Financial Careers and Career Strategy – The Art of Promotion by George Mentz, JD MBA CWM

Over the years, I have studied the art of promotion. Unfortunately, if you don’t market yourself, nobody may ever know about your attributes of excellence.

I distinctly remember reading the book Brag by Peggy Klaus. This bestseller discussed the art of self promotion without over-doing it and the full title of the book is “Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It.” In her book, she states, ” When done with grace and style, bragging promotes your best asset-you!.”

This reminds me of an interview that I had years ago with a Wall Street Firm executive . The executive of an NYSE traded company kept asking me what else I had achieved and what other credentials I had earned. Later, I discovered that the interviewer was looking for reasons to give the job to me over another similarly qualified candidate. When I told the executive that I also had membership in another organization and credentials from a relevant industry institution, he was sold, and I got the job. The moral of the story is to keep adding feathers to your cap and as Dr. Covey of the famous book “7 Habits of Highly Successful People” promotes, keep sharpening the saw.

Your resume has pertinent sections for degrees, training, certificates, diplomas, memberships, charitable endeavors, designations, awards and other distinctions. In the professional ethics courses that I teach, many students have difficulty legitimately claiming their skills, experience, or attributes. For example, many students do not add relevant summer work to the totality of their work experience. For whatever reason, many applicants do not consider part-time work or volunteer work part of their resume’s experience; however, most job candidates are smart enough to add this type of experience to their job applications. The bad news is that many competent applicants lose out because of this type of hyper-humbleness.

In the end, each of us should take a hard look at winning resumes styles and model ours to mirror what works. We should ethically add to our resume anything that helps sell our abilities to get that job or customer. Also, we can join industry organizations, join college organizations before or even after graduating, volunteer in an area of interest to gain experience, take courses online, earn certificates or supplemental diplomas, learn another language, and even engage charity to better ourselves.

Self promotion also includes your style and methods when dealing with customers. I remember one company president who said that customers shop several providers before picking his firm. He told me that all of his brochures illuminated some extra accolades that his company had achieved and he also provided one or two extra documents to each potential client explaining the benefits and safety of doing business with his company. Invariably, this extra consideration in the interview paid off and many clients came to his firm because of the value added attention to detail.

If you read Robert Green’s “The 48 Laws of Power”, you will find that it takes skill and mastery to negotiate the kings court while moving your status upward. In the same way, the job seeker must treat each decision maker with respect while letting them know how you will help them with their success and the company success.

Remember, learn to promote yourself and guard your reputation. Practice interviewing, discuss with another person what should be included on your resume or your sales pitch, and most of all, learn how to convey your best qualifications, ability to serve, and your relevant experience.

*George Mentz can be retained as a keynote speaker for your events at: www.gmentz.com

As a wealth management consultant and professor for over a decade, it is that time again to file our taxes. With tax filings, we must document our income, expenses, deductions, exemptions, retirement contributions and so forth. Some of us must file our taxes for partnerships or corporations.

Wealth management comprises various subjects including: Economics, Banking, Investments, Risk Management, Investment/Asset Management, Estate Succession, Taxation, and Trust Planning and Retirement Planning.

Many of us simply receive W-2 and employment income and traditional company benefits primarily, but others who are self-employed or contractors are doing their best to utilize the system to declare income, pay for insurance, take mortgage deduction and so forth.

The good news is that that the tax code has become more amicable to the self employed over the last decade. Self employed individuals are able to write off or deduct more of their health care expenses while also setting aside more money pre-tax into their self directed retirement accounts.

Here are some thoughts related to Wealth Management 2012

Investments: While we are not sure what will happen with taxes going forward, several of today’s tax rates on income such as dividends and long-term capital gains are reasonable. If they go up, many people may sell out of dividend stocks or other related holdings. Dividend stocks have been particularly popular for retirees and those who don’t want CDs with the rates so low.

Thus, dividend stocks have been the alternative for income producing investments because the tax rates are at 15%. Overall, if income taxes go up on dividend stocks at this time, the hardest hit may be seniors and those who live on a fixed income.

Retirement and Education: In light of the present situation, we hope you are able to maximize your contributions to your retirement before April 15th each year. Also, setting aside money in a 529 plan is a good way to fund a child or grandchild’s education for the future. The annual gifting rules and estate and gift tax rules allow you to gift cash to others during life or at death. Therefore, now may be a good time to consider large gifts due to the generous estate & gift tax exemption for 2012.

Estates and Succession: As for estate taxes, those rates right now are the most generous ever. However, the large exemption may be reduced again to the Clinton era rates if nothing is done by Congress before 2013.

The other major estate management issues are succession documents. Do you have a valid will? Do you have health care directives? Have you considered limited powers of attorney for your financial affairs or health care affairs? Have you arranged for the guardianship of your children if something happens to you? All of these issues can be dynamic and very important?

Insurance: Other topics are risk management related. Do you have proper life, health, and home insurance? Have you considered an umbrella policy or disability policy? Again, protecting yourself and your family in this way is imperative. However, you must remember that insurance contracts have beneficiaries and that each policy can have primary beneficiaries or secondary beneficiaries. Further, these assets are not controlled by your will and the beneficiary receives regardless of what your will says. Providing the policy numbers and information to your loved ones may also be a good exercise.

Banking and Investment Accounts: Additionally, if you have bank or brokerage accounts, you should consider listing your spouse or loved one as person who receives the account upon death. TOD “Transfer on Death” and POD “Payable on Death” accounts are typical choices for your accounts and this allows a loved one to have access to cash immediately if something happens to you. Sometimes, rolling over or consolidating accounts is a great exercise so as to help create a better view of the totality of your investments.

Taxation: The IRS has a tax tips section which is interesting and resourceful. Moreover, there are many great tax software programs out there to chose from that you can use privately on your computer. Thus, with good information coming from the Treasury Department and quality software, all of us have a fair opportunity to get our tax paperwork done on time.

Economics: Keep in mind that there has been a number of economic cycles in the last 20 years in the USA and Internationally. That means that we should all keep an eye on our risk tolerance and our investing time horizon. When you are getting closer to retirement, you should be moving out of riskier investments and into more stable investments or stocks with less volatility if possible. Other related problems such as an election year and global debt crisis issues domestically and abroad are also now part of the macro-economic effects.

In the end, most people are concerned with financial security. During our earning years, all of us want to work in a labor of love, earn what we can, protect our children and retirement, and worry about taxes later. In the end, the key is doing what you want to do, and have the experts handle your legal, tax and wealth management for you.

*No investment, legal or tax advice is intended to be given herein. Please see a licensed professional before making any important decision.

Tips for Taxpayers Who Can’t Pay Their Taxes on Time

If you owe tax with your federal tax return, but can’t afford to pay it all when you file, the IRS wants you to know your options and help you keep interest and penalties to a minimum.

Here are five tips:

File your return on time and pay as much as you can with the return. These steps will eliminate the late filing penalty, reduce the late payment penalty and cut down on interest charges. For electronic and credit card options for paying see www.irs.gov. You may also mail a check payable to the United States Treasury.

Consider obtaining a loan or paying by credit card. The interest rate and fees charged by a bank or credit card company may be lower than interest and penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Code.

Request an installment payment agreement. You do not need to wait for IRS to send you a bill before requesting a payment agreement. Options for requesting an agreement include:

• Using the Online Payment Agreement application at www.irs.gov, and
• Completing and submitting IRS Form 9465-FS, Installment Agreement
Request, with your return.

IRS charges a user fee to set up your payment agreement. See www.irs.gov or the installment agreement request form for fee amounts.

Request an extension of time to pay. For tax year 2011, qualifying individuals may request an extension of time to pay and have the late payment penalty waived as part of the IRS Fresh Start Initiative. To see if you qualify visit www.irs.gov and get form 1127-A, Application for Extension of Time for Payment. But hurry, your application must be filed by April 17, 2012.

If you receive a bill from the IRS, please contact us immediately to discuss these and other payment options. Ignoring the bill will only compound your problem and could lead to IRS collection action.

If you can’t pay in full and on time, the key to minimizing your penalty and interest charges is to pay as much as possible by the tax deadline and the balance as soon as you can. For more information on the IRS collection process go to www.irs.gov or see IRSVideos.gov/OweTaxes .