Are you financially prepared for 2013? Advice from Steve Sexton

“Winning In Life” is the radio show hosted by top financial adviser Steve Sexton. Steve is the President of Sexton Advisory Group and he is also involved with many local charities around the San Diego and Southern California region. Each week on the show, he provides his listeners with exclusive advice in financial planning and he also invites guest speakers to talk about other important topics ranging from health and charity, to travel and much more.  Tune in every Sunday morning at 9:00 KCBQ 1170 AM to hear the show live.

On this very important episode, Steve provides advice for his audience to prepare for the New Year. What are your goals for 2013? How do you want to help yourself moving forward financially? These are questions he asks to get people thinking about how to transition into 2013.

A gentleman he spoke to recently came to the realization that his advisers only focused on accumulating assets. This man never talked to his tax guy and simply had his estate planning attorney put everything into a trust. He listed the trustee of the trust as the beneficiary for his IRA/annuity as well. What happens then is the beneficiary has to pay taxes on the funds from the annuity. What’s worse is that these taxes also get distributed to your children.

The important thing Steve is highlighting here is that an IRA and 401K is already in a trust and goes straight to the beneficiary. Give your children a chance to inherit the IRA so they don’t have to pay taxes on the lump sum, and only pay taxes on what they take out in the future.  More importantly, to avoid these mistakes, make sure your tax person is talking to your will and trust person. Both parties need to understand what is happening to your taxes. Make sure your advisers and CPA’s are also on the same page and discussing how you can make smarter financial decisions in the next year.

On January 1st, if you are not offsetting your gains with the loss of something else, you will end up paying a lot of unnecessary taxes. Pull out a calculator and figure out what the true costs of your investments are. Consider your internal costs, your management expenses, and 12B-1 and find out how much you are actually gaining versus how much you are risking. Another thing to consider is your tax qualifications. Talk to your CPA and figure out if you were to take risks, which account would be better: your IRA or your brokerage account? These are all things to consider when making financial investment decisions.

Find out where your money is falling through the cracks. Understand how something affects everything else before making poor decisions. According to Steve, if you’re making a decision and you don’t have all of the relative facts, it could cause a time bomb in your retirement. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, contact Steve at Sexton Advisory Group.

If you have any additional questions, submit them here at Winning In Life Radio.  If Steve decides to answer your question live you’ll win a $50 American Express gift card!