Health care in the U.S. is a mess. Real health care reform is nowhere on the horizon. Not exactly breaking news for the general population. But for advisors it is a clear and present call to arms. Until Washington wakes up, educating clients to become knowledgeable health insurance consumers will help them save on health care expenses and add value to your practice. Here is a primer on what they need to kno ...

Tax Overhaul Directly, Indirectly Affects Life Insurance Planning The recent overhaul of U.S. tax law will affect life insurance planning directly through changes to reporting requirements and tax-basis calculations for contracts.  Indirect effects include the likelihood that many clients will no longer need life insurance to pay the federal estate tax, for which the exemption has doubled. To read the full ...

Identifying Gaps and Risks Valuation and financial forensics professionals and their firms often provide other services. In this article, the author discusses Anti-Money Laundering (AML) actions and which industries are at risk for violating Bank Secrecy Law and AML provisions. Many kinds of businesses are at risk for money laundering and for penalties if AML programs do not meet regulatory standards. Finan ...

Dispute Defensible Best Practices, Part 3 of a three-part series In this third part, the last of a three part series, the author stresses that in order for a policy “review” or annual statement to rise to the level of a true “audit”, it needs to incorporate all elements of the above criteria. It needs to do this in a format providing actionable information. Without actionable information, a “review” cannot ...