Thursday, May 5, 2011

What I do? for Larry Travis and all my friends who give me a hard time

Today I am going to take a little detour from normal as I have been tied up this week and even though I have several stories in the waiting I always try to update and modify them before publishing.  So here is a little about what I do that keeps me going everyday.

Basically I have the privilege of working with lots of small to large companies and individuals on how to manage their money and how to avoid taxes and best practices for setting up trusts for families and individuals.  It is a very broad topic but it is enjoyable to help folks plan for their retirements and for what happens after they pass away.  You would not believe some of the stories we get to hear about how families struggle with theses issues.  In fact I will tell you about how some folks who never planned for the death of a loved one failed to plan:

Story one:  There are two brothers living in Edmond who cannot talk to each other because when their dad passed away he left one of the brothers in charge of the estate.  Most of the time that is not a problem except that the father set both boys up to sign on the checking account before he died.  Since his death one of the sons just writes checks for whatever he need.The son says, that is why Dad put both of them on the checking account.  That son also accuses the other of cheating him out of money by writing checks on the account.  They use to have Christmas's with both families together but for a few years now they cannot even talk to each other.

Story Two:  Both parents passed away due to an accident and left a large amount of money to the child who was barely out of high school and just married.  There was no trust company but there was a will and of course it all went to the child.  They blew through a half million in less than two years, the house which was paid for is now gone because they did not finish school and did not plan for the taxes, insurance, upkeep, utilities, and more.  By the time they were 28 years old everything was gone and they had no education and no steady solid jobs.  There was no planning and therefore as you probably heard, if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

Story three with  A positive ending:  The parents had a trust drawn up (if you need one I have two or three lawyers who are inexpensive and reasonable but know what they are doing) and when the last one of the two passed away the trust company managed the trust, took care of the taxes and other filing which had to be done on a timely basis, manged the disposal of certain assets, paid for the college educations and other necessary expenses, and created a situation where the child would not have the ability to blow threw the money.  That child is married today with a healthy financial situation even though their jobs are not high paying jobs.  The parents planned well.

Well it was kind of fun telling you about one of the things we do and I will just say at this point the other major thing we do is manage the administration of benefits for small to large companies on totally paperless and automated systems which also helps to keep medical costs in check.  Here is a list of what they are and if it means anything to you and you are interested call me.

401k and all other types of retirement administration and funds investing - so far I have never seen someone who was better automated or less expensive than we are

Health Administration - this is a little hard to describe but just to say we have been very successful at controlling to lowering cost of health care for companies

Cafeteria Plans/Section 125/132 - this has nothing to do with eating but it is all about paying for medical costs not covered by insurance and child care expenses.

Well now you know.

OK OK here it is.
What I learned from the Osage?
  •  Everybody has to do something to make a living
  • Lawyers are like pond scum, you really do need it, can't you take a joke?
  • Planning for retirement is the same as canning those vegetables , you have to plan for the future
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help


Have a great day,
gary@thepioneerman.com




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