At Gutta, Stewart & Company CPAs, in addition to our range of financial planning services, we provide you with a Virtual Family Office of experts, which combine the following five disciplines to provide you with truly PROACTIVE and HOLISTIC planning to ensure that you will be MAXIMIZING YOUR POTENTIAL:
Your local “eyes and ears” to help you focus on planning priorities and identify opportunities.
Your national experts that provide the “best of the best” in tax planning, legal, risk mitigation, wealth management, and business advisory services.
Combining Proactive Planning and the Virtual Family Office Experience.
We recognize that our best clients want PROACTIVE and HOLISTIC planning.
That is why at Gutta, Stewart & Company CPAs we have upgraded to a 21st century business model based around HOLISTIC and PROACTIVE advice, and are supported by a Virtual Family Office of experts.
One of our clients referred a lady who needed help with planning her retirement. She was a schoolteacher, and was retiring in 6 months. Her late husband had taken care of all of the financial affairs before his death. When he met with her the first things that were discussed were her goals and objectives. She told us that she was retiring in six months. She wanted to travel a lot, now that she was alone. She wanted to spend time with her grandkids. She wanted to pay off her son’s mortgage, and not worry about money. She also wanted some asset protection and did not want to be involved in the ups and downs of the stock market. She also did not want to burden her kids to have to take care of her if she became ill or disabled and wanted to leave some money for her kids when she passes on. We reviewed her portfolio. Most of what she had was in bonds and money market funds with very low returns. Next we did an analysis of her cash flow needs by going through her expenses and income. We also prepared a balance sheet to get a picture of what she owns and owes as of the current date. We were able to accomplish all her goals in a safe secure way. We were also able to provide her with long-term care if needed it and an extra $1500.00 a month over and above what she needed while leaving enough cash liquidity in case of an emergency. A few weeks later she called us up and told us that she feels secure knowing that she is getting her checks every month, for the rest of her life without having to worry about the market volatility. That is the type of thing we do for people that are concerned about running out of money or afraid of the stock market.
J.S., a foreign national who worked for an international company had her taxes prepared by one of the largest international CPA firms in the world. She worked overseas and then migrated to the United States in 2010. On the tax deadline, she got an email from the firm saying that she owed about $26,000 in taxes. Obviously shocked, she sought a second opinion from our firm. We offered to review her tax returns and found that they had erroneously included her foreign income while she was a non-resident of the U.S. therefore, she was not liable to pay U.S. tax on her foreign income which resulted in her getting a refund of $1800.00 instead of $26,000 liability. She was absolutely delighted. There were basic questions that her former international well-known CPA firm did not think of asking. They just assumed that the money was taxable.
A lady moved to our area from Connecticut after selling her business. She had a firm in Boca prepare her tax return. They told her that she owed about $175,000.00 in capital gains tax. She was referred to us by one of our clients for a second opinion. We reviewed their tax return and it appeared to be accurate. However, after we started asking her questions, she told us that her husband who passed away last year had started the business 30 years ago- this was the clue. When somebody dies, they get a step up in basis. Meaning the value of the property that was used to calculate the gain on the sales is the value at the date of death instead of the actual cost of the property when they bought it 30 years ago. So the value on the date of sale and date of death was about the same resulting in no gain for tax purposes. She was absolutely delighted to find out that she did not owe any tax. There are some simple questions that you have to ask. When you go through a person’s tax return, the numbers might look correct, but you want to look behind it. Which could make a big difference!