Using structured installment sales to defer taxes on the sale of your professional practice

As the “boomer generation” of lawyers, accountants, doctors and other professionals look to transition toward retirement, one of the biggest issues facing many of them is how to sell their professional practice and not be hammered with a ton of capital gains taxes.

Well the good news is that the same technique used for the sale of real estate property, the structured installment sale, can also be used when selling a professional practice.

Check out this video that gives you some key elements to consider, such as your choice of business entity and whether is qualifies as a capital asset, the choice of funding and guarantee options available, as well as how to spread out the tax hit and reinvest the proceeds over time to further secure your financial future.

What is new in structured installment sales of real estate for 2019?

Structured sales, or as I like to call them structured installment sales, are about to get a really big boost for 2019 for a variety of reasons, all of which I cover in this quick video update.

The first is that we are about to see a new, major league, life insurance company enter the market to underwrite and pay out the structured sale using a secured annuity funding approach. This is a really big deal, but until they formally announce it themselves, which I’m told will be in Q2 of this year, I’ll hold off on identifying the company. Just be assured it’s a major brand name with top level financial ratings. This new company will have a major impact on the use of structured sales as it removes much of the uncertainty about the off shore/trust company approach that has been required ever since Prudential and Allstate exited the structured sales market several years ago. As soon as we get their underwriting details and authorization we will announce it here the same day.

Second is that the 2018 tax bill is finally starting to hit many sellers of highly appreciated real estate that live in states with substantial taxes on the sale of capital assets. Most of the calls I get are from California, NY, Illinois and other states where the combined tax hit on the sale of property can often top out at or near 40% rates when state and federal taxes are calculated. This combined with the reduced write off’s allowed to many high income clients is prompting many people to investigate how they might spread out the tax hit on their real estate in a safe, secured installment sale basis, while still earning a competitive yield on the money they allocate to the structured sale.

Finally, we are on the tail end of a stock market boom and for many people who are selling real estate now, they are uneasy about the prospect of investing all of their proceed into the stock market at once. If there is some bad luck in market timing, a good chunk of that single investment can be eroded just as they are entering retirement, so the ability to spread the payments out of time, to both provide regular income but to also reinvest in the market through income averaging, makes a great deal of sense.

If you want to know more about structured sales, use the contact me page or just email my office at Wahlstrom and Associates.

Why do so many trial lawyers retire broke?

Why do the majority of trial lawyers, despite making millions over decades of practice, struggle to retire or in many cases find it impossible to retire due to a lack of any kind of planning during their peak earning years? 

Wahlstrom & Associates is introducing a new series for trial lawyers, this time talking about one of the great unspoken issues in trial law practice, that being the often horrific, disjointed and mismanaged retirement and financial management by trial lawyers during their peak earning years.

During this series  I'm not just going to talk about the problem, I'm going to show you how to FIX the problem, so that no matter what stage of practice you're in, early, middle years or nearing retirement, you can have the opportunity to keep more of your money by using tools that ONLY trial lawyers have in the tax code. I'm looking to reduce your stress level now, reduce your tax and financing costs each year and to show you a few very simple steps to leverage your legal fees in a way that insures a quality retirement when you decide to hang it up. 

After 35 years of working with trial lawyers and helping their clients plan for their futures through the use of structured settlements, settlement trusts and annuities I discovered that while the clients were set up and taken care of, often the trial lawyers financial situation was precarious during most of the years they ran their practice. I've made a strategic decision to help trial lawyers with these issues as it in turn allows them to more effectively practice law and live happier lives. 

The three major issues that I'll address in this series are as follows: 

One, The failure to properly arrange case financing or being caught in an endless debt cycle so that by the time they pay their case finance and taxes, there is often zero money left for investment in retirement plans. There are now an incredible number of finance firms and options that favor responsible trial lawyers in financing a case or their practice and in part one I'll go over those new options for you. 

Two, failure to use of 468B settlement trusts or settlement funds in administering your cases, thus eliminating many planning options for yourself and your clients. This is a huge mistake I see happening over and over again, simply because lawyers are use to resolving cases in cash, causing huge tax bills and litigation loan repayment triggers that can wipe out an entire legal fee. 

Thee, and this is a big one, the failure to use structured legal fees to spread out a tax hit or defer income into future years. Virtually no other profession has the ability to legally defer income into future years, earn interest on that money and pay it on a schedule that funds your retirement, lowers taxes and provides stability. I know all the reasons you DON"T do this, I've heard ever reason there is. In part three of this series I'm going to show you how TO DO this in a routine way that doesn't harm your practice or cash flow now, but insures financial freedom in the future.   

Now as I said, this is a three part series so I want you to watch for, or go check out, each of the segments as I publish them during the month of August. I'm looking forward to showing you how Wahlstrom & Associates can use 30 years of experience, coupled with unique modern techniques, to get you off the treadmill and start enjoying the practice of law and your eventual retirement.