Sharma, Som T

Financial Planning Consultants, Accounting Services, Annuities & Retirement Insurance Plans

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Mon - Fri:	9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Sharma, Som T

Avoiding Probate
There are circumstances, however, when reducing or minimizing probate could be beneficial. For example, assets that have beneficiary designations will avoid probate and be paid out directly to those beneficiaries after death outside of the estate. This is especially beneficial on retirement accounts and annuities that allow a beneficiary to spread out distributions and the income tax liability over many years. Assets titled with a joint owner also avoid probate and are paid directly to the surviving owner.

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Sharma Som T-A Financial & Business CNSTLNT

Som Sharma & Associates

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Financial Planning Consultants, Accounting Services, Annuities & Retirement Insurance Plans, Financial Planners, Financial Services, Investment Advisory Service, Investment Management, Investments, Mutual Funds, Retirement Planning Services, Stock & Bond Brokers, Tax Return Preparation, Taxes-Consultants & Representatives

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Phone: (412) 856-6258

Address: 4099 William Penn Hwy, Monroeville, PA 15146

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Sharma, Som T

Avoiding Probate
There are circumstances, however, when reducing or minimizing probate could be beneficial. For example, assets that have beneficiary designations will avoid probate and be paid out directly to those beneficiaries after death outside of the estate. This is especially beneficial on retirement accounts and annuities that allow a beneficiary to spread out distributions and the income tax liability over many years. Assets titled with a joint owner also avoid probate and are paid directly to the surviving owner.
Tax Services
Roth IRA
In general, contributions to a Traditional 401(k) or Traditional IRA are made with pre-tax dollars. In other words, contributions are made with money that has not yet been taxed. Therefore, a tax savings is received when the contribution is made. The contributions and earnings then grow on a tax-deferred basis and are taxed later when withdrawn. Conversely, contributions to a Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA are made with after-tax dollars. There are no tax savings when the contribution is made. Therefore, contributions, as well as earnings, are tax-free when withdrawn.
Income Tax
Also consider the taxation of benefits. Social Security alone is not subject to Federal income taxes. However, once your other income plus one-half of your benefits exceeds $25,000 as a single filer or $32,000 as a married filer, Social Security starts to become taxable. Therefore, if you are still working and choose to begin collecting benefits, as much as 85% of your benefit could be subject to Federal income taxes. Therefore, it's often not wise to begin collecting if you're still working.
Capital Gains Taxes
Naming beneficiaries and/or using joint ownership are not always recommended for all of one's assets and not always appropriate for all types of assets. Contrary to advice provided by the banks, it is usually NOT recommended to have someone other than a spouse named as a joint owner on checking and savings accounts. (If you want someone to access your accounts to help with paying bills, consider naming them as the Power of Attorney instead.) Bank accounts are ideal accounts to funnel into the estate after death so they can be used to pay final expenses, bills, and taxes. If someone is on the account as joint owner, those accounts will pass to them directly instead of being available to the estate. Another type of asset that should not be titled jointly is an appreciated (capital gain) asset such as stocks, real estate, or brokerage accounts. Under the current law, an appreciated (capital gain) asset that passes in death is given a step up in basis. In other words, the capital gains tax for the beneficiary is forgiven if the asset is inherited. Lastly, it is not advisable to name someone as a beneficiary who is not able to manage their own financial affairs. That's when a trust could be beneficial. We will discuss the types and uses of trusts in a later issue.

Investment Management
Managing risk is an important part of investment management, and many investors have more risk in their portfolio than they know. The amount of risk you take should be based on the goal and time horizon for the investment or portfolio. Are you comfortable with the level of risk you are taking with your portfolio? Is your portfolio aligned properly for the amount of risk appropriate for you? It’s important for you to know.
Mutual Funds
We have also increased our staff in order to continue offering responsive service to our clients. We operate using a team approach. George and Laura serve as advisors, along with Mike Satler who joined our team five years ago. Mike also serves in helping to manage our clients' portfolios. Suzanne Satler is our Client Service Representative for the mutual fund and brokerage accounts, while Sharon Balestra is our Client Service Representative for our annuity and insurance policies. Lastly, Darcy McVay is our Administrative Assistant.
Bonds
Money Market Funds
Despite a looming recession, there are conditions leading to investment opportunities in several asset classes and sectors of the economy. The first opportunity is in the bond market. The Federal Reserve is likely near the end of their rate hiking cycle. Investing in bonds before rate peaks has historically provided strong returns for bonds. Next is the significant amount of cash on the sidelines, which can be a bullish signal. With higher yields on money market funds and a pullback in stocks last year, investors' flight to cash has surpassed that of the pandemic and financial crisis. According to Capital Group, there is approximately $5.42 trillion on the sidelines in money market funds as of 5/31/23. But conditions are starting to shift in 2023 and money is starting to flow out of money markets. As money market yields peak then begin to fall, investors will be looking to move cash back into the markets. This could have a bullish impact on both stocks and bonds. If fact, the last two peaks of balances in money markets were during the global financial crisis in 2009 and the pandemic in 2020. According to Capital Group, total return for the six-month period after the S&P 500 stock market index bottomed during those periods was 55% and 46%, respectively. As for opportunities in the different sectors, utility providers will play an important role with energy transition and in the "greenification" movement as they work toward solutions and the need for new energy grids. Industrials could benefit by supplying the infrastructure for those grids. Healthcare companies should be able to withstand recessionary conditions because they have experienced less supply chain inflation and currently have strong balance sheets. More focus will likely be placed on defense as geopolitical tensions continue. With growth slowing, dividend paying stocks have become more attractive. Dividends are expected to contribute to a larger portion of total return moving forward. Lastly, valuations on many of the international stocks are attractive, as they have lagged the returns of U.S. stocks for the past decade. Additionally, they could benefit from a declining dollar and from reshoring supply chains away from China (referred to as "onshoring" and "friend shoring").

Accounting Services

Financial Planning
Financial planning is about addressing your concerns, eliminating the unknowns, and helping you to achieve your life’s goals.
Retirement Planning
Developing a financial plan involves analyzing all the areas of financial planning such as the existing investments, cash flow, tax returns, insurance coverage, retirement planning, estate planning, accumulation goals, educational funding, employee benefits and any other financial matters.
Annuities
Long-term investors holding a properly diversified portfolio in line with their goals and risk tolerance are likely to benefit from a market recovery when it comes. In the meantime, a review of the portfolio allocation for possible adjustments is advisable if none has been made in the past 12-18 months OR if goals and risk tolerance have recently changed. Having an all-weather portfolio containing defensive sectors and dividend payers makes sense moving forward as does a proper fixed-income (bond) allocation and/or owning fixed annuities to diversify a portfolio. This doesn't mean you won't experience market volatility, but it could offer some downside protection.
Asset Management
As always, diversification is key. Sebastien Page, Chief Investment Officer and Head of the Global Multi-Asset Division of T. Rowe Price, believes that asset allocation could be especially crucial for managing risk going forward. This may require adjusting the types of stocks and bonds held in a portfolio and a more dynamic diversification approach. But with diversification, we, as investors, don't always have to own the best performing stocks, bonds or mutual funds. To illustrate the point, look at the Russell 3000 index. It has increased more than 73-fold from 1980 until 2020. During that time 40% of the companies in the index were failures. But the 7% that performed extremely well were more than enough to offset the failures. Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money, writes that "good investing isn't necessarily about earning the highest returns, because the highest returns tend to be one-off hits that can't be repeated. It's about earning pretty good returns that you can stick with and which can be repeated for the longest period of time. That's when compounding really kicks in".

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