Protecting your present...Planning for your future
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Areas of Practice:
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Asset Protection Planning
Whether you have assets you have worked a lifetime to accumulate or are receiving an inheritance, you need to protect these assets from predators who are probing and prodding to find the opportunity to strike and take however much they can of this wealth. The Law Office of David Neufeld can provide the shields you will need to fend them off. Life Insurance Planning There are no two ways about it--life insurance is a foundational financial tool for estate and wealth planning. It is just not acceptable for |  |
a tax and estate attorney to be ignorant when it comes to life insurance any more than he can be ignorant about trusts. Often this ignorance is masked by disparaging statements about insurance brokers or insurance itself when what they should be saying is “I don’t understand life insurance, we need to bring in an expert.” To ignore the planning one can achieve with this incredibly powerful tool in the right hands denies the client the full panoply of planning opportunities available to him. David is a nationally known tax attorney for several reasons, but among the most prominent reason is his knowledge of planning with life insurance. He understands these products down to their very sinews. David does not sell you insurance. To David life insurance is a financial tool that a capable lawyer can use to achieve ends for income and estate tax planning and asset protection that no other vehicle can achieve; it is a tool much like a hammer and chisel is a tool in the hands of a gifted sculptor. The acquisition of the policy is left to you and your insurance advisor with David's advice.
Life Insurance Trustee Risk Management
Since when is an institutional trustee less responsible for the performance (or under-performance) of life insurance policies in a trust than they are for other financial assets that are poorly managed? Never. Recent case law protects the trustee who takes precautionary steps. But it needs to take those steps and they have to be the right ones. To date it seems that trustees rely on, at most, an insurance agent annually telling them that the policy is still in force and ask no further questions for another year. Are they prepared when the insurance company suffers a downgrading? Do they know if the policy can be replaced by a more financially efficient policy? Are they prepared to answer the question about whether there is still a need for that $20 million policy? Would it be more prudent to sell the policy to third party investors? The Law Office of David Neufeld will works with institutional trustees to make sure that they do not step on the landmines surrounding them that they never knew were there.
Tax Controversies
It's not all planning. Sometimes the IRS might disagree with planning you did with other advisors and you need to find counsel to ensure that your rights are protected, the facts are interpreted accurately and the law applied correctly. David Neufeld is among the few lawyers in this country who fully understand the mechanics and legal issues surrounding what has become known as “419 Plans,” often welfare benefit plans for small companies funded with life insurance. For that reason taxpayers throughout the country seek his services in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service in audits, appeals and in the Tax Court.
Expert Witness
Frankly, not everybody does it right. Whether through ignorance or ill-intent, some folks sell insurance based programs with tax benefits, such as 419 Plans and 412(i) Plans, or promote premium financing or STOLI programs to unsuspecting consumers leaving the consumer to be eaten alive, either by the IRS or by a turn in the economy, when all goes wrong. But the opposite is also true. Some 419 Plans and 412(i) Plan are very well designed and flawlessly implemented but the IRS just shoots first and aims second. Some legitimate premium financing might miscue. Building off of David’s knowledge of life insurance and the many ways life insurance has been and can be used in tax and wealth planning, lawyers for both plaintiffs and defendants throughout the US seek David’s services as an expert witness in cases between consumers and those who sold them these programs that develop after the IRS, right or wrong, initiates an audit or the investment goes under water. In looking for an expert witness examine credentials: if he or she is not a lawyer or accountant expert in this area they are not expert enough to be an expert witness no matter how good they may sound.
Give us a call and see how we can protect your present and plan for your future.
Circular 230 Statement: Nothing in this communication is intended to be legal advice of any nature and was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on a taxpayer.
Life Insurance Trustee Risk Management
Since when is an institutional trustee less responsible for the performance (or under-performance) of life insurance policies in a trust than they are for other financial assets that are poorly managed? Never. Recent case law protects the trustee who takes precautionary steps. But it needs to take those steps and they have to be the right ones. To date it seems that trustees rely on, at most, an insurance agent annually telling them that the policy is still in force and ask no further questions for another year. Are they prepared when the insurance company suffers a downgrading? Do they know if the policy can be replaced by a more financially efficient policy? Are they prepared to answer the question about whether there is still a need for that $20 million policy? Would it be more prudent to sell the policy to third party investors? The Law Office of David Neufeld will works with institutional trustees to make sure that they do not step on the landmines surrounding them that they never knew were there.
Tax Controversies
It's not all planning. Sometimes the IRS might disagree with planning you did with other advisors and you need to find counsel to ensure that your rights are protected, the facts are interpreted accurately and the law applied correctly. David Neufeld is among the few lawyers in this country who fully understand the mechanics and legal issues surrounding what has become known as “419 Plans,” often welfare benefit plans for small companies funded with life insurance. For that reason taxpayers throughout the country seek his services in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service in audits, appeals and in the Tax Court.
Expert Witness
Frankly, not everybody does it right. Whether through ignorance or ill-intent, some folks sell insurance based programs with tax benefits, such as 419 Plans and 412(i) Plans, or promote premium financing or STOLI programs to unsuspecting consumers leaving the consumer to be eaten alive, either by the IRS or by a turn in the economy, when all goes wrong. But the opposite is also true. Some 419 Plans and 412(i) Plan are very well designed and flawlessly implemented but the IRS just shoots first and aims second. Some legitimate premium financing might miscue. Building off of David’s knowledge of life insurance and the many ways life insurance has been and can be used in tax and wealth planning, lawyers for both plaintiffs and defendants throughout the US seek David’s services as an expert witness in cases between consumers and those who sold them these programs that develop after the IRS, right or wrong, initiates an audit or the investment goes under water. In looking for an expert witness examine credentials: if he or she is not a lawyer or accountant expert in this area they are not expert enough to be an expert witness no matter how good they may sound.
Give us a call and see how we can protect your present and plan for your future.
Circular 230 Statement: Nothing in this communication is intended to be legal advice of any nature and was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on a taxpayer.