Category Archives: Why

Why use an Limited Liability Company (LLC) ? In a word, LIABILITY! Make sure you REALLY need one before establishing!

Posted on August 10, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Much like the use of Trusts and our growing fondness on said use, we find more and more uses for LLC’s

Notably the Real Estate (especially commercial) were pioneers in using LLC’s, naturally due to their exposures and inherent risks.

Happily with more and more LLC’s in our office and more questions about them, we pulled a few interesting background information for your perusal… but before we jump into that… two set up warnings…

  • Mind the taxes – Be sure to interface with your tax professional when setting these up and make sure you are not accidentally burying yourself under a load of unnecessary filings…
  • Mind the holdings – An LLC is designed to give you protection…. but if you put everything in it, you may be diluting the benefit

Attorney and Tax professionals are your go to folks on setting this up correctly…..

Recall the old saying “Measure twice cut once!”

We think if fits well!

Background and LLC Details

From Investopedia

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure in the U.S. that protects its owners from personal responsibility for its debts or liabilities. Limited liability companies are hybrid entities that combine the characteristics of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

What Is Limited Liability?

Limited liability is a type of legal structure for an organization where a corporate loss will not exceed the amount invested in a partnership or limited liability company (LLC). In other words, investors’ and owners’ private assets are not at risk if the company fails.

The limited liability feature is one of the biggest advantages of investing in publicly listed companies. While a shareholder can participate wholly in the growth of a company, their liability is restricted to the amount of the investment in the company, even if it subsequently goes bankrupt and has remaining debt obligations.

Also from the IRS

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business structure allowed by state statute. Each state may use different regulations, you should check with your state if you are interested in starting a Limited Liability Company.

Owners of an LLC are called members. Most states do not restrict ownership, so members may include individuals, corporations, other LLCs and foreign entities. There is no maximum number of members. Most states also permit “single-member” LLCs, those having only one owner.

While it may sound neat to have an LLC, be forewarned if you set one up and do not really need one, you have garnered yourself unneeded work!

Have a Great “LLC Review” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Insurance, Investing/Financial Planning, Why

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Why you need to know your Credit Score and where to get your Annual Free Credit Report – Annual Reminder

Posted on March 28, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Knowing your credit score and your credit report has become increasingly important. With updates in technology and increases of consumer related fraud, we all need to keep an eye on our credit and our credit score for protection.

Why Do I need to Know or protect my score?

credit-40673__340

While you may not owe anyone, anything i.e. have a loan with anyone … well done by the way….. A bad credit score can still affect items such as your automobile and your homeowners premiums… no kidding (see this  Forbes article.) We cannot blame them, there is data to check and it is their responsibility and ability to review it.

Bottom line a bad credit score or report may be costing you more money.

How do I get a copy of my credit report?

After you get your score, you may want to get a detailed copy of your credit report. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com, which is a free service offered for your own protection by the three agencies. There are tons of sites out there that are not free and try to seduce you into paying an unnecessary monthly fee, this site has been checked and is safe.

You may request all three services or just use one and keep the other two available at a later time. This may be handy as you only get one free report per agency per year. If you stagger the reports you can inquire at different times, keep later dates open for inquiry.

If your report is good, there is likely no reason to get more than one agency report.  If your report has deficiencies you may protest from the site as it is reported.

Taking time to review your credit and credit score is easy and may save you angst and money!

Have a great “Safe Credit” day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Annual Reviewed, Investing/Financial Planning, John Kvale, Personal, Reminder, Why

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Why NOT to add AFTER tax funds to your IRA!

Posted on March 7, 2022 by | Leave a comment

With several conversations around this topic of late, we thought this post worth a re-run, freshened up of course… hope you enjoy the reminder!

Every penny we save is great. On a daily basis we are bombarded with buy now pay later, so while it may sound contradicting, there are less complicated ways to save and more difficult ways in the end to save.

Perils of After Tax Dollars in an IRA

After tax dollars as opposed to PRE-TAX (deductible from your income taxes) funds in and IRA are not your friend.

  • Upon eventual distribution you must calculate a distribution basis which will be different from your actual distribution – Easy for the IRS to confuse
  • You must carry the basis on your tax return- forever- IRS Form 8606 must be filed to keep up with your basis
  • Your heirs may also have to deal with this basis upon your death
  • From a really high level, it is confusing
  • IRS Audit Possibility – The IRS will receive a distribution amount of greater than you will be reporting on your tax return, making a paper letter or audit inquiry much more possible upon eventual distribution of assets

How Do After Tax Funds get into an IRA?

There are two basis ways after tax funds enter or get added to an IRA:

  • After-Tax – Non-Deductible IRA contribution: (Very popular about 15 years ago)- Please save the money, but look for a better way to save it and avoid this method
  • 401k or other Corporate Pre-Tax retirement plan is rolled into an IRA along with the after tax funds- Easy fix- Look to take the after tax distribution directly thereby separating the PRE and AFTER tax funds-
  • Watch rollovers that contain a Roth contributions as these are after tax and may be directed to their own separate account, once again simplifying the process

It’s not the end of the world if you have after tax funds in your IRA, great work for saving the funds … But if you have the choice, avoiding comingling after and pre-tax funds in your IRA or other similar retirement account may save complications later!

Have a Great “KISS- keep it simple” day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Annual Reviewed, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related, Why

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Why You May Want to Register Your Name on Multiple Email Providers Even if You Do Not Plan on Using that Service!

Posted on September 8, 2021 by | Leave a comment

With the proliferation of spam, cyber attacks and just some bad actors out there, it may be a good idea to register your name as well as your family members name for your own safety…

We have registered all of our family names on the big five at the time of registration, gmail, hotmail, outlook, yahoo and icloud…. these are no longer the biggest…see below

Even if you do not plan on using the provider, it may make sense to register so some “bad Actor” does not pose as you…

Ok, we get it, with a weird last name like ours, it was not that hard, those with more normal names may have a tougher time, but you may still want to try…. bad guys are not going away!

The Largest Email Providers

The following is a snap shot of the last frame of this neat graphic from Statics and Data…

Not sure if any of you noticed the last few videos are not coming through email notification well…but we did… and it is currently being fixed….

Hence the Snapshot, we know that will work…

Here is the actual embedded video… if you see a video, it has been fixed, if just a link, not fixed yet…

There you have it… another in our Why series AND a light, fun and hopefully helpful post labor day article!

Have a Great “Register Your Name on that Email” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Animated, Cyber, Education, Why

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June 2021 Financial Planning and Capital Market Review – By John Kvale

Posted on June 30, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Hello and Welcome to our June 2021 Financial Planning and Capital Market Update!

If you are too busy to read, feel free to listen as we describe our post and thoughts in friendly podcast audio format as well as Video!

Newbies –

We like to articulate our thoughts and review on a Monthly basis our Financial Planning Tips, Capital Markets and current events!

BREAK IN – HOLIDAY PARTY NOVEMBER 20 FROM 3-5 AT DALLAS ATHLETIC CLUB

Hope you enjoy!

June 2021 Video

YouTube

Financial Planning Tip(s)

Why Not to Overfund a Retirement Plan

In this updated post from a few years ago, we remind how easily it is to overfund a 401k plan and why, while it is not the end of the world, it is not a good tax situation….

Should you accidentally over fund your retirement plan … what occurs is a double taxation!

  1. You do not get the deduction for the contribution
  2. You will likely pay taxes on the eventual distribution

Job change is the most likely reason for overfunding!

Pesky Late Arriving Tax Form Reminder – Form 5498

In this mid month post we remind those of an extra late arriving tax form….

Murphy’s law being applied, the form just arrived last week….about two weeks after our post…..

Reason for receipt:

  • Rollover of a 401k or the like to an IRA – Most frequent
  • Contribution to an IRA
  • Contribution to a SEP

One of the most confusing parts of this form is that even though you may have made a qualified contribution for a prior year i.e. 2020, if you made that contribution in 2021, depending on the type of contribution the Form 5498 MAY show your contribution in year 2021.

Capital Market Comments

Inflation or No Inflation

In this part two post, “The Smartest Guys in the Room” post we discussed via interest rate futures graphs the movement after FOMC dot plot adjustments and the interest rate markets….

This is an updated Graph of the 2 year US Treasury, which is holding lower, (higher yield) possibly due to faster expected rate increases!

This is the ultra long 30 Year Treasury, which continues to trend higher (lower Yield) possible pricing less inflation from the above mentioned expected shorter term rate increases!

Ok…that’s a wrap for the June review…. Hello July!

Have a Great Day, Talk to You at the End of July!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Audio, Clients/Clients Only, Economy, FOMC, General Financial Planning, Interest Rates, Investing/Financial Planning, Market Comments, Monthly Review, Retirement Planning, Why

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Why You Do Not Want to Overfund Your 401k or Other Retirement Plan and How it Can Happen !

Posted on June 14, 2021 by | Leave a comment

The most common type of Retirement Plan, the 401k in 2021 has a maximum deferral amount of $19,500 with a catch up provision for those age 50 or greater of $6.500 for a total of $26,000 again in year 2021.

Why You Do Not Want to Overfund Your Retirement Plan

Should you accidentally over fund your retirement plan … what occurs is a double taxation!

  1. You do not get the deduction for the contribution
  2. You will likely pay taxes on the eventual distribution

This is not the end of the world, especially if a very small dollar amount, but you still do not want this to happen…

How Does Overfunding a 401k Occur ? – Job Change

While it may seem puzzling at first, upon second thought the most common reason for overfunding a retirement plan is a job change.

It is impossible for your new employer to know your prior contributions, so an accidental overzealous withholding that throws you over the annual maximum will not be allowed from a IRS tax standpoint.

If you change jobs mid year, be sure to carefully determine your prior withholdings and monitor you new withholdings throughout the year as the burden is on us the employee to keep ourselves in check with the maximum.

For those gainfully employed at the same employer we have not seen an accidental over allowance in a very long time, so most employers have systems set up to automatically stop your contribution once the maximum is achieved. Should your employer merge with another company or change administrators, it is a good idea to make sure they pick up your prior contributions, which can be achieved by checking your paycheck’s ytd retirement plan withholdings after the change.

The good news is there are ways in certain cases to unwind this overpayment, but they are frequently very complicated, may create a tax issue for the IRS to review, and in some cases just not available.

Have a Great “No Overfunded 401k” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Investing/Financial Planning, Retirement Planning, Tax Related, Why

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Why You May Want to Accept that Seemingly Lowball Offer for that Small Royalty Interest You Have Acquired Some Time Ago …

Posted on April 7, 2021 by | Leave a comment

While we all envy the person on television like Jud Clampett that receives some great news on a royalty interest, (or misses a rabbit only to hit oil) …in real life frequently this can be more trouble than gift.

Living in Texas a state that produces oil and natural gas royalty rights are very popular and frequently handed down from one generation to the next.

Continued Disposition Problems

We are continuing to run into an ever increasing number of need to dispose of seemingly small mineral right properties that maybe had an offer at one time or another that actually cost more to dispose of them the offer.

Photo by Albert Hyseni on Unsplash

Please don’t run out and dump that long ago relative’s income producing oil or gas property that has been in the family for years producing a nice monthly check … but the hundred dollar or seemingly worthless offer for that very small parcel of land that has a very small mineral right may be a good offer not only from a small tax reporting over the years that you may have to do but also from an organization standpoint in your estate.

While there are exceptions and of course when oil prices were in the mid 100s there were extreme cases of payments, it is very likely if you are receiving a very nominal amount of money from your mineral interest over the past decade that that mineral interest likely has very little value and maybe more of a burden to you from a tax standpoint and especially to your heirs from an estate cleaning standpoint than it’s worth.

No Need to Be Reckless – Do some Research

This is once again not an endorsement to go recklessly sell the mass form of income property but rather a recommendation to maybe think twice and do a little research when receiving a seemingly low offer by a professional mineral person who wants to consolidate his portfolio and take that interest off of your hands!

Have a Great “Cleaner Estate” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Estate Planning, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Tax Related, Why

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Proxy Season is Here … Why We Vote For You and What to Do if You are Receiving Proxy Information

Posted on March 29, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Almost all public institutions of all shape and form have what is called a Proxy Vote.

The Proxy is an at least Annual Vote for various items such as approval for management salaries, mergers, company purchases and just an annual approval to continue current services.

Why We Vote Your Proxy

As a regular practice we vote Proxies for all clients. This accomplishes multiple items:

  • Much Greener – We get one statement for literally 100’s of client votes
  • We actually vote – always for management – if we disagreed we would not own the respective asset
  • We keep a permanent record of the vote
  • By voting for you, your mailbox is not stuffed full this time of the year

We try to receive electronic information as much as possible – this is once again green but much of this information is still delivered the old fashion way by snail mail

What to Do If You are Receiving Proxy Information

Occasionally Proxy directives for us to vote for you falls off the system …

When this occurs your mailbox will begin getting full…

No worry, just reach out and we can easily refresh your directives back to us and stop the pelting of mail.

Given the large number of collective votes, we do not know if you have fallen off the directives list, so please do not hesitate to ask us for a refresh.

Have a Great “Proxy Vote Update” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

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Posted in Clients/Clients Only, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Why

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Why Student Loan Debt Has Grown So Fast – Change In US Household Types of Debt – Interesting Chart From HowMuch.net – Paired with Another Interesting Chart that Explains from Visual Capitalist

Posted on March 22, 2021 by | Leave a comment

We ran across this neat chart below from “HowMuch.net, a financial literacy website”… which stunned us.

The comparison growth of student loan growth versus other types of debt is amazing.

For the record we are huge fans of higher education, but not the debt that may come with it.

So we set off to see if there were a cause and effect for the above chart…

Thanks to our friends at Visual Capitalist the following chart answers a lot.

The small blue shaded area is inflation, compared to how fast Tuitions have increased… No wonder the gigantic growth in Student Debt…

Have a Great “Cause and Effect” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Debt - Debt Management, Education, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning, Why

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Why You Should Check Your Social Security Earnings Credits No Matter Your Age

Posted on March 17, 2021 by | Leave a comment

While many may argue contrary to our fantastic Social Security speaker whom we have had twice now Mr. Tom Clark who assures us that Social Security will always be there, many do not believe this for various reasons. 

No matter your beliefs or age we highly encourage you to check your Social Security Statement and most importantly your Social Security Earnings Record.  

Earnings Benefit Credit Statement

Do not be concerned if just as this example, does not show your 2020 earnings posted as of yet there have been some delays and normally this is not posted at an early time in the year anyway . 

What we want to be concerned about is if there are gaps in our earnings history or a partial credit (change of employers) that should have been credited. there are many reasons that this can occur such as just a lost document in the Mail or an employer was bought out or closed and did not report your hard earned earnings period. 

How Do I Find This Statement? 

In 1999, the Social Security Administration mailed a paper copy to everyone every year. Budget cuts a dozen years later stopped this handy paper copy, leaving all of us to easily forget to double check our statement annually. 

For the record according to the Administration folks at age 60 are supposed to receive a paper copy, but our informal poll shows a low hit ratio. 

Not to worry, it is not that hard set up an account, ESPECIALLY if it is your first time. 

Go to www.ssa.gov and either log into your account or create an account and pull down your statement…

Oh, keep your credentials safe … lost mine and was a huge pain getting logged back into the site!

Have a Great “Social Security Earnings History Check Reminder” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

jkfinancialinc

street-cents

Leave a comment

Posted in Annual Reviewed, Investing/Financial Planning, Reminder, Retirement Planning, Social Security, Tom Clark, Why

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