Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus, brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker dealer member FINRA SIPC, investment advisor, representative, Cambridge investment Research Advisors Incorporated. A registered investment advisor, Cambridge and Nelson Core Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. Now here’s today’s Financial Focus Program.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Good morning and welcome to this week’s Financial Focus brought to you each and every Wednesday morning right here on KROS. Well, this is Nate James joining me today, talking on the way up end of February already and kind of a good feeling once you flip that calendar to March, hopefully springtime longer days.
James Nelson:
No doubt.
Nate Kreinbrink:
It’s an exciting time of the year for that.
James Nelson:
Yeah, we’re all looking forward to that and that exciting time of year for sports. I know Northeast had a big win last night and that’s that goes over well on your household so good for them, they’re moving on and… What’s their next game, Nate? You said against Mid Prairie.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Mid Prairie on Saturday and it’s always good. Again, you look at the area we’re at, I know [Comanche 00:01:25] had some good runs the last couple years, making it out to Des Moines, Clinton, [inaudible 00:01:30] a few years back or whatever, making it out there. Great area for high school sports, high school activities, and it’s always good to see this region of Iowa represented and hopefully they can make that next step. Obviously you’d throw [Dewitt 00:01:45] in there as well [inaudible 00:01:46] the girls team just qualified last night as well to make it to Des Moines.
James Nelson:
Yep.
Nate Kreinbrink:
So great area, great activities, and again, wish them all luck as they continue down that trail.
James Nelson:
Yep. Nice to see a few local teams make it out that direction. That’d be awesome.
Nate Kreinbrink:
It’s always good to see. And the excitement and the smaller town communities kind of getting behind them in the area communities just rallying behind them and then kind of wishing them luck. But again, end of February, always good to see. I know last week we had Andy Ferguson with NelsonCorp Tax Solutions on the third Wednesday. We always talk taxes with either him or Mike [Vanzuden 00:02:18]. Again, we’re full swing into tax season. I know you see a lot more traffic coming in and the people on that end of our office with NelsonCorp Tax Solutions definitely picking it up and scrambling around now.
Nate Kreinbrink:
But again, just a few reminders that this year, filing taxes is again going to be a little bit different, and you need to make sure that if you’ve got those papers that were sent to you by the IRS, from the stimulus payments that were paid out last year, the child tax credits that were sent out again, there will be one sent out for you. And if you’re married, there’ll be one sent out additionally, for your wife. You need to make sure that you bring those along with you.
James Nelson:
Yeah, everybody’s getting that reminder and again, it seems like the last three or four years have been different in some respect, whether it’s deadlines being pushed back or whatever it is. But this year again is a little bit different trying to track these stimulus payments and get everything reported the way it should be on the tax return.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. As Andy said last week, turnaround time right now for taxes, and are getting a refund back for getting that refund sent back to you, turnaround time has been pretty quickly, as far as compared to previous years where it seemed like there was always this delay.
James Nelson:
Yeah.
Nate Kreinbrink:
But again, I see that kind of, again, transitioning to the longer you wait to the tax deadline, the longer it’s probably going to be for you to get any refund back should you have one cut coming to you. And again, tax deadline, middle of April, again, as he mentioned again, there’s no mention of any type of an extension like there was the last couple of years. So again, if you got those documents, get them turned in, your taxpayer will definitely appreciate it, giving them a little extra time, not waiting to that last minute again.
James Nelson:
Yeah. And it’s worked out well. I know at least in our office, the turnaround’s been very quickly for returns, only a day or two as far as drop offs or in office appointments. So yeah, give us a holler if you have questions or you’re looking to get your return done. We’d be happy to have somebody sit down with you.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And another thing that goes along with that is looking at any IRA or raw off contributions up until the tax deadline. If you still have room in there to do it, you still have up until the tax deadline in order to make a previous year contribution, if you still have some room left and you didn’t have not hit the limits yet. So again, things that keep in mind can kind of change your tax situation a little bit depending on which route you go. But if you are able to, you want to make sure that you hit those limits. And if you have some from the previous year, you have up until that tax deadline to make those contributions.
James Nelson:
Yeah. One of the few things you can do after the year’s end. So you’re right, getting those contributions made and getting that taken care of. Times running out in that too.
Nate Kreinbrink:
With IRAs and Roth accounts and retirement accounts, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457 plans, whatever the case they may be, we always still see and we wanted to spend a little time with this to end today’s program with is talking beneficiaries, that type of stuff, making sure that you are updating those type of an account should your situation change. Again, if you have a maybe parents on there, your kids were minors when you started the account so you put parents on there. Now the kids may be of age, you may want to make sure that they’re updated. Obviously your marital status is a big part of it as well. If you have a separation of marriage, maybe you want to look at as far as who that updated beneficiary is. But it’s something that needs to do, because it is quite common. You open up your 401(k) account at work, you name the beneficiaries 15, 20 years later, you never even think about it, but you don’t understand again, who that beneficiary is to make sure that they’re updated
James Nelson:
No doubt. And I’ve seen it in the office just here recently with clients or relatives, passing away of clients. And it’s amazing just going through those beneficiary forms, how often they do get updated and how often they do need to get changed, because like you said, situations change.
James Nelson:
The other big one is a spouse passes away and maybe there’s a child, two children, whatever the case may be, pretty small family. They’re now designated as the primary beneficiary, but the client wants to designate maybe grandkids as a secondary beneficiary. And what do you do if they’re minors? And that gets a little bit more involved. It’s not generally the best idea to put a minor down on a beneficiary form. That gets a little bit more extensive when you’re looking at a estate plan or will’s trust. Not that those are perfect vehicles to accept retirement money, but those conversations get pretty deep pretty quickly and I think it’s important. I’ve dealt with a few here just recently to bring that up that generally people think just putting the grandkids down things are done and completed when there’s probably a little bit more conversation that needs to be had before you make a decision like that.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Well, and I think you just hit it on the head is just sitting down within estate planning attorney and going through your wishes as far as how you want this thing to play out after your passing and say, maybe the idea in the back of your head that you thought was going to happen isn’t necessarily what’s going to happen because of how you have things set up. And that’s where, again, the direction of an estate planning attorney, again, if you have a will you have trust do enough? Do we need to name the trust maybe, as far as maybe a contingent beneficiary from some of that, does it make sense to do that? Does it not make sense to do that? Those are all things that again, once you go through every scenario and see how it’s actually going to play out versus what you think is going to play out, again, gives you that a greater piece of mind to know, “Hey, again, worst case scenario, I know things are going to be taken care of.”
Nate Kreinbrink:
The worst thing that people want to do after they’re passing is leave a mess for their loved ones to sort through during that time period. They’re going through enough and all of a sudden they have to deal with some of that. So the more planning you can do ahead of time, the easier it’s going to be on them to transition to what that next step is.
James Nelson:
Yeah, the other thing that I feel like gets left behind too, we talk about 401(k)s or just retirement plans in general updating those beneficiaries, but an old life insurance policy. People really don’t think about those either. Those kind of fall into the same category where it’s easy to… Life happens, it’s easy to let those kind of go. And again, whether it’s a death in the family, a divorce, whatever the case may be, we can’t forget to change the beneficiary forms on those life insurance policies as well that works very much the same way as a retirement plan. It’s just an easy update, easy form to submit with a company, but oftentimes it just kind of gets left behind.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right, and I think we see that a lot with some of these older policies, the policies 10, 15, 20 years, or even greater, where they maybe took out a $25,000 life insurance policy or $50,000 life insurance policy. They have it, it’s sitting there, they don’t really know that’s… They know they have it, but that’s really all they have until again, you pass away and all of a sudden, you’re trying to put the pieces back together after the fact, and it’s so much easier to get that stuff done and update it in current obviously when you’re still alive than trying to navigate through some of after the passing. So anything that you can do, continuously review some of that stuff is definitely going to help.
James Nelson:
Yeah, and the insurance business has changed a lot. I mean, there’s been a lot of consolidations buying and selling of insurance companies. So if you do have an old life insurance policy, and even if your situation hasn’t changed, still wouldn’t be a bad idea to just update that form because again, your company could have potentially been bought out, changed hands, whatever the case may be. Always a good idea to just update those with a new signature and a new date on it and make sure things are in line like you said, you don’t want to leave anybody a mess.
Nate Kreinbrink:
All good stuff. You got questions, give us a call. We’d be happy to give you some direction and answer any questions you may have. Did want to mention real quick before we run out of time that, every Friday, NelsonCorp Wealth Management is wearing jeans for charity. Money raised in the month of February will be donated to the HAVlife Foundation of the Quad Cities. Again, James, appreciate you joining me today.
James Nelson:
Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Nathan James with NelsonCorp Wealth Management bringing you this week’s financial focus. Thanks for tuning in and have a great rest of your week.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representatives, securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker dealer member FINRA SIPC, investment advisor representative, Cambridge Investment Research advisors incorporated, a registered investment advisor, Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. For more information visit our website at www.nelsoncorp.com.