Did you know that depending on where you live, you may be subject to state-level estate or inheritance tax? Seventeen states and the District of Columbia currently impose some type of state-level estate tax or inheritance tax which can affect both residents and nonresidents. Read this article to learn six surprising facts about state estate taxes that could impact your financial future.

Six things you may not know about state estate taxes

Closely held business owners know that retaining and rewarding key employees can be essential to their business’s continued success. In this video, Matt Pate, CVP with The Nautilus Group®, a service of New York Life, talks about ways business owners can ensure their employees stay motivated and happy and their businesses stay profitable.

Many business owners fall into the trap of focusing on the urgent, short-term operational demands of their business, but neglect or delay the important planning critical to its ultimate longevity and long-term value extraction. This article provides an overview of key issues to consider when creating a business succession plan and the critical components of succession planning that distinguish astute entrepreneurs.

What distinguishes an astute entrepreneur?

Why create a trust for children and grandchildren, rather than just for the children?

Noted CPA Robert Keebler, founder of Keebler & Associates, describes why clients with estate tax concerns might prefer to create a trust for both their children and their grandchildren. Using a generation-skipping transfer trust, Keebler says you’ll have the ability to transfer property to both generations and avoid estate tax. Watch this short video to learn more. New York Life Insurance Company and its agents do not provide tax or legal advice.

In the absence of planning, an individual's retirement savings can easily become scattered among a multitude of retirement accounts and be forgotten. Consolidating retirement accounts can help manage assets and track progress toward retirement goals. Before consolidating your accounts, read this article to learn about factors to consider to avoid potentially costly mistakes.

Consolidation factors to consider when rolling over your 401(k) accounts.

Limiting liability for a small business has never been more important. This article, from The Nautilus Group®, describes basic strategies business owners can consider in order to protect both their personal and their business assets, while growing the business.

Asset protection strategies for small business owners

How can you choose which assets to leave to charity and which to heirs?

When considering a charitable bequest, it’s sometimes difficult to make a choice between assets. Which should I leave to the charity, and which should I leave to my heirs? In this video, Heather Davis, CVP with The Nautilus Group®, a service of New York Life, explains the tax implications of your choices and how to make an informed decision that can minimize tax exposure while maximizing your legacy.

As important as estate planning is, the proper titling of property can be even more important. If done correctly, it has the ability to perfectly complement your estate plan; if not, the plan may not work as you intended. This article provides a helpful guide on potential pitfalls to avoid and topics to consider when titling your property to help make sure your estate plan meets your goals.

The importance of a property title

What is a SLAT and how is it beneficial?

Spousal lifetime benefit or access trusts, also known as SLATs, involve one spouse putting selected assets into a trust for the other spouse. This is a common technique in situations where parents may not be ready to completely hand over assets to their children or an individual wants the protection a trust provides but also wants to retain access to those assets. Listen to attorney Steven Novak of The Blum Firm describe SLATs and how to use them in this short video and see if this strategy could be useful for you.

Charitable Remainder Trust with Wealth Replacement

Deena and Dave have loved their local dinosaur museum for many, many years. So much so, that they donate to the dinosaur museum every year. But when it came time to figuring out the best tax strategies for charitable giving, they thought it would be as confusing as spelling brachiosaurus. Watch this video to learn about the three places your money can go when you pass away - your beneficiaries, the government, or your favorite charities.

Key Employee Retention

How do employers retain top talent? Watch this video to learn more about a key employee retention strategy.

Income Tax Buckets

There are three types of income buckets - taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free. What’s in your bucket?

Supplemental Life Insurance Retirement Plans (SLIRP)

Watch this 2-minute video to learn how a supplemental life insurance retirement plan – or SLIRP – can allow you to get money when you want to, or need to, without hassle.

Estate Planning for Children with Special Needs

Children and individuals with special needs require a different level of estate planning to help ensure those needs are met for the duration of their lifetimes. In this short video, you’ll hear Rimon PC estate planning attorney Patricia Annino list the steps you need to be aware of to address planning for individuals with special needs and help secure your loved one’s future.

Selecting a business entity or organization form can be intimidating and confusing, yet it is an important decision for business owners and one that can have far-reaching consequences. This article looks at the different tax implications, characteristics and administrative requirements for common business types and provides an overview of how the owner’s selection may complement or detract from the business’s ultimate objectives.

Building a business: Entity selection and forms of organization.

How should assets be titled to maximize protection?

Did you know that the way your assets are titled can either weaken or strengthen your overall asset protection? In this short video, Nautilus CVP Kathryn Rodgers explains how assets should be titled to provide a greater level of protection from creditors, forced liquidations, and ex-spouses.

Special Needs Trusts

Families that care for individuals with special needs can work with a qualified professional to create a special needs trust to help protect their assets and provide lifetime financial stability for their loved one. Watch this one-minute video to learn more.

The first generation builds it, the second manages it, and the third squanders it. This common rags-to-riches-to-rags phenomenon motivates many families to develop a generational wealth plan. But while today’s wealthy seniors are likely to die with far more assets than they’ll ever need, the ever-increasing costs of higher education, homeownership, and health care, coupled with increased spending, decreased saving, and greater longevity, could mean scant wealth remains to leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren. This article describes a solution that can provide both income replacement during one’s working years and a means for guaranteeing long-term family wealth.

Life insurance is a valuable generational wealth-transfer tool.

All guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company. The primary purpose of life insurance is death benefit protection.

Many people have dreams, but not all of them will take the risk necessary to make them come true.

The 2008 economic downturn had far-reaching effects, but for Tom and his wife, Linda, who had just recovered from nearly losing everything to estate taxes after Tom’s father passed away, it was financial double jeopardy. Watch this Real Life Stories video (2:45) to learn how Nautilus Member Harvey Krautschun used the versatile power of life insurance to help protect his client’s assets.

The release of the highly anticipated revised RMD tables combined with the recent passage of the original SECURE Act and the likely passage of “SECURE 2.0” has raised many questions on how the revised tables work in the context of the new retirement planning legislation. This article addresses these questions and can help identify new planning opportunities for additional tax deferral.

SECURE 2.0 and revised RMD tables may provide additional tax deferral on retirement savings.

A basic understanding of how to maximize the Internal Revenue Code Section 199A pass-through business deduction is a must for any estate planner, according to well-known attorney Steve Oshins, who describes in this article from The Nautilus Group how certain taxpayers can deduct 20% of their qualified business income using what he calls the “Magical W-2 Formula.” New york Life Insurance Company and its agents do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice.

IRC Section 199A pass-through business deduction

Clients often expend significant time and financial resources to put a will and overall estate plan in place. Despite these efforts, a small percentage of wills may be contested. An experienced estate planning team can help recognize risks for a will contest, implement strategies to minimize incentives for potential challengers, and reduce a challenger’s likelihood of success. Read this article to learn about strategies people can consider to help avoid a successful will contest.

Avoiding Contested Wills

As a fiduciary, your role may include periodically reviewing key issues related to life insurance policies for your clients. This checklist is provided as a starting point to help you ask and answer the right questions about the insured, the policy, and the insurance provider, and can serve as a useful guide for determining if your client’s policy meets the beneficiaries’ objectives as well as your own fiduciary responsibilities.

Fiduciary Responsibility Checklist

Understanding the difference between probate and non-probate assets

Did you know that certain non-probate assets – such as retirement plans, life insurance proceeds, and annuities – may not be controlled by your will or trust? In this short video, Winstead PC attorney John Bergner explains how integrating non-probate assets with the assets your will does govern is an important component to controlling the disposition of your estate, avoiding your assets passing to unintended beneficiaries, and making sure your intentions will be realized.

A potentially overlooked tax provision, Internal Revenue Code Section 1202, may allow certain taxpayers who sell stock in a “qualifying small business” to exclude from taxation a percentage—50%, 75%, or even 100%—of the gains realized upon the sale of stock. This article explores some of the benefits and requirements of this possibly advantageous non-elective tax provision. New York Life and its agents do not offer legal or tax advice.

Business owners may be eligible for tax-free gains on the sale of qualifying small business stock under IRC §1202

Without a plan, a beloved pet may be abandoned or euthanized upon the owner’s death. While many pet owners are well aware of this potential issue, few take any action and devise a plan. Read this article to learn how incorporating provisions for a pet in a will or trust, establishing a plan with a rescue organization, or creating a pet trust can help ensure that a beloved pet is well provided and cared for should it outlive its owner.

Caring for a pet after death

Chris Anderson of Adams Capital describes the differences between personal goodwill and enterprise goodwill in this article and discusses how these distinctions can have a far-reaching impact for owners of closely held companies, from obtaining accurate valuations to making confident decisions, or segregating marital assets in a divorce.

Understanding the distinctions between personal goodwill and enterprise goodwill empowers business owners

Nautilus Member Bill Lyon illustrates the value of life insurance as a legacy.

“What do you do when you’re full of life, and you learn there’s a fast-growing cancer inside of you?”

Nautilus Member Bill Lyon shares the story of his client, Noelle, a free spirit who would rather spend her time helping others than think about herself.

Watch Bill’s story (3:01) to see how this remarkable woman reacted to the news that she would not watch her daughters get married, after all.

Tyson Vines’ story shows the different outcomes his family faced with and without life insurance

Growing up on a farm in a place called Paradise Hill sounds like heaven for anyone, but at 6 years old, Nautilus Member Tyson Vines watched as his family’s dairy business was sold off, piece by piece, just days after losing his grandfather.

“Vines View Farms was no more.”

Years later, Tyson got a call from his father that made him wonder if history was going to repeat itself. Watch Tyson’s story (2:55) to learn how his father created a new legacy for the Vines family.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was one of the most significant tax legislation acts signed into law since the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This historic timeline illustrates the fluctuations in US estate tax laws and provides an understanding of the different reasons the law has changed over the past 220+ years.

Estate tax timeline – is history repeating itself?

Get to know The Nautilus Group

Get to know The Nautilus Group, an exclusive resource for insurance and financial services professionals that provides state-of-the-art planning strategies for their high net worth clients.

Tim FitzGerald shares how he impacted his client’s financial security

“My client’s wife, Cheryl, was a CPA, and she did not like life insurance.” How did Nautilus Member Tim FitzGerald end up having an impact on Cheryl’s financial security

Are you a digital thought leader?

Business owners, executives and other professionals naturally want to keep building on their success, and in the expanding world of digital thought leadership, your footprint has never been more important. In this video interview, Dean DeLisle, founder and CEO of Forward Progress and creator of the digital thought leadership development plan Social Jack, shares how to take control of your digital footprint and build a reputation as a thought leader within your industry.

Nautilus Member Ralph Sklar shares his unforgettable call

Hear what happened when Nautilus Member Ralph Sklar answered his client’s call about the life insurance coverage her husband purchased.

A significant number of Americans have no estate plan in place, which could be due to several factors: not making time to address a seemingly far-off problem, avoiding potentially difficult conversations and decisions, not wanting to think of one’s mortality, or the perceived high cost of working with attorneys and other professionals. However, failing to plan can have consequences that could be very costly both financially and in terms of an undesirable outcome, delay, and family disharmony. This article describes general estate planning considerations involved in the process and the types of documents typically incorporated into an estate plan.

Basic estate planning considerations and documentation

Protecting your business

The sudden death of a business owner can have a substantial impact on its customers, employees, lenders, and suppliers. How should business owners prepare now?

Although the SECURE Act eliminated the stretch IRA strategy for most designated beneficiaries, there is a strategy where IRA distributions may be coupled with a charitable remainder trust to duplicate the stretch IRA strategy. Read this article from The Nautilus Group®, which is a service of New York Life Insurance Company, to learn how IRA distributions to a CRTs can effectively alter the SECURE Act’s 10-year payout for asset protection, estate planning, retirement income, and charitable planning purposes. The Nautilus Group and its Member Agents do not offer tax, legal or accounting advice. Securities are offered through Registered Representatives of NYLIFE Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, A Licensed Insurance Agency.

IRA distributions to a CRT can provide asset protection and retirement income

Carrie Hall shares her story

“Mike was a good friend from college. I told myself that Mike could buy insurance through his brokerage firm and was taking care of his insurance himself.” Listen to Nautilus Member Carrie Hall share her story.

Buy-sell agreements

Do you know how a buy-sell agreement works? If you co-own a business, you can’t afford not to.

Nautilus Member Braden Draggoo shares how life insurance made a difference for him

“My brothers and I always felt that we had the perfect childhood, until an oncoming vehicle crossed the center line and changed everything.” Listen to Nautilus Member Braden Draggoo share how life insurance personally made a difference for him.

Protecting your family

How can business owners best protect their families and lifestyle?

Rich Maus describes his most memorable moment

“Last year, I was meeting a friend for lunch, and he tells me, ‘Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Good news is, my wife’s expecting a baby.’” Watch Nautilus Member Agent Rich Maus describe his most memorable moment as an agent.

Most people think of insurance as a basic protection tool – pay a premium, and if the worst happens, the carrier pays out a benefit. This article from The Nautilus Group looks at how life insurance can provide more benefits than just a one-time payout and explains the difference in term and whole life policies to help consumers understand that while term coverage offers peace of mind for a while, whole life insurance can provide peace of mind for a lifetime.

Life insurance 101: An overview of term life policies versus whole life policies

Why retain employees

How can medical practices manage the cost of high employee turnover and the negative effect it has on revenues? Learn more by watching this short video.

In today’s job market, the risk of losing top performers is very real for employers. Finding suitable replacements can cause financial stress and disruption of business which may result in lost profits. An employer can gain a distinct advantage over companies competing for top talent by offering a non-qualified deferred compensation plan designed to motivate and retain the employees who are key to the company’s success. Read this article from The Nautilus Group to learn how this valuable tool provides benefits for both employers and their key employees.

NQDC plans: a tool for employers to attract and retain top talent

How can we retain employees?

Watch this short video to learn how medical practices and other businesses can reward and retain their key employees while mitigating financial risk.

The sudden death of a business founder or key executive can have lasting consequences across the entire enterprise, and include legal, financial, tax, business operation, and psychological ramifications. In this article, Rimon, PC estate planning attorney Patricia Annino describes the impacts of those consequences and urges all family business founders and key executives – and their advisors – to plan now for a smooth operational transition and consider the seven key components she provides for an effective business succession plan.

Planning for the sudden death of family business founder or key executive.

Nautilus Member Jerry Coats Recounts Working with a 3rd-Generation Farmer

Many people have dreams, but not all of them will take the risk necessary to make them come true. 

In this story, Nautilus Member Jerry Coats recounts working with a third-generation farmer named Bill, whose son, Larry, wanted to raise cattle rather than crops. 

Larry found just the right bull and happily flew off to buy him with three years’ worth of expected farm revenue in his pocket, a huge investment in his dream of expanding the family business. 

Watch Jerry’s video to see how this story proves that while dreams can be risky, smart business owners – with the help of their trusted financial professionals – can mitigate that risk and chase their dreams in a responsible way.

Electing to receive Social Security benefits prior to reaching full retirement age may not be the best decision. Read this article to learn why waiting until full retirement age (or later) can substantially increase the ultimate Social Security benefit received.

Social Security benefits: Start early or delay receipt?

An increasing number of stock market investors are seeing huge losses in their taxable brokerage accounts. In this informative article from The Nautilus Group, you’ll learn how tax strategies with respect to these losses can diminish their true economic cost as well as ways to avoid common traps and pitfalls.

Tax loss harvesting may reduce the pain of stock market losses

How to stand out when you speak

Creating a memorable impression when speaking publicly is not really about what you say, according to Deirdre Van Nest, creator of The Crazy Good Talks Blueprint, but more about how you structure the message and hold the audience’s attention. This video explores tools that you can use to stand out and own the room every time you speak.

Do your employees share these retirement concerns?

Watch this short video to learn what employees are concerned about when considering retirement, and how medical practice owners can address those concerns.

Appointing a specialist who can control the trust-owned family business or manage the trust’s investments allows the responsibility of managing the trust assets to be shared among uniquely qualified experts.

Read this article from The Nautilus Group to see how using a directed trust can allow grantors to both enjoy the services of a professional trustee and carve out specific areas of responsibility and management over the trust’s assets.

Nautilus, New York Life Insurance Company, its employees or agents are not in the business of providing tax, legal or accounting advice.

Appointing a trusted investment advisor

How Can Business Owners Unlock the Value of Their Businesses?

Business Marketability Assessment: Increasing the ROI on Your Business

The most successful business owners know when and how to use tools, such as the Marketability Assessment, to increase the return on the investment in their business. In this short video, we introduce Mario and Maria. Both own successful businesses and have decisions to make when it comes to determining the value and marketability of their businesses as they consider their exits.

Protecting Your Partner

How can business owners cope with the loss of a business partner? Listen now to learn how.

Avoiding the 3-year tax rule.

Life insurance benefits are typically free of income tax but can be subject to estate tax, which in some cases may be as high as 40%. Transferring ownership of a policy to a trust or third party is a common way to reduce that tax liability, however, the insured must live for 3 years after the transfer in order to benefit from this strategy. In this interview, Winstead PC attorney John Bergner describes ways to accomplish this tax saving strategy without being subject to this 3-year tax rule. Listen to his insights and learn how you can better protect your assets from potential estate tax.

New York Life Insurance Company and its agents do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. Winstead PC and John Bergner are not affiliated with New York Life Insurance Company or its affiliates.

How Life Insurance Made a Difference in Nautilus Member Gib Surles’ Family

“The first life insurance death claim I delivered was to my mom, for a policy I wrote on my dad’s life.” Listen to Nautilus Member Gib Surles share his personal story about how life insurance made a difference for him.

Setting up an irrevocable trust can be a long and arduous process, but even after you’ve drafted and executed the trust and finalized the funding of the trust’s assets, you still may not be done. This article looks at the IRS requirements for reporting asset transfers to various types of trusts and explores situations where it may be beneficial to report transfers even when it’s not required.

Gift tax reporting for transfers to trusts

How Can Business Owners Tax Diversify Their Retirement Income?

How can business owners build wealth for their own retirement while trying to reduce their income taxes? Watch this video.

How can you use “split dollar” to efficiently fund a life insurance policy in an ILIT?

For affluent individuals who are funding life insurance policies in an irrevocable trust, using the “Split Dollar” technique can be beneficial in getting around the gift tax on premiums. In this video, Matt Pate, CVP with The Nautilus Group®, a service of New York Life, describes the use of the “Split Dollar” technique, its economic benefits, and when to unwind a split dollar obligation.

Parents caring for those with special needs are often unaware of the substantial tax benefits available to them and could miss out on potential tax deductions and reductions in their tax liability. In this article, Thomas Brinker, Jr., LL.M., CPA, focuses on the medical expense and home equity interest expense deductions pertaining to home-related capital expenditures to help parents of individuals with special needs and their advisors be aware of some of the unusual tax code provisions that may be applicable.

Often overlooked deductions for medical capital improvements and their financing

Clients are often unsure how frequently their estate plans may need to be reevaluated and updated. This article presents three common scenarios that should trigger a review of an estate plan and the reasons why periodic updates are critical to achieving a client’s estate planning goals.

Three reasons why periodic reviews of estate planning documents are important

One notable tax benefit of life insurance is that death proceeds are generally received by a beneficiary free of any income taxation. However, this benefit may be lost if a policy is transferred in a manner that the “transfer-for-value” rule is triggered, creating a “trap” for ordinary individuals who may transfer policies for estate or business planning purposes without recognizing that consideration is being provided for that transferred policy. The information in this article describes why planners, tax advisors, and policyholders should be vigilant to ensure that no consideration exists or that the transfer falls within one of the exceptions to the transfer-for-value rule and can help to both avoid unexpected tax outcomes and ensure that the policy’s death benefit may remain income-tax free. Please note that New York Life Insurance Company and its agents do not provide tax or legal advice.

The transfer-for-value rule: An overlooked life insurance tax trap

Many business owners seem to think they’re going to live forever and thus have done no succession planning, despite the COVID-19 pandemic illustrating more than ever the need to be prepared for probable, or inevitable, events or setbacks. Planning to work forever is not a business succession plan, and without one, when adverse events occur, the results can be devastating. This article looks at three critical elements business owners should consider to create a successful transition plan that can help maximize the business’s value for themselves or their families and increase the firm’s longevity.

Planning to work forever is not a business succession plan

How can married, high net worth couples incorporate “tax-wise” strategies into their estate planning documents? Read this article from The Nautilus Group to learn about three basic strategies that can help to eliminate or minimize estate and transfer taxes and the key benefits and disadvantages of each.

The basics of “tax-wise” estate planning for married couples

It’s a whole new world for estate planning – from an all-time high estate tax exemption that may soon be cut in half (without further action by Congress), to the prospect of higher taxes, larger inheritances, complicated family dynamics, rising rates of divorce and litigation, and electronic data – the list goes on and on. In this environment of uncertainty, estate planning attorney Marvin Blum provides these 10 questions that clients and their planners can explore to identify clients’ most pressing needs in this rapidly changing estate planning environment.

Estate planning for 2022: Ten questions for clients

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust Animated Video

When it comes to owning a life insurance policy, we know what you’re thinking. “I don’t need to worry about that right now. What’s the worst that could happen?” Watch this animated video to see three different outcomes a family could experience in the event of an untimely death and see why ILITs can be the best option to protect your family’s future.