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Dennis Dachtler – Advice as Taxpayers Prepare for Proposed Major Tax Changes

In Finance on November 19, 2012 at 9:30 am
Dennis Dachtler

Dennis Dachtler

Dennis Dachtler has seen the proposed changes to tax laws for 2013, and he’s passing this information onto his clients. Tax season is just around the corner and it’s important to learn how these changes will impact you. Dennis Dachtler emphasizes that these are only proposed changes and that they could change, especially given that it is an election year. Currently, however, here is what is on the table for 2013.

Capital Gains

Currently, the top tax rate on capital gains is 15%, Dennis Dachtler states, with those in the 10-15% income bracket not currently required to pay long-term capital gains taxes. This income cap is expected to increase to 20%, according to Dennis Dachtler—23.8% including Medicare contribution tax.

Top Dividend

Top dividend tax rates may increase to 44%. This is a substantial increase, Dennis Dachtler notes, as the current rate is only 15%. This is due to the upcoming expiration of the Bush tax cuts, according to Dennis Dachtler. Unless Congress votes to extend those tax cuts, dividends will return to being taxed as income. This will most markedly impact those in higher income brackets, who may see tax increases of as much as 39.6 percent on their dividend income, reports Dennis Dachtler.

Other Investment Incomes

On other investment incomes, investors may see a nine percent increase, going from 35% to 44%. According to Dennis Dachtler, other investment income may include interest, dividends, trade income, or net gains on property, among others.

Estate Tax Exemptions

If someone inherits a home from a deceased relative, that home is subject to an estate tax. Currently, however, Dennis Dachtler explains that if the home is valued at less than $5 million, the new owner is exempt. The new tax laws propose that this exemption drop to $1 million, states Dennis Dachtler.

Medicare Contribution Tax

Another planned change in 2013 will be the Medicare contribution tax of 3.8 percent, which will be levied on specified unearned income. This will largely impact those with investment income that exceeds a certain amount, Dennis Dachtler describes.

As politicians argue about whether or not to impose taxes on the wealthy, middle class, or poor, it’s important to note that taxes impact everyone. Whatever your situation, it’s important to receive sound financial advice before filing your taxes. A professional financial advisor like Dennis Dachtler can work with you and your tax professional to help you review the exemptions and tax cuts that apply specifically to you.  For more information, visit Dachtler Wealth online at http://www.dachtlerwealth.com.

 

Securities and investment advisory services are offered solely through Ameritas Investment Corp. (AIC).  Member FINRA/SIPC.  AIC and Dachtler Wealth Management are not affiliated.  Additional products and services may be offered through Dennis Dachtler or Dachtler Wealth Management that are not offered through AIC. The opinions and views stated in this publication are solely those of Dennis Dachtler and should not in any way be considered to be an endorsement by Ameritas Investment Corp.

This is not an offer of securities in any jurisdiction, nor is it specifically directed to a resident of any jurisdiction. As with any security, request a prospectus from your Registered Representative. Read it carefully before you invest or send money.  A Representative from Dachtler Wealth Management will contact you to provide requested information.  Representatives of AIC do not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult your tax advisor or attorney regarding your situation. Securities products are currently limited to residents of AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IN, KS, LA, MN, MO, NC, NE, NM, NV, OR, PA, TN, TX, UT & WA.

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Mendel Mintz: Youth Activities at the New Chabad Jewish Community Center

In Personal, Professionals on November 14, 2012 at 5:16 pm
Mendel Mintz


Mendel Mintz

Rabbi Mendel Mintz recently broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art Jewish community center in Aspen. The facility, which will be 35,000 square feet, will offer numerous amenities for Aspen residents, including a new synagogue and banquet hall. Recently, Mendel Mintz spoke with Presentation Solutions about how the new Chabad Community Center will serve youth in the area.

Presentation Solutions: What does a Chabad community center provide to the Jewish community in its local area?

Mendel Mintz: With more than six million Jews in this country, these Jewish community centers are more important than ever. They provide a place for people to gather and share their own stories, as well as learn and attend services and programs.

Presentation Solutions: They also provide a place for youth to hang out…

Mendel Mintz: Yes, that’s true. Our new Chabad Jewish Community Center in Aspen will offer a teen rec center and a preschool. This will not only give kids a place to hang out, but it will give parents a respite if they want to spend time interacting with other adults.

Presentation Solutions: Will you provide educational opportunities to children?

Mendel Mintz: The new facility will have a preschool. We’ll also have increased classroom space for our Hebrew School, which currently has an enrollment of 65.

Presentation Solutions: How often does the Hebrew School meet?

Mendel Mintz: Once each week during the school year. Classes are held after school, beginning at 3:30 p.m. and lasting only an hour and a half.

Presentation Solutions: How much does Hebrew School cost?

Mendel Mintz: $750 for the entire year.

Presentation Solutions: What does a student learn at Hebrew School?

Mendel Mintz: We cover a wide variety of topics, from Hebrew to the Torah to Jewish history. The goal is to make learning fun so children look forward to coming to class.

Presentation Solutions: You also offer special workshops for parents and children. Could you tell us a little about those?

Mendel Mintz: Sure. One of the workshops we’re offering now is the Mommy & Me program, which is geared toward children ages three and under and their mothers. Moms are allowed to interact with each other and children are able to do arts and crafts.

Presentation Solutions: How much does the Mommy & Me program cost?

Mendel Mintz: Only $10 per class and that includes snacks and craft materials.

Rabbi Mendel Mintz leads two services per week in the Chabad Community Center’s synagogue. For more information on Mendel Mintz and the Aspen Chabad Community Center, visit the center’s website at http://www.jccaspen.com.

 

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Kale Flagg: How to Recruit a Great Sales Organization

In Finance on November 6, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Kale Flagg

Kale Flagg

According to Kale Flagg, it’s not uncommon for a team’s success to be attributed to a couple of extremely talented athletes instead of to a great coach. Proving that argument doesn’t hold water, Kale Flagg points to college basketball. Only a few coaches seem to win the championship year in and year out, he says, with the same handful of coaches in the Final Four each year.

This example isn’t limited to basketball. Kale Flagg says sports are filled with examples of teams with extremely talented players who have little or no success. Take for instance, says Kale Flagg, the NBA’s Washington Wizards in the 1990’s, formerly the Washington Bullets. Even though three of their starting five athletes were NBA All-Stars, the team barely broke .500 and didn’t make the playoffs. Kale Flagg also points to the Dallas Cowboys as an example. After Jimmy Johnson left, the team has never been the same.

Great players don’t win championships, Kale Flagg stresses. Great players in great systems win championships.

Kale Flagg also points to basketball coaches of Final Four caliber—Tubby Smith, Dean Smith, Rick Patino, Jim Calhoun and Pat Summit, to name a few. They are more than just great coaches—they are phenomenal motivators, recruiters, and presenters. But most importantly, they’ve all built great systems.

By studying how these coaches lead their teams to success, says Flagg, we can learn how to be great in our own businesses. Through a lot of sweat, effort and tears, nearly anyone can become a great motivator, recruiter, and presenter—if one builds a great system around it. Kale Flagg advises entrepreneurs to build their team the same way the great coaches in modern history have built their teams…from the ground up. He says that you do this by recruiting.

The lifeblood of a sales team is new talent, new blood. For this reason, a team leader should always be recruiting. Kale Flagg advises businesses to start recruiting by talking to the people that they already know, to either get them involved or to get referrals from them. Eventually, you will be recruiting people you have never met before–not only people who answer an advertisement in the newspaper or on the internet; but friends of friends, who you will meet in restaurants, at coffee shops.   Quality people know quality people—so referrals from successful people are the best source for team members, Kale Flagg insists.  And even random people that you’ll meet on airplanes or sporting events can be valuable.  As Kale Flagg explains it, meeting talented people and getting them to buy into your vision is only the starting point.

To illustrate, Kale Flagg returns to the coaching analogy. When Rick Majerus, who was the basketball coach at the University of Utah in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, recruits a teenager to come to his school, it is only the first step in his system of creating a championship program. Once the new recruit arrives at school, the coach begins to develop a relationship with the new player. Kale Flagg has found that it is one thing to know what you want the new recruit to do—to know that they should practice and study and stay out of trouble—it is quite another to get the recruit to actually do those things. A coach needs to build and maintain a relationship, a trust and rapport with his new arrival. The coach’s future depends on his or her ability to develop the protégé’s talent. The coach has to coach, and getting the athlete to dig deep, to strive, to hunger, and to passionately sprint toward success is the key to good coaching. That’s exactly what an entrepreneur should be doing, explains Kale Flagg.

To get a recruit to strive, the entrepreneur must give him or her a little taste of success. As Kale Flagg points out, there is nothing like getting a hit in baseball, scoring a goal in soccer, or making a basket in basketball to motivate an athlete. The same is true in the “sport” of business. There is nothing like making a sale and receiving a bonus or accomplishing market share to build passion and motivation. Once tasted, people know that success can be theirs. That confidence is everything. It is irreplaceable.

But, Kale Flagg emphasizes, you have to build curiosity, create urgency, and ensure that your new prospect is ready to learn. It is the responsibility of an entrepreneur to create desire–preparing the soil before planting the seed, concludes Flagg.

Kale Flagg is a Reno, Nevada-based entrepreneur who has worked on Wall Street. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Array Asset Management, a firm that oversees utility scale solar arrays and General Partner of the American Redevelopment Fund, a $10mm redevelopment fund that sources, improves and re sells single family residences for profit in the Sacramento and Bay Areas of California.

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Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team Explains Radio Advertising

In Media on November 5, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Direct Media Power Complaints

Direct Media Power Complaints

Direct Media Power is known for great customer service. They’ve assembled a group of proactive reps, the Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team, who have taken a few moments to speak with Presentation Solutions and answer some of our questions. Here, the group offers some advice to first-time radio advertising clients and explains what radio can, and cannot, do.

Presentation Solutions: Good afternoon and thank you for speaking with us today. Obviously, we know more about the Internet than radio, so hearing how the other side operates will be a welcome treat.

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: We appreciate you having us here.

Presentation Solutions: How is radio advertising different than Internet?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: Radio ads are less likely to be skipped over or ignored than quiet, unobtrusive banner ads. And, Internet pop ups are annoying and rarely get clicked on, other than to exit them.

Presentation Solutions: So, most people just listen through radio commercials?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: Usually, yes.

Presentation Solutions: We know Direct Media Power offers pay-per call services. Can you explain?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: First, you have to understand that this service is not going to work for everyone. We assume a great deal of liability in advertising costs on our pay per call program. Basically, we run a cash test to determine salability of the product or service.

Presentation Solutions: And if there is a favorable response?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: At that point, we assume future ad costs. We pay for creative services, talent, and production of high-quality audio files.

Presentation Solutions: And those are played on the radio?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: Yes, these spots – which we also pay for – are run in markets where the client’s product/service is most in demand.

Presentation Solutions: So, how does Direct Media Power benefit from this relationship?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: It’s mutually beneficial. The client gets to pay for only the number of warm calls they want and we are paid per the call received.

Presentation Solutions: How can you afford to do this?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: We buy a lot of airspace. We buy last minute and bulk inventory and have negotiated exceptional prices.

Presentation Solutions: What about for those clients who want to pay for the ads or the ones who don’t qualify for calls only?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: Since we have low CPMs, we can pass those savings along to all of our clients.

Presentation Solutions: For pay per call clients, how are the calls tracked? Is it an honor system?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: No, we provide a third party call-tracking agency that offers a report. These reports track the number of incoming calls and how long the calls last once transferred to the client.

Presentation Solutions: Is this a 24/7 call center?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: We can have operators available at any time but route calls to the client during their specified business hours.

Presentation Solutions: How do you meet with prospective clients?

Direct Media Power Complaints Response Team: We can work over the phone, via email, or we can visit the client in person if necessary.

The Direct Media Complaints Response Team offers this material for education purposes only. For more information about Direct Media Power visit http://www.directmediapower.com

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Joanna A. van der Vant Identifies Additional Areas for Control Points

In Finance on November 5, 2012 at 8:20 am
Joanna A. van der Vant

Joanna A. van der Vant

Joanna A. van der Vant is currently in the accounting department at SOL Property Management, where she handles accounts payable, accounts receivable, budget, and more. In her years of commercial real estate and accounting experience, Joanna A. van der Vant has learned the importance of controls in accounting procedures, whether a company is small or large. Controls help a company stay in control of assets, says Joanna A. van der Vant. Below, Joanna A. van der Vant explains some of the most important controls in the areas of notes payable, revenues, and cost of goods sold.

Notes Payable

Notes Payable is part of the acquisition of a new company. As Joanna A. van der Vant explains, this process is usually so closely guarded by the CFO that controls aren’t required, but there are still a few measures companies can take to safeguard the notes payable process.

The terms of all new borrowing agreements should require approval, Joanna A. van der Vant advises, paying particular attention to the interest rate and collateral. Borrowings and repayments should also require supervisory approval, Joanna A. van der Vant says, with large borrowings requiring the approval of the board of directors.

Revenues

The most important factor in this category is the invoicing of shipments, according to Joanna A. van der Vant. Delays in this area can lead to a lag in revenue, which can lead to problems with a company’s liquidity, Joanna A. van der Vant adds.

For businesses, it’s important to have a shipping log that is regularly compared to the actual billings. Also, companies should ensure that any discounts a customer recorded on an invoice were authorized. Joanna A. van der Vant also advises that policies should be put in place requiring any samples sent to be logged in the shipping log.

Cost of Goods Sold

It can be easy to lose control over this part of the process because so many employees are often involved in the process. Joanna A. van der Vant recommends reviewing the estimate for a project and determining why they exceeded the anticipated cost, if applicable.

Joanna A. van der Vant stresses that all purchases should be preapproved, with purchases rejected that do not have this authorization. When items are received, they should be required to have a corresponding purchase order in order to be received. By controlling purchasing at every phase of the process, Joanna A. van der Vant has found that it’s far less likely that items can be ordered without following the proper protocols.

While some of these controls may seem complex, Joanna A. van der Vant emphasizes that having systems in place to prevent fraud can better ensure everything runs smoothly.

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Phil Melugin on How Phoenix Home Care Helps Clients

In Health and Beauty on November 1, 2012 at 11:40 am
Phil Melugin

Phil Melugin

Phil Melugin has embraced the concept of personalized home healthcare throughout his career. In his current capacity as the President of Phoenix Home Care, Phil Melugin leverages the Christ-like values of compassion and integrity in his staff in the hopes that those values will carry through to the company’s clients. Phil Melugin answers questions about Phoenix Home Care’s services below.

Q: What state-funded services does Phoenix Home Care provide?

Phil Melugin: We offer a wide variety of services funded by the state, including private duty nursing, a range of therapies, wound management, and much more.

Q: If a client needs an evaluation to determine if a home is safe enough, can Phoenix Home Care provide that?

Phil Melugin: Yes, absolutely. That is one of the many services we offer.

Q: What about children and infants? Does Phoenix Home Care provide in-home care for younger age groups?

Phil Melugin: Yes, our staff includes qualified private duty nurses who specialize in caring for children of all ages.

Q: What about children with special needs or medical conditions?

Phil Melugin: Our nurses are able to care for children who have a variety of conditions, from cancer to autism to serious injuries.

Q: Will Phoenix Home Care accept my insurance?

Phil Melugin: Probably, but you need to check with your provider to be certain. In addition to most major medical plans, Phoenix Home Care also accepts Medicaid.

Q: You also offer in-home assistance for new moms. Tell me more about that.

Phil Melugin: Our New Beginnings package helps provide relief for new moms, whether in the form of education on such issues as breastfeeding or simply providing moms a chance to rest.

Q: What if a family member is suddenly left incapacitated and in need of assistance?

Phil Melugin: Phoenix Home Care can provide emergency care for the elderly, as well as injured children and adults. That assistance can include meal preparation, helping with medication schedules, and even help around the house.

Q: Is Phoenix Home Care available in my area?

Phil Melugin: We have offices in many areas of Kansas and Missouri. Visit our website to see if we cover your area.

Q: If someone qualifies for Consumer Directed Services, can Phoenix Home Care help with that?

Phil Melugin: We provide a variety of Consumer Directed Services, including transportation and wound dressing.

Q: Phoenix Home Care advertises that it follows Christ-like values. Does this trickle down to all your employees?

Phil Melugin: Yes. We carefully screen each of our employees to make sure they share our values of honesty, integrity, and compassion. This is important because it allows us to provide quality care to our clients.

Phil Melugin holds a Master of Education with a specialty in counseling. For more information on Phil Melugin and the services Phoenix Home Care provides, visit phoenixhomehc.com.