CWM   Chartered Wealth Manager ™  – America’s  First Graduate Wealth Management Certification and Charter.   

CWM ®  Chartered Certified Wealth Manager ® – An AAFM ® Owned and Issued Certification awarded from the USA United States of America.  Why Global Standards are Important.

The CWM  ® Chartered Certified Wealth Manager  ®  professional certification  awarded from the AAFM ®  American Academy of Financial Management  ® is the first graduate wealth management Charter & Board certification in the world – as featured in the FINRA, NASD,  Investopedia, Forbes,  China Daily, Financial Times, Black Enterprise, Wall Street Journal,  and Money Manager[1][2] that was created and founded by the AAFM American Academy of Financial Management [3][4]. The internationally trademarked CWM ® Chartered Certified Wealth Manager AAFM ®  Certification [5] and credential is only available for wealth managers with an accredited masters degree, law degree, CPA, PhD or specialized executive training from an ABA accredited law school [6] or other approved program in Asia, Europe, India, Latin America or Africa. In 2004, Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal published an expose of the top Wealth Management educational programs and certifications including the AAFM, Wharton School of Business and New York University.

The CWM Certified ( Chartered Wealth Manager ) [7] designation and post-graduate qualification is exclusively issued and conferred by the USA Board of Standards American Academy of Financial Management  ® over the last decade (AAFM) [8][9] The CWM wealth management certification & designation is similar to financial planning certification but is a graduate certification and professional development program in high net worth consulting which has always required a government recognized education and degree.[10] The CWM  Chartered Certified Wealth Manager ® Law School Curriculum and syllabus has been accepted for use with ABA Accredited Law School Programs.[11] Wealth Management is a profession and career that many bankers and investment professionals are entering.[12] Like any accredited law school graduate courses, the AAFM CWM certification courses[13] will count toward a post graduate degree such as a LLM or JSM, will count for continuing education for CPA and Law Licensing, and may count towards the CPA exam eligibility.

The CWM Chartered Wealth Manager Board Certification [14] from AAFM USA requires knowledge in 12 key areas:[15] and is referenced in the Global Designation Directory and on the FINRA US Government Regulatory Website [16][17]  The primary required skill sets of a CWM would include: 1. Estate Planning and Trusts 2. Asset Management 3. Portfolio Management 4. International Taxation 5. Retirement Law 6. Economics 7. Investments 8. Money and Banking 9. High Net Worth Consulting 10. Relationship Management, Compliance, and Ethics 11. Business Entities & Organizations 12. Risk Management and Insurance

Educational institutes and training organizations must petition to the AAFM www.AAFM.us to become an accredited provider of the CWM Chartered Wealth Manager program.

Governmental Citations &  Book References

1. ^ ” Wall Street Journal – Is Your Wealth Manager Certifiable? features AAFM CWM Wealth Management Certification “
2. ^ “CWM Featured in The Money Manager
3. ^ AAFM Investopedia Dictionary Article
4. ^ “Investopedia CWM Article”
5. ^ “AAFM US Government Trademark Reference”
6. ^ “Post Graduate CWM Law School Certification Program”
7. ^ “RIA Compliance Solution book”
8. ^ AAFM CWM in Investopedia Dictionary
9. ^ “US Government Trademark Reference for CWM “
10. ^ “The ElderLaw Portfolio Series, Volume 1‎ – Page 25-16Harry S. Margolis”
11. ^ ABA Accredited TJSL LLM Graduate Program in Finance and Taxation offering CWM from AAFM
12. ^ “AAFM CWM in the Book Career opportunities in banking, finance, and insurance By Thomas P. Fitch Pg. 251″
13. ^ “AAFM Law School Certification”
14. ^ “Demystifying Wall Street”
15. ^ “AAFM US Board and Certifying Requirements”
16. ^ “Directory of Global Professional Accounting and Business Certifications By Lal Balkaran”
17. ^ “FINRA Governmental Regulatory Website Formerly NASD”

AAFM American Academy of Financial Management  ® and CWM ® External links

• AAFM US Board of Standards
• Global Professional Certifying Board
• USA Accredited Law School Program Online for the AAFM CWM
• China www.AAFMChina.org
• Arabia www.AAFMGCC.com
• India www.AAFMIndia.com
• Latin America www.AAFMLA.com
• Singapore www.AAFMAsia.com

Over 800 Accredited Graduate Programs which qualifies you to apply for CWM Certification ™ .  You must have 3 years of wealth management experience on top of having the graduate degree or courses.

1. Masters in Finance, Wealth Management, Tax or Economics from an ACBSP Accredited Double Business School.
2. Masters in Finance, Wealth Management, Tax/Accounting or Economics from an AACSB Accredited Double Business School.
3. Masters with focus on Finance, Wealth Management, Tax or Economics from an ABA Accredited Law School.
4. Masters in Finance, Wealth Management, Tax or Economics from an EFMD EQUIS Accredited Double Business School.
5. Masters Degree in Finance from CUFE Beijing Business School
6. MBA or MSC from Shanghai Graduate Program in Finance
7. Masters in Wealth Management from the Swiss Banking School
8. JSM or LLM from the Diamond Law School Wealth Management Program

In 2012, Many Tax Benefits Increase Due to Inflation Adjustments

USA — For tax year 2012, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise and tax brackets will widen due to inflation, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.

By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions, affecting virtually every taxpayer, must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. New dollar amounts affecting 2012 returns, filed by most taxpayers in early 2013, include the following:

The value of each personal and dependent exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,800, up $100 from 2011.

The new standard deduction is $11,900 for married couples filing a joint return, up $300, $5,950 for singles and married individuals filing separately, up $150, and $8,700 for heads of household, up $200. Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.

Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket is $70,700, up from $69,000 in 2011.

Credits, deductions, and related phase outs.

For tax year 2012, the maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) for low- and moderate- income workers and working families rises to $5,891, up from $5,751

in 2011. The maximum income limit for the EITC rises to $50,270, up from $49,078 in 2011.The credit varies by family size, filing status and other factors, with the maximum credit going to joint filers with three or more qualifying children.

The foreign earned income deduction rises to $95,100, an increase of $2,200 from the maximum deduction for tax year 2011.

The modified adjusted gross income threshold at which the lifetime learning credit begins to phase out is $104,000 for joint filers, up from $102,000, and $52,000 for singles and heads of household, up from $51,000.

For 2012, annual deductible amounts for Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) increased from the tax year 2011 amounts; please see the table below.

Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs)	Self-only coverage	Family coverage
Minimum annual deductible	$2,100	$4,200
Maximum annual deductible	$3,150	$6,300
Maximum annual out-of-pocket expenses	$4,200	$7,650

The $2,500 maximum deduction for interest paid on student loans begins to phase out for a married taxpayers filing a joint returns at $125,000 and phases out completely at $155,000, an increase of $5,000 from the phase out limits for tax year 2011. For single taxpayers, the phase out ranges remain at the 2011 levels.

Estate and Gift

For an estate of any decedent dying during calendar year 2012, the basic exclusion from estate tax amount is $5,120,000, up from $5,000,000 for calendar year 2011. Also, if the executor chooses to use the special use valuation method for qualified real property, the aggregate decrease in the value of the property resulting from the choice cannot exceed $1,040,000, up from $1,020,000 for 2011.

The annual exclusion for gifts remains at $13,000.

Other Items

The monthly limit on the value of qualified transportation benefits exclusion for qualified parking provided by an employer to its employees for 2012 rises to $240, up $10 from the limit in 2011. However, the temporary increase in the monthly limit on the value of the qualified transportation benefits exclusion for transportation in a commuter highway vehicle and transit pass provided by an employer to its employees expires and reverts to $125 for 2012.

Several tax benefits are unchanged in 2012. For example, the additional standard deduction for blind people and senior citizens remains $1,150 for married individuals and $1,450 for singles and heads of household.

However, the totality of taxes from: State, Federal, City, Utilities, Real Estate, Gasoline, Luxury Taxes and the rest of personal and business taxes are still putting many Americans in the 50% or higher tax rates.

Details on these inflation adjustments can be found in Revenue Procedure 2011-52, which will be published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2011-45 on November 7, 2011. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=248485,00.html

Dr. George Mentz is a world recognized wealth management commentator and professor who has authored several revolutionary books. Prof. Mentz, an international attorney, has been a keynote speaker globally in Asia, Arabia, USA, Mexico, Switzerland, and in the West Indies. Mentz can be contacted for speaking engagements at www.gmentz.com or www.managementconsultant.us

Valuation discounts are increasingly challenged by the IRS. Gone are the days when assets could be dropped into a family limited partnership with some transfer restrictions and forgotten about until a valuation discount was needed to reduce a gift or estate tax bill.  A recent U.S. District Court case, Fisher v. U.S., reminds us that times have changed.  Often, placing assets in a business entity is no longer enough to justify a valuation discount—the entity must be run like a business to justify the discount.   Read the analysis by our experts Robert Bloink and William Byrnes located at AdvisorFX Journal Valuation Discounts: Only for a Bona Fide Business

For some good news about valuation discounts, see our article in AdvisorFX Advisor’s Journal on the Jensen case.

From a tax perspective see Tax Facts Q 613. How is a closely held business interest valued for federal estate tax purposes?

After reading the analysis, we invite your questions and comments by posting them below, or by calling the Panel of Experts.

Why is this Topic Important to Wealth Managers? Discusses how international planning can impact clients’ tax position domestically.  Provides discussion on a number of common international tax concepts as they relate to U.S. taxpayers.

In a previous blog, it has been briefly discussed that there may be a number of reasons a client may consider offshore planning, generally.  Today we will focus on one major component of offshore considerations, the impact of world-wide income on U.S. taxpayers. It is generally accepted that U.S. taxpayers are expected to pay income taxes on income earned from sources worldwide.[1] This concept is commonly referred to as “outbound” taxation. [2]

It is the case that many sovereign nations will also have taxes on personal and/or corporate income that an individual or corporation could become subject to, creating in effect “double taxation.”  And some foreign nations choose to have very low or no tax rate on certain types of income, or on corporations in general, thus allowing foreign income to potentially escape foreign taxation (and current U.S. taxation in the year that it is earned).

What are some rules that that Congress has attempted to avoid double taxation or subject foreign income to U.S. taxation?

Foreign Tax Credit

Under the foreign tax credit, the “United States allows its taxpayers to reduce their U.S. tax liability by some or all of the foreign income taxes paid on income earned outside the United States.” [3] The credit, created by Congress, reduces U.S. income by “foreign income taxes paid or accrued.”  “The credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of U.S. income tax liability.”  [4]

Controlled Foreign Corporations

As a general rule, “the income of a foreign corporation is included on the U.S. shareholder’s U.S. income tax return only when dividend income is received.” [5] Yet for certain situations when U.S. taxpayers have a shareholding in a foreign corporation, Congress has established special rules that “deem” a dividend to have been paid by the foreign corporation, regardless of whether it is actually paid or not.  These special rules are known as “anti-deferral” rules – rules that mitigate the tax advantages of taxpayers deferring U.S. tax until foreign income has been received.

In general the rules that most impact U.S. taxpayers with a shareholding in a foreign company are known as “controlled foreign corporation” rules (aka CFC rules).  A CFC exist when “any foreign corporation in which more than 50 percent of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock entitled to vote or the total value of the stock of the corporation is owned by U.S. shareholders on any day during the taxable year of the foreign corporation.” [6]

Not all income earned by a CFC will be deemed as a dividend to its U.S. taxpayers.  Congress does not want to stop U.S. taxpayers from investing or doing business overseas.  However, Congress is concerned that it is common that U.S. taxpayers will “shift the income-generating activity to a foreign entity where the income earned will not be subject to U.S. tax until repatriated.” [7] Congress considers that such business activities or investment activities could have or should have occurred in the United States, or at least should have been taxed in the United States regardless of where they occurred.

Thus, Congress has established complex rules to determine which types of income it will allow to be earned overseas without the U.S. taxpayers incurring current U.S. taxation on a deemed dividend, and correspondingly which types of income for which Congress will disallow deferral.  Income that Congress disallows deferral for is known as ‘tainted’ income.  It is this “tainted” income that is included in the gross income of its U.S. shareholders without regard to its actual distribution.

Income that is subject to current taxation from a CFC, “can be characterized as income that is easily shifted or has little or no economic connection with the CFC’s country of incorporation” [8] and may include, “foreign personal holding company income, foreign based company sales [and service] income, …as well as certain insurance income, …and certain other narrowly defined categories of income [including passive income, ‘such as interest dividends rents and royalties’[9]].” [10] Well, that’s a mouthful of legal terms that we will need to discuss in future blogticles.

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[1] 26 U.S.C § 61; See also, Taxation of Business Entities.  James E. Smith, William H. Raabe, David M. Maloney.  Chapter 13.  2007 Annual Edition, citing 26 U.S.C § 61, “Gross income for a U.S. person includes ‘all income from whatever source derived’.  ”Source“ in this context means not only type of income (e.g., wages or interest) but geographic source as well (e.g., the United States or Belgium). Westlaw.

[2] Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts.  Chapter 9.  , 2007 Annual Edition.  Westlaw.

[3] Taxation of Business Entities. Ch 13

[4] Id.

[5] Id. citing, Subpart F, §§ 951-964 of Title 26 of the United States Code.

[6] Taxation of Business Entities.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] 3 Legal Compliance Checkups § 20:35 (2009).  Westlaw.

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• Mark Hoban says CFC reform is coming closer (accountancyage.com)
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Author: George Mentz

Global  Job Tools and Technology

If you are  one of the millions of  Americans that is out of work right now, then you are probably wondering how to secure a good job or a better job in these difficult times.  Further, it is time to think outside of the box and to think BIG.    With over 7 billion people on this planet, this means that the United States of America is just one small group of consumers within a growing global marketplace

With regard to stakeholders and economics, all firms must have profits so they can pay their employees, reward the risk-taking owners and investors,  grow and innovate,  and contribute to local communities with charity.   We are a global economy, and  at this time the international demographics and consumption are changing very quickly.  As for consumers, we have 1 billion people in India, more than a billion in China, about a billion in Arabia, a huge emerging market in Africa, another  billion or so consumers in greater Asia which includes Malaysia and Indonesia, and then there are the nations of Europe and the Eastern-European nations. Similarly, there are 20 Latin nations south of the USA.

As an example of 21st century sales at a local level, I recently walked into a local used bookstore and asked the owner who their customers were.  She replied that 95% of her customers were outside of the city with many out of the country.  I was in shock and this information speaks volumes about  this global web economy.  Whether she was using EBay or other online tools to sell, her small-town antique and vintage books were available to a global marketplace which  included people who really wanted what she was selling.   Moreover, these buyers were willing to pay top dollar.

Using this tiny case study as an example, we see that utilizing the web to promote your company or resume is the number one way to secure new jobs or new business.  This is real-time global marketing that works for you 24 hours a day and seven days a week for the end user who now searches for products and services using their home computer or phone.

As individuals and businesses, how do we optimize opportunities around the world?    For starters, there are various ways to promote yourself and your brand.  Accordingly, if you are not on the Internet actively promoting your brand through websites and social media, then you have already put yourself into  a 21st century disadvantage.

Virtual Resume Marketing Basics

To begin your self-promotion, the  first way to improve your opportunities or  get a better job is to digitally customize  your highest attributes and credentials on your resume for the types of positions that you seek.  The  second method  is to take those attributes and credentials and brand them to the public using various websites, social media, email and other.  The key here is to make sure that interested searchers and parties know about your capabilities and your business excellence.  Further, you must make sure that your Internet presence portrays you in the highest light and in the highest truth.  In the end, it is helping those who are seeking professionals like you.  This takes skill, effort, and creativity.

As a note, an Internet resume is designed somewhat different than a normal resume .  This is because an Internet resume is more of a niche curriculum vitae that targets various types of work.  Typically, your specializations are the way that you will help other companies and other people increase productivity.  In this economy, they way to get paid your highest value is to convey the impression of increase to the other party.  This means that you make sure people understand your worth and why you are indispensible and cost-effective.   Often, it takes time and some writing to clarify the ways in which you can help others improve efficiency, effectiveness and their profits.  Time is money, and if you have the ability to save time for companies and executives, you also become a very important part of their profit center.

Selling your resume, expertise and your products & services to the global marketplace is the best way in which your company will continue to prosper in the future.  Let’s face it, the world has been competing for the American consumers’ dollars for many years. With that being said, this era could be your opportunity to provide excellence to as many customers as possible both in the USA and abroad.  Thus, you need not depend solely on your city, state, province, or region because there are seekers of your wares around the world.  If  you are trying to get a job, you are technically representing your own company, and  you must sell and promote your brand and your name to others who are willing to pay you for your services.  Not only should you sell yourself, your degree, education, or experience, but you must do this with digital-tactics. This means that you must use the most prolific and most searched keywords and key-phrases on your websites, social media and resume.  You do this because if people are searching for a certain product or skill, hopefully your resume and website will contain the correct “search terms” in the correct language to reel in your searcher.  Searchers include:  potential clients, HR executives, recruiters, headhunters, and dealmakers.

Out and In Sourcing – Local and Global

In  theory, there are two simple ways to succeed in the United States.  One  is providing local services that can NOT be outsourced on the ground,  and the other is to is to provide services globally to any customer that is willing to pay.   What is an example of a service that can be outsourced? How about:  home healthcare, electricians, fast food, coffee houses, plumbers, construction, home repair,   or even a local licensed lawyer would be an example.   Keep in mind that many professions can be outsourced. Even professions that people thought were safe are now being partially outsourced.  Examples are  partially outsourced work education, training, accounting or engineering.

Remember some professions that  were traditionally outsourced are moving back to the United States. A  lot of this has to do with technology, software, and robotics where the technology does the work in the United States and the individual worker in the United States controls or maintains the systems so it continues to perform an excellent way.  In essence, this puts thousands of people offshore out of work.  Thus, there is an ebb and flow between what can be done offshore and what can be performed effectively onshore.  To put outsourcing in reverse, many companies are now in-sourcing.  This means that a company like JetBlue or United Airlines may not fire an employee who wants to raise kids at home and the corporation may prefer to keep a 10 year veteran on staff and simply let him work from home and care for kids. Why?  This person has skills and knowledge that is hard to let go and that employee can perform customer service from home very effectively without a commute.

Reviewing Applicants for Jobs – Types of Resumes

In  my time as a hiring and screening representative for major company, I saw hundreds of superb resumes which also show a 21st century shift in appearance.  From my experience, there are two types of resumes now in the United States. The first is a resume of an individual who works for one company loyally who has one job. To be honest, many companies do not allow workers to engage in any outside activities or jobs.    However, this loyal person may be interested in obtaining a new job or work with a different company.

The second type of resume are individuals who I would call multi-preneurs, and these are individuals who typically work for themselves and provide services or products to  several companies in the United States and outside of the country as well.  These people are typically well  credentialed and have expertise in one or several areas that can help companies be productive.  These professionals prefer to work for themselves and not put all their eggs in one basket.  As independent contractors, tax law is also allowing many of them to take larger deductions for health and other office expenses.

Because the present economy is one of the nastiest challenges that we have had in the last hundred years,  there will be vast opportunity in the middle of this chaos;  however, many people may not be able to adapt quickly. Thus, the hustlers will adapt and win in this global market, and those who do not take action may stagnate for months if not years.  However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If we can target certain jobs and continue to promote ourselves using these Internet secrets, the opportunities will be much larger and abundant.

Now back to the Virtual Resume .

There are several ways to market yourself.  The first is by sending your resume to the name and e-mail addresses of people who are looking for employees or filling certain positions. Since email boxes can be full, it is always good to add their name and your name to the subject line.  As Dale Carnegie said, the name of a person is always music to their ears.  The  second  way to create a resume account is through job networks such as Monster.com or  LinkedIn.com.   The professional network called LinkedIn.com  will actually allow you to create a public profile and resume which is a great way to include a link in your emails for others to see your resume, photo and credentials along with a method for others to connect to you.  The  third is through pure social networks like Facebook.  All of these social networks are ways to build alliances, communication, create friendships or even to  request recommendations.  The  fourth would be using your local knowledge and targeting a local company for employment. The key here is to use word-of-mouth, ask questions, join local associations,  and calling companies by phone.

Every city and town has small offices or boutique firms that may be looking for assistance in the area of customer service, relationship management, or sales or even information technology.  If you want to stay local, you may need to knock on doors until you find the company or person who needs help.  Every  company is in the business of selling, and without marketing and sales, no one will be able to learn about or see what a company has to offer.  It is this reason that companies will always be hiring because they must keep selling to new customers and managing existing relationships.

Online Resume Branding Tips

These rules also applies to your resume and your name brand. Here are some tips for every person out there looking for work.  First, have somebody review your resume who understands the type of work you’re looking for.  Then, make sure that you have this updated resume available on your website, on job search engines and in social networks. Be sure an create a special email address just for your job searches.  In this way, you protect your private account from spam.   Next, make sure you have an updated photograph of yourself that is of good quality.

Be sure that your resume includes all of the skills, degrees, credentials,  training or any other education or experience that you have.  Many people seem to omit relevant skills when they apply for jobs.   An example of that would be a language skill, global selling skill, Internet skills, or  short training course that you may have taken in areas including: compliance, ethics, service, safety, sexual harassment, or sales.  All of these short-term training courses or certificates can add great weight to your resume.

Also, we must know all we can about the companies that we want to work for.  We must further be prepared to answer questions about our strengths weaknesses and ability to provide service for the new company or team that you intend to work for. If you get an interview, you may need to sit down with several people in a department to be interviewed. Thus, the more you are prepared, the better.

Make  sure that your Internet brand and reputation is prolific on the Internet.  If you put your biographical information on all the top social networks you will probably create 2 to 3 search engine pages of links that relate to your resume and image.  These links should  bolster your best qualities. Then, begin targeting your jobs, opening job search accounts and uploading your resume.  There are several  top  job search engines such as:  Monster.com,  Yahoo Jobs, Careerbuilder.com, or Dice.com

To secure the best jobs with the best wages and benefits, we must be able to show how we are better than the rest of the applicants in myriad of ways in which can improve the capacity of the employer.  To do this, we must also find out what the employer is looking for and tailor ourselves for the position that we desire.

Many times, we may need to hone our skills and credentials toward the position that we desire.   This may require reading, learning, achieving licenses, diplomas, professional designations,  or more.  With the fast changing technology, many of us are required to know how to use various software, platforms, or technological methodologies.  With that being said, you may need to have 3 or 4 types of resumes where one specific resume is for sales and the other is for management and so forth.

Jobs and Economic Going Forward

In sum, we all must make the best of ourselves as individuals and invariably it benefits the employer, the organization, and even the community.  We must be willing to promote ourselves with integrity and honesty, but also aggressively.  By doing so, we can find great full time or even part time work.  In this fast-paced economy, we must be nimble and this agility includes communication by phone, email, web, and face-to-face.  Even if we are entrepreneurs or self-employed, we are still working for our clients and customers.

Well this troubling economy improve? Of course it will, and there are millions of jobs available online right now around the world.  This economic situation reminds me of the years when American manufacturing  and mechanics retooled for the “information technology era” that began over 25 years ago.   It may take several years for the world to transcend the global financial crisis but cycles always come and go.    I believe that we are in a process of retooling again, but we must all be mindful of the importance of learning new strategies and tools to serve and contribute on a global scale even more effectively.

Fixed income annuity contracts are a great hedge against longevity risk that can help provide retirement income sufficiency in an increasingly uncertain environment. But even with a fixed annuity, income sufficiency is a tricky goal to attain when you’re walking uphill against inflation.

Since a $100,000 annuity pays the same $650/month in January 2032 as it does in January 2012, it must be paired with a strategy that hedges against inflation. Writing for Forbes earlier this month, Stephen Horan, PhD, discussed the lesser-known cousin of the fixed annuity, the inflation-protected annuity.

An inflation-protected annuity is generally a “fixed” annuity that includes a component that ratchets up payments each year to account for inflation. There are two general types of inflation protected annuities: (1) those that account for inflation by increasing payments by a fixed percentage (e.g., 4%) each year to account for inflation; and (2) those with a variable increase that is tied to an inflation indicator like the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of annuities in Advisor’s Journal, see Annuities: They Get No Respect (CC 11-120), Annuity Respect: Earning It! (CC 11-150), & How Much to Allocate to Annuities: A Critical Analysis (CC 11-109).

Upheaval in the long-term care (LTC) market has drastically increased premiums and reduced consumer choice. In the last couple years, many LTC carriers left the market or dramatically increased their rates when they discovered that they had dramatically underpriced coverage.

MetLife, for instance, eliminated its long-term care insurance products at the end of 2010, saying that interest rates, among other things, made the product line impossible to continue. At the same time, John Hancock announced that it was raising premiums on in-force policies by 40%.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of long-term care insurance in Advisor’s Journal, see Long-term Care Insurance Reform Act of 2010 (CC 10-46) & Long-Term Care Insurance—A Desirable, Tax-Advantaged Employee Benefit (CC 08-28).

For in-depth analysis of long-term care insurance, see Tax Facts: Long-Term Care Insurance.

Your questions and comments are always welcome. Please post them below or call the Panel of Experts.

In the last couple years, US life settlement funds have made significant inroads into the UK. Last year, the UK’s securities regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), began approving life settlement funds—opening life settlements to UK investors.

In the US, life settlements expanded rapidly in the early 2000s from less than $1 billion in 1999 to about $12 billion (face value) in 2008. Life settlements then contracted between 2008 and 2010 to about $7 billion. Although estimates from before the financial crisis estimated that life settlements would increase to between $90 and 140 billion in face amount settled by 2016, it’s looking like those projections were far too ambitious.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of life settlements in Advisor’s Journal, see Life Settlements—Savior of Municipal Finance? (CC 11-97), Life Settlement Provider Accused of Falsifying Life Span Reports (CC 11-23).

For in-depth analysis of life settlements, see Advisor’s Main Library: A—Life Settlements—Introduction.

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Please join us next month as we discuss the modern trends surrounding captive insurance. Wealth managers who have an interest in captives will likely find the information and presentation useful. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

For additional information on captives see, Advisorfyi.com–States Competing for Captives Insurance Business, Alternative Risk Transfer Revisited, Captive Market Continues to Grow, LLC Series and Cell Companies, Group Captive Insurance Companies and Year End Tax Considerations, and A Dollar Saved…Captive Insurance Company Costs

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Estates of decedents who died in 2010 finally have guidance from the IRS on how to opt out of estate tax treatment and allocate carryover basis to estate property. The guidance is long overdue, and leaves little time for estates to make decisions that could have a massive tax impact.

Under the guidance, Notice 2011-66, to opt out of the estate tax and apply the new carryover basis rules, an executor must file Form 8939, Allocation of Increase in Basis for Property Acquired From a Decedent. The due date for the form is November 15, 2011. But despite the November deadline, Form 8939 and its instructions will not be available until early this fall. The IRS has, however, released a draft version of the form.

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of the new estate tax in Advisor’s Journal, see What Next? ILITs and Estates under 5MM (CC 11-114), Does the New Estate Tax Make the Bypass Trust Obsolete? (CC-10-122), 2010 Estates: To Elect or Not to Elect (CC 10-124) & Obama Tax Agreement Passed by House (CC 10-117).

For in-depth analysis of the estate tax, see Advisor’s Main Library: Estate, Gift and GST Taxes.