Personal Services
Council Financial and Insurance Services provides individuals and families with innovative, cutting-edge products and services to help them grow, protect and conserve their wealth through all stages in life. Taking into account your needs, goals and tolerance to risk, we will work with you to bring clarity to where you're going and how to get there. Some of our key services are detailed below.
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401(k) and IRA Rollovers
When you leave a job or retire, you have a decision to make regarding your 401(k) money. While leaving those assets in the former employer's plan is an option, a rollover can be a consideration. Working with your tax advisor, we can help you determine the right course of action for you. This may include: leaving the funds in your existing plan, if permitted, or rolling them into your new employer's plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted. Each choice offers advantages and disadvantages, depending on your specific needs and retirement plan, such as the desired investment options and services, applicable fees, expenses, and withdrawal options, as well as required minimum distributions and tax treatment of applicable options.
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Retirement Planning
We take a research and evidence-based approach, working with our clients to design and implement a variety of accumulation and retirement income strategies. We offer a consistent process according to your goals, risk tolerances and time horizon. We then monitor your strategies on a continual basis and adjust and evolve as your needs change.
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Annuities
An annuity is a unique financial vehicle designed to help you accumulate money for your retirement and/or turn a lump-sum of money into a guaranteed stream of income payments. Deferred annuities offer the advantage of tax-deferral and can be used to accumulate money for retirement. Income annuities are used to generate a stream of income payments that is guaranteed to last for as long as you need it to - even for the rest of your life. Some of the different types of annuities are:
Fixed Deferred Annuities
With a fixed deferred annuity, the interest rate on your policy is guaranteed never to fall below a certain amount.* For many people, this provides a measure of security.
(A fixed deferred annuity is subject to a sales charge for early withdrawals, which may be subject to income tax. Withdrawals prior to age 59½ are subject to a 10% tax penalty.)
Lifetime Income Annuities
A lifetime income annuity is an annuity in which income payments begin one period after the annuity is purchased. It is designed to provide you with predictable income monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually, no matter how long you live, and regardless of how the financial markets perform.
Variable Deferred Annuities
A variable deferred annuity offers the advantage of tax deferral and can be used to accumulate money for retirement. The policy's accumulated value—and sometimes the amount of monthly annuity benefit payments—fluctuates with the performance of your variable investment account options. There are fees, expenses, and risks associated with the contract. Please be aware that assets allocated to the investment divisions are subject to market risks and will fluctuate in value.
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Asset Protection
There are numerous financial strategies and retirement income plans that can help you accumulate assets for the future, shield your business and personal assets from liabilities, and safeguard asset transfer to children and grandchildren. We can help you figure out what the right course of action is for your specific situation and objectives.
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Charitable Strategies
Charitable strategies allows you to support the organizations and causes that matter to you, while often providing immediate income streams and reducing your tax burden. Numerous charitable giving strategies exist, and we can help you design and execute a charitable giving strategy that is in alignment with your personal and philanthropic goals. Please seek tax advice from your own tax advisors.
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Tax Free Wealth Accumulation
Roth IRA: Unlike a traditional IRA, you don’t get to defer taxes on the income you contribute to a Roth IRA. But the upside is that when you reach retirement age, you can generally make withdrawals income tax free. And if you die with money still in the account*, your beneficiaries also won’t pay taxes when they make withdrawals (but could still be subject to estate taxes). Life insurance: Life insurance death benefits pass to beneficiaries income tax free, and it provides other advantages as well. You can leverage permanent life insurance cash values while living for a variety of strategies. (The cash value in a life insurance policy is accessed through withdrawals and policy loans, which accrue interest at the current rate. Loans and withdrawals will decrease the cash surrender value and death benefit.)
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Risk Management
A well executed strategy must take into consideration the perils and risk exposure that may have a drastic negative impact. Through thorough analysis we identify these risks and develop strategies for risk mitigation.
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Disability & Long Term Care Insurance
To execute a sound retirement strategy, asset and income protection are a must. Designing a strategy that encompasses managing costs for extended periods of care and disability insurance can help create the necessary balance in a portfolio to ensure stability and protection of assets.
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Estate & Legacy Planning
There is estate planning to be done for estates of any size. It starts with getting your basic legal documents in place such as a will, power of attorney or healthcare proxy. For larger estates, a well executed estate conservation plan can help minimize tax liability and ensure that loved ones are protected. We will work with you and your advisors to assess the impact of taxes on your estate and suggest strategies to help minimize those taxes while meeting your family’s needs. We do not provide tax advice. Please consult with your own advisors for tax advice.
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Life Insurance
Many people think that life insurance is only for people with families. While it is true that life insurance can help provide for the needs of dependents, life insurance also can be an important part of a well-thought-out estate, business succession or charitable giving plan. And permanent life insurance offers many living benefits as well, such as tax-deferred cash value accumulation. For all of these reasons, life insurance can be important for someone starting out - or for someone who's starting over.
Whole Life
Whole life insurance is also known as permanent insurance. You receive coverage for your entire life, as long as premiums (which are a set amount per period) are paid. Whole life policies accumulate cash value tax-deferred.
Term Life
Term life policies provide coverage for a specific amount of time—such as five years, 10 years, or 20 years. Term premiums are often less expensive than whole life premiums, but once the term of the policy is complete, coverage terminates. There is no accumulation of cash value.
Universal Life
Universal Life insurance is designed to offer customizable death benefit protection with non-guaranteed planned premiums and a non-guaranteed death benefit. Depending on the product selected and the amount of premium you pay, Universal Life insurance can allow you to keep your coverage as long as you need: to age 80, 90, 100 or longer. Because of the policy’s flexible and non-guaranteed nature, it is important to fund your policy properly and actively manage your policy to reflect changes in interest crediting rates and policy charges over the duration of your policy. This policy will terminate if at any time the cash surrender value is insufficient to pay the monthly deductions. This can happen due to insufficient premium payments, if loans or withdrawals are made, or if current interest rates or charges fluctuate.
Variable Universal Life
Variable Universal Life Insurance combines the premium and death benefit flexibility of a universal life policy with investment opportunities. You may allocate your premium among a variety of professionally managed investment divisions plus a fixed account. Of course, with investment opportunities comes risk along with the potential for reward.
Survivorship Life
Survivorship Life insurance—available as whole life, universal life, or variable universal life —covers two people and provides payment of the proceeds when the second insured individual dies. Survivorship Life insurance is often used to help meet estate planning or business continuation goals.
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Wealth Management
Through Eagle Strategies LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Company, you can work with us to guide you in planning for tomorrow’s needs today while preserving your current cash flow. Based on your goals, financial situation, risk tolerance, and investment time horizon, together we can formulate an investment solution to help you achieve all of your short- and long-term wealth management needs. Eagle Strategies incorporates a wide range of thoroughly vetted third-party investment managers who bring specialized expertise in separately managed stock and bond portfolios, and mutual funds, while providing access to third-party wealth management programs. Every investment manager on the platform undergoes a rigorous due diligence process and is monitored closely to ensure they continue to meet our exacting standards. We are, and continue to be committed, to building enduring relationships that help you achieve your financial goals.
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