Skip to main content

What is the Financial Circle of Care? What Will it Do for You and Your Family?

The Financial Circle of Care (FCOC) is designed to help with your family finances in the event of a tragedy. This vital group of services we provide at Wealth Management Accounting (WMA) eliminates the common financial fear of: “Will my loved ones be okay when I am gone?” WMA team members are often one of the first phone calls made by clients who experience a loss of a spouse or parent. We offer pre-planning to ensure affairs are in order BEFORE the passing of a loved one. Furthermore, we prepare additional assistance with any transitions following a tragedy.

Our services include a team that helps you protect your assets, maintain your estate plan, and ensure the efficiency of your tax planning. The FCOC aims to relieve parents and children regarding their financial care. We are here to make this as simple of a process as possible; this does not have to be the most challenging part of losing a loved one.

Pre-Planning Includes:

  1. Funding and Maintaining a Family LLC (FLLC)
    1. A necessary tool to protect and control your assets during your lifetime, pass these assets to your heirs and reduce taxes owed by you or your family members after your death.
    2. Protects against lawsuits, estate taxes, medical costs, probate, and more
    3. It helps manage succession and distribution of wealth after your lifetime
    4. Invaluable and useful at any point in your life
  2. In-Depth Tax Efficiency Strategy
    1. Diversifying your tax exposure will help manage cash flow and increase wealth; similar to spreading risk exposure across asset classes in investments, many do not realize that tax diversification is equally important.
    2. Reduce the risk of lost savings to tax through tax diversification
    3. Reach investment goals with a uniquely tailored tax-efficient strategy
  1. Medicaid Spend-Down
    1. Ensuring a plan is in place if the need for health care assistance arises
    2. Reducing one’s income or assets to the point where one becomes eligible for Medicaid
  1. IRA Rescue Plan
    1. Formation and execution of an IRA rescue plan, if necessary
    2. Converts IRA (or other qualified investments) to non-qualified investments that an FLLC can then protect
    3. Coordinates with your estate and asset protection plans to reduce funds visible to Medicaid for nursing home costs, should the need arise

 

Survivor Assistance:

            Our survivor assistance service is one of the most valuable and unique components of the FCOC. Losing a spouse will likely be one of life’s most traumatic and challenging experiences. We know that you will want answers and may be overwhelmed with tasks on top of the grief you experience. Our WMA team will prioritize assisting you in this time of need. We will provide aid quickly that easily outlines immediate action. We will also advise a timeline for tasks that can be completed later. Please remember that your team includes our accountant, financial advisor, and qualified staff that recognize your family’s needs and finances following this tragedy.

Survivor Assistance Includes:

  1. An executor checklist to assist in closing your spouse’s estate
  2. Help with potential tax changes as your marital status may change; adjusting your tax reduction plan accordingly
  3. Updating your estate plan
  4. Evaluating your asset investment strategy and income needs (potentially prepare a new plan)
  5. An on-call team ready to answer questions

In the event of a tragedy, we will have already asked the tough questions about the what-ifs during our initial planning. We will have prepared for an unexpected death, disability, or forced retirement as part of our planning process. Helping our clients manage their emotions during times of stress is one of our most significant advantages. From day one, our foresight helps clients make financial decisions in an ordered, rational fashion rather than placing them in a position to react emotionally to negative news or high-pressure sales tactics.

The Financial Circle of Care is designed based on experience from hundreds of cases. It directly targets common issues that spring up during the retirement transition before they occur. With each component working together, the FCOC will cover potential emergencies and common occurrences in retirement. The FCOC will help tackle managing your taxes and estate through an FLLC and tax plan, preventing losses to taxes, and assisting in medical costs through Medicaid spend-down. The FCOC will also help transition your funds beyond your lifetime. By providing strong survivor assistance services in coordination with preventative strategies, we can offer help during retirement for a potential unexpected turn of events.