte@lsa-llc.com.
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Safe For Life
Personalities By Norm Wilkens Over a number of years, I had the privilege and pleasure of working with some outstanding personalities from the entertainment industry. I would like to give you a sense of what these people were like in real life situations.
Joan Crawford –
Motion Picture Star and Corporate Spokesperson
I met Miss Crawford after she had completed her movie responsibilities as she assumed the position of chief spokesperson for Pepsico in the 1960’s. I was working with Back to Table of Contents
the public relations section of a local advertising firm that handled Pepsi products throughout most of Indiana. It was in that capacity that Miss Crawford was visiting in our state and I was to advance her stay while here and arrange for media coverage. Going in, there were a number of stories concerning her professionalism and how she was a stickler for doing things to her liking and little or no variance was tolerated. So, it was with more than a little trepidation that we met for the first time. I was taking notes as fast as I could. She wanted
a certain style of mattress in her sleeping room-the bed to be two-feet off the floor; flower arrangement was to made up with her favorites; Pepsi product lines were to be properly chilled and ice provided in clean glasses of a certain size. There were diet restrictions as well, but through the years I have forgotten most of them other than meat was to be well done and served hot on the plate. Everything in the meeting rooms was to be thoroughly dusted, floor rugs swept and all windows spotless. I must admit that I was picking up as many tips on how to ( Page 13 )
Safe For Life ... “Personalities” - Continued do things in a “Hollywood way”, as I am sure she was learning a number of items on how we in Indiana did things in the Midwest. One of the procedures that she taught me I carried through the years of my public relations activities, was the art of setting up and staging news conferences so that the media felt privileged and had personal interviews. To accomplish, we arranged the room so there were ten small conferences separated by enough space that there could be little or no voice carry-over from one to other. Each media representative was given ten minutes to achieve his or her interview while I kept a strict stopwatch on the session. I would give silent hand signals to the media rep for countdown purposes. A little to my surprise, the program worked without a hitch, and the media loved the individual talks. After that visit, I used the same set-up any number of times with other celebrities, and they all seemed to like the personal attention. And, Miss Crawford stated that we were among the best PR people with whom she had dealings. True or not, I loved that she said it.
Loretta Lynn –
Country Recording Star The “Coal Miners Daughter” was hired by Amax Coal to be the spokesperson for a Back to Table of Contents
year by our advertising firm. Considering that Ms. Lynn’s father had passed away from “black lung” disease, this turned out to be more than just a small accomplishment on our part. In our presentation to Amax, we recommended Loretta Lynn. I think they weren’t sure we could deliver, but we had already checked to make sure that Ms Lynn would be willing.
I found Loretta to be truly wonderful to work with and more than a little accommodating. I hadn’t realized that Ms. Lynn did not read music, but was so professional that she picked up on the Amax theme song with just a short run through in the studio. The song “Coal Has The Power” was a huge success in the industry and catapulted Amax from the ranks of also-runs to one of the ( Page 13 )
Safe For Life ... “Personalities” - Continued most recognized among coal companies – particularly in the Midwest. Along with running the musical commercial on stations throughout coal country, Loretta made personal appearances for the company at several of the Amax surface mines. The local miners were really excited to have her in their areas and they turned the visits into local holidays. The program was so successful, we signed Miss Lynn to a second year’s contract with even more personal appearances. She and her manager – Dolittle (Lynn’s husband) eagerly agreed. We were in the final process of setting up the second year when I received a call from
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“Dolittle” asking if they could break the contract. It seemed that some of the “higherups” in the coal union didn’t want Loretta associating that closely with a coal company management. Even though we could have forced the issue, it was determined that it would not be in the best interest of Amax or our talent. Loretta was released from the contract. TIME Magazine reported the story and the final decision. By the way, Loretta and Dolittle staged a conference call when all was said and done, and said how much they appreciated how they had been treated by our firm and Amax. They said they would not forget our professionalism and would remember us fondly for our fairness.
Ann B. “Schultzie” Davis – TV Star My only knowledge of Ann B. Davis was her appearances as the maid on the TV Show – THE BRADY BUNCH. However, my review of her credentials, indicated her accomplishments far surpassed that stage. She had starred for many years in summer stock and theater productions as well as on the motion picture screen. Even so, I did feel that my research left a lot to be desired. Miss Davis was a great example of a “star” who knew how to make a person searching for a story come away feeling truly comfortable and professional. She was in the city performing a play at the Avondale Playhouse
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Safe For Life ... “Personalities” - Continued – theatre in the round. When I arrived early for the interview, which was my habit, I could see her walking by herself around the stage memorizing her lines. Right on time, she moved in my direction and welcomed me warmly and wanted to know if she could provide any kind of refreshment. She was the only interview I ever did in those years that offered that courtesy. Even with my research, she offered tidbits of her life and professional acclaim that were above and beyond my questioning. She delved into her college life and early stage profession back grounding thoroughly what it took her to make a name for herself. She indicated the early struggles
and limited success at first in her profession, and how she had built upon those times to perform at a higher level. Before I knew it, over a halfhour of tape had been recorded, and all of it was of value. It was going to make editing for a couple of ten minute segments difficult to say the least. Upon hearing the recording, the station manager complimented me on a job well done. And, I really didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to tell him that I had just turned on the recorder and let a true professional do her thing. I will always remember “Schultzie” for her being so kind to a young reporter just getting started.
About the Author: Norm Wilkens A nationally recognized speaker and writer, Norman Wilkens has traveled to forty-seven of the fifty states speaking on topics of marketing, advertising and public relations. His most noteworthy subjects include: Healthcare Marketing; Multigenerational travel and Baby Boomers - their contribution to society and economics. He is presently serving as Midwestern Contributor to California’s AAA WESTWAYS Magazine. Among Wilkens’ current activities are the Butler University Alumni Board of Directors; Butler’s Central Indiana Alumni Chapter Board; Chairman of the Board of Visitors for the new Communication College of Butler; Board of Directors of Ruth Lilly Educational Foundation; Salvation Army of Indiana Advisory Board and as an Elder at Second Presbyterian Church of Indiana. Email: NormWilkens@aol.com
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