You Can’t Fix Stupid – Employers Leaving California

As a California business and support for other businesses it is sad to see the mass migration of businesses who can longer afford to stay here in California even after years of operations or founding the company in California. Not since the Jews left Egypt has there been such a mass exodus of people running from the tyrannical clutches of a government out of whack and if the wrong gubernatorial candidate gets in (we don’t have much to work with) it will be hell on earth.

JOBS LEAVING  CALIFORNIA

Abraxis Health, a unit  of Los Angeles-based Abraxis BioScience Inc, opened a new plant that  will create 200 jobs in 2010 — in Phoenix.  This follows the  company’s Phoenixexpansions that occurred in 2007 and  2008.

Alza Corp. In 2007  eliminated about 600 jobs in drug R&D while also exiting its  Mountain View, Calif., HQ.  At the time the company said that  its 1,200-person Vacaville facility will continue to operate.   But the Vacaville Reporter on Oct. 23, 2009 revealed that the plant  is being offered for sale by J&J, its parent company.  It’s  unclear if more layoffs are in the facility’s  future.

American AVK, a producer  of fire hydrants and other water-related  products, moved from  Fresno to Minden, Nevada.

American Racing moved  its auto-wheel production to Mexico, ending most of its 47-year  operation in California.

Apple Computer has  expanded in other states, most recently with a $1 billion facility  planned for North Carolina.

Audix Corporation  relocated from Redwood City, Calif., and to accommodate growth moved  to a 78,000-square-foot facility in Wilson,  Oregon.

Apria Healthcare Group  of Lake Forest is shifting jobs from California to Overland Park,  Kansas, a K.C. Suburb.

Assurant Inc. Cut 325  jobs in Orange County and consolidated positions in Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina.

Automobile Club of  Southern California placed 1,100 jobs in  Texas.

Barefoot Motors, a small  ”green” manufacturer, moved from Sonoma and will grow inAshland,  Oregon.

Bazz Houston Co.,  Located in Garden Grove, has slowly been building a workforce of  about 35 people in Tijuana.  In early 2010 the company  said it expects to move more jobs toMexico, citing cost and  regulatory difficulties in Southern  California.

Beckman Coulter, a  biomedical test equipment manufacturer headquartered in Brea,  relocated part of its Palo Alto facilities to Indianapolis, Indiana,  two years ago.  In early 2010, it’s making a  multimillion-dollar investment to expand and create up to 100 new  jobs inIndiana.  The company said the area offers a “favorable business environment and lower total cost of operations, plus a  local work force with strong skills in both engineering and  manufacturing.”

Bild Industries Inc.,  which specializes in business news, directories and market reports,  moved to Post Falls, Idaho, from Van Nuys, a part of the San  Fernando Valley in Los  Angeles.

Bill Miller Engineering,  Ltd., suffering under the “hostile business climate” in  Californiaand Los Angeles County, moved from Harbor City to Carson  City, Nevada.

BMC Select has conducted  an unusual relocation.  The company, which had shifted its  headquarters from Idaho to San Francisco, relocated its H.Q. Back to  Boise in January 2010.  The building materials distributor said  that regaining its footing in Boise retained access to high-quality  employees while reducing wage and occupancy  costs.

BPI Labs, which  formulates, manufactures, and fills personal care products for the  health and beauty industry, relocated from Sacramento to   Evanston, Wyoming, a move the company’s owner called “very  successful . . .  It felt good and weï¿?ve never looked  back.

Buck Knives after 62  years in San Diego moved to Post Falls,  Idaho.

CalPortland Cement has  announced in late 2009 closure of its Riverside County plant because  of new environmental regulations from a state law (AB 32).  The  company’s CEO wrote, “A cement plant cannot be picked up and moved,  but the  next new plant probably wonï¿?t be built in California  meaning more good, high paying manufacturing jobs will be lost to  Nevada or China or  somewhere.”

California Casualty  Group left San Mateo for Colorado, cutting operating costs to remain  competitive.

CalStar Products Inc.,  headquartered in Newark, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area, in  January 2010 was awarded $2.44 million in federal clean energy tax  credits.  The company said in the future it expects to build  additional plants in the Mississippi Valley and the East  Coast.  In late 2009 CalStar opened a plant in Caledonia,  Wisconsin.

Checks-To-Go moved to  Utah where workers’ comp rates helped make the troubled company  healthier.

Chivaroli &  Associates, a healthcare-related insurance service based in Westlake  Village,Calif., moved a regional office to Spokane,  Washington.

CoreSite, A Carlyle  Company, is delaying a Santa Clara project while it expands its data  center in Reston, Virginia.

Creators Syndicate may  flee L.A. because it operates like a Banana  Republic.

Creel Printing Left  Costa Mesa for Las Vegas and So Cal loses 60 more  jobs.

Dassault Falcon looked  at building an aircraft services facility in Riverside County but  instead located in Reno.

DaVita Inc., moved its  HQ from Los Angeles to Denver; expects to see millions of dollars in  savings over time.

Dennyï¿?s Corp., ï¿? the  large restaurant chain ï¿? once had its headquarters in La Mirada,  later in Irvine, Calif, and then moved to Spartanburg, South  Carolina.  In fairness, I note the move occurred in the early  1990′s.  However it’s noteworthy because the company was  founded in California and its growth over time created HQ jobs in  another state.

Digital Domain, the  Academy-Award-winning visual effects studio based in Venice, Calif,  placed new studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Port   St. Lucie, Florida, which combined will have about 500  employees.  The facilities will allow the company to reduce  costs while continuing to deliver cutting-edge  work.

Ditech, headquartered in  Costa Mesa, announced in January 2010 a 269-job cut and is moving  most activities to the GMAC Financial Services (parent company)  headquarters in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.  In 2007, Ditech  relocated some workers from Costa Mesa toPhoenix.  A once  robust Costa Mesa facility employing hundreds will be down to 20 or  30 workers.

DuPont Fabros Technology  suspended a $270 million Santa Clara data center project in favor of  one in Ashburn, Virginia.

eBay, based in San Jose,  will create 450 jobs in Draper, Utah, in a new $334 million  operations, customer support and data  center.

EDMO Distributors, Inc.,  a world-wide wholesaler of aircraft avionics, test equipment, and  pilot supplies, moved its HQ from Valencia, Calif., to Spokane  Valley, Wash.  Since, it has built a larger headquarters in the  city’s  Mirabeau Point community complex.

Edwards Lifesciences  based in Irvine will expand with 1,000 employees not in California but in Draper, Utah.

EMRISE Corp. completed  its HQ move from Rancho Cucamonga to Eatontown, NJ, in May  2009.  The company said the move “will result in additional  annualized cost savings of approximately $1 million and facilitate  improvements in operating efficiency”. . . . The cost savings  associated with relocating our corporate headquarters will start  immediately. . . The aggregate total of these expense reductions  will increase our profitability and cash flow in this and succeeding  years and, over time, substantially improve our ability to further  reduce our long term debt.

Facebook, based in Palo  Alto, will expand in a major way in Oregon by locating a custom data  center in Prineville.  It will be a 147,000-square-foot  facility costing $180 million and will employ 200 workers during  construction and another 35 full-time once operating in  2011.

FallLine Corporation  Left Huntington Beach, where they were being “hammered” with  multiple governmental regulatory fees, for Reno,  Nevada.

Fidelity National  Financial left Santa Barbara for Florida, spurred by California’s  ”oppressive” business environment.

First American Corp.,  based in Santa Ana, will open a call center in March 2010 not in  California but in Phoenix, where it expects to employ about 400  people within two years.

Fluor Corp. moved its  global headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Irving, Texas, with about  100 employees asked to relocate while the company planned to hire  the same number there.  In 2006, when Fluor moved into its new  headquarters building, a company statement said: “The official  dedication had a decidedly Texas theme” as a horseshoe was raised on  the building, a time-honored Texas  tradition.

Foxconn Electronics, a  large contract electronics maker, moved some of its Fullerton operations to Dallas.

Fox Family moved its  farming operations to Cookeville, TN.  All employees moved with  the firm.

Fuel System Solutions  moved its headquarters from Santa Ana to New  York.

Gregg Industries, owned  by Neenah Enterprises Inc., in Wisconsin, closed a 300-employee  foundry in El Monte foundry under pressure from the South Coast Air  Quality Management District to make $5 million in upgrades.   The  company didnï¿?t want to make the investment in the  difficult economic climate so it decided instead to leave the  state.

Helix Wind Inc. may move  its research and development, engineering, and testing departments  from San Diego to “more supportive”  Oregon.

Hewlett-Packard, HQ’d in  Palo Alto, at various times has moved jobs to Tennessee and  Texas.

Hilton Hotels Corp. in  2009 is moving from its longtime corporate H.Q. in Beverly Hills to  a new office in Tysons Corner,  Virginia.

Hino Motor Manufacturing  USA moved from California to Williamstown, West Virginia, in 2007,  where it now employs about 100 workers. The company has growth plans  to “Raise Hinoï¿?s presence from medium-heavy/heavy-duty trucks to all  ranges of trucks” and an aggressive program to improve fuel economy  and emissions.  The company builds trucks under its own brand  and also manufactures Toyota-branded vehicles.

Intel Corporation, HQï¿?d  in Santa Clara, has chosen to expand operations in neighboring  states

Intuit of Mountain View  created a customer support office (110 people) not in Californiabut  in Colorado because of lower operating  costs.

Intuit placed a data  center near Quincy, Washington.

Intuit also located  Innovative Merchant Solutions LLC in Las Vegas as part of a $1.8  million investment in Nevada.

J.C. Penney closed it  Sacramento call center and moved the work to five out-of-state  centers.

Kimmie Candy Co., a  manufacturer that was started in 1999, moved from Sacramento to  Nevada in 2005.  ”I really don’t have a lot of regrets about  moving up to Reno,” said owner Joe Dutra.

Klaussner Home  Furnishings in closing its La Mirada manufacturing  plant will  maintain its NC and Iowa  operations.

Knight Protective  Industries moved to Oregon “where 4-day work weeks were permitted by  the state” and wanted by the employees.

Kulicke & Soffa  Industries Inc. announced in February 2010 that it is  closing  its Irvineplant, laying off 56 people, and will shift the work to  Malaysia and Singapore. The facility had been owned by Orthodyne  Electronics  Corp., which Kulicke & Soffa bought in 2008.

LCF Enterprises, which  makes specialized high-end amplifiers used by researchers, medical  professionals and others, moved from Camarillo, Calif., to Post  Falls, Idaho.

Lennox Hearth Products  Inc., in Orange, Calif., will lay off 71 workers and by March 2010  will transfer the jobs to Nashville and Union City, Tennessee, “to  reduce costs and increase operating  efficiencies.”

Lyn-Tron, Inc., a  supplier of electronic hardware, moved from Los Angeles to Spokane,  Wash.  Their website has a rather California(ish)  statement:  ”Our commitment is to maintain a manufacturing  environment that is progressive and safe, where our employees are  able to achieve their personal objectives, thereby adding to their  quality of life and to the community in which they  live.”

Mariah Power, a “green”  manufacturer of small wind turbines, moved from California toNevada  and in 2009 teamed up with another company to begin production in  Manistee,Michigan.

Maxwell America, a  boating equipment maker, in February 2010 closed its Santa Ana offices and moved them to Hanover, Md.  One reason given was  the  indirect impact ofCalifornia environmental regulations.  A company official said  over the years many  Californiaboat builders relocated to the Midwest and East where  they don’t face the same restrictions.

MiaSolé, based in the  Silicon Valley, was reported in January 2010 to be planning a  500,000-square-foot plant, which could be one of the largest solar  factories in the United States. The location is not near its  in Santa Clara headquarters but in the Atlanta, Georgia, area where  its workforce eventually could exceed 1,000. The news came one  week after MiaSolé received $101.8 million in federal tax  credits.

MotorVac Technologies  announced in February 2010 that it’s leaving Santa Ana forOntario,  Canada.  MotorVac’s CEO said he “really fought hard  to keep MotorVac here, but unfortunately the numbers didnï¿?t  support it.  ”The move cuts costs because it’s new owner,  UView, has its own plant with excess capacity in Canada.  And  the general cost of doing business in California is much more  expensive.

Nissan North America  moved its Los Angeles headquarters to Nashville,  Tenn.

Northrop Grumman by 2011  will relocate its Los Angeles H.Q. to the Washington, DCmetro  area.  It’s the last major aerospace company to leave Southern  California, the birthplace of the aerospace  industry.

One2Believe, a specialty  religious-toy maker, left California for East Aurora, New  York.

Patmont Motor Werks,  Inc., (GoPed manufacturer), after being hit by California regulators  for hundreds of thousands of dollars in small fines even though his  company has a stellar safety record, moved to  Nevada.

Paragon Relocation  Resources moved from Rancho Santa Margarita to Irving,  Texas.

Pixel Magic,  headquartered in Toluca Lake, Calif., (Los Angeles metro area), is  locating a studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, where it will create 40  new jobs between 2010 and 2013.  The company, which provides  digital effects for motion pictures and television, said the  Louisianapeople they were in contact with have an immediate  understanding of technology and data  handling.

Plastic Model  Engineering, Inc., a custom plastic injection molder and mold  manufacturer, moved from Sylmar, Calif., to the “Inland Northwest,”  notably Post Falls,Idaho.

Precor will stop  manufacturing fitness machines in California and re-open in North  Carolina.

Premier Inc.,the largest  healthcare alliance in the nation, will move its HQ from San Diego  to Charlotte, involving an investment of $17.7 million and adding  300 jobs in North Carolina.  The announcement was made Oct. 14,  2009.

Pro Cal of South Gate,  in Los Angeles County, a unit of Myers  Industries, expanded  itsSparks, Nev., operations to become the companyï¿?s primary  West Coast production and distribution facility.  Pro Cal is  a  plastics  manufacturer of nursery containers and a big  recycler.

Race Track Chaplaincy of  America started 2010 by shifting its headquarters from Los Angeles  to Lexington, Kentucky.  The non-profit group said it had  wanted to relocate from the Hollywood Park Race Track for several  reasons, one of which is the significant cost of doing business on  the West Coast.

Red Truck Fire &  Safety Company left Fresno for Minden, Nevada in 2007 because of  Californiaï¿?s myriad fees and regulations that meant “death by  thousand cuts.”

SAIC will move its  headquarters east, from San Diego to McLean, Virgina, which the  Washington Post called “Another Coup for Area.”  The  announcement was made Sept. 24, 2009; it is unclear how many  employees will move east in 2009 and  2010.

Scale Computing, a  data-storage developer and manufacturer, is leaving Silicon Valley  for Indiana.

Schott Solar Inc. will  close its sales and customer service office in Roseville and will  relocate the office to Albuquerque,  NM.

SimpleTech transferred  its manufacturing work from Santa Ana to Asia more than a year  ago.

Smiley Industries, an  aerospace manufacturer, moved to Phoenix, where productivity  improved.

Solaicx, based in the  Silicon Valley, said in early 2010 that it will expand its  manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon.  Solaicx received  $18.2 million in federal tax credits as part of Washington’s efforts  to advance green energy.

SolarWorld, a maker of  solar technology founded in Camarillo, consolidated manufacturing in  Oregon after that state offered property tax abatement and business  energy tax credits. The company will employ about  1,000 in Oregon by 2011

Special Devices Inc.,  brought 250 jobs to Mesa, Arizona, from Moorpark,  Calif.

StarKist headquarters is  leaving San Francisco for Pittsburgh, Pa. (Pelosi’s Husband’s  Company)

Stasis Engineering moved  from Sonoma County to West Virginia, a “friendlier business  climate.”

Stata Corp., which  specializes in data analysis and statistical software, moved from  Santa Monica, California to College Station,  Texas.

Tapmatic, a metalworking  firm whose owners were “fed up with the onerous business  environment,” moved from Orange County, California to Post Falls in  northern Idaho.

Teledesic moved to  Washington state in anticipation of better capital  gains.

Telmar Network  Technology Inc., moved from Irvine to Plano, Texas, consolidating  some 150 workers there.

Terremark postponed a  Santa Clara project earlier this year to invest $50 million in a  Culpeper, Va., project.

Terumo Cardiovascular  Systems is moving R&D from Orange County to Ann Arbor,Michigan,  involving 65 jobs and $3.5 million in  investments.

Toyota will stop making  cars in Fremont, will idle 4,700 workers, and move work toCanada  and San Antonio, Texas.

True Games Interactive  Inc., will its H.Q. from Irvine to Austin, Texas, where it expects  to have about 60 workers by the middle of  2010.

TTM Technologies will  leave L.A. & Hayward and move to other states and China to  achieve big cost savings.

Twentieth Century Props  of L.A. has gone out of business as film-making has moved to  lower-cost states

Understand.com <http://understand.com/> moved from the  San Francisco Bay Area to Reno, a loss for California in that the  company is a leader in web-based patient education content and shows  strong growth.  The company was named 2007 Innovator of the  Year by a Northern publication and the company’s founder and  received a media and Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network 20 Under  40 award and was selected as a 20/20 Business Visionary by Nevada  Business Magazine.

US Airways is realigning  operations and California is no longer considered part of its  ”core.”  The airline is closing its John Wayne Airport  maintenance station and in early 2010 will redistribute the  mechanics across its system.

US Press shifted work  from Los Angeles and San Diego to Portland, “where union rules were  almost rational.”

USAA Insurance closed  its 625-person Sacramento campus in favor of other  states.

Yahoo opened a data  center in Quincy, Washington, a community that now hopes to land  high-tech manufacturing.

The list will grow as  Sacramento considers more measures that will increase corporate  taxes, increase workers’ comp costs, increase regulatory reporting  requirements (along with higher fines for minor infractions),  increase gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, increase water rates,  increase electric-power rates, and increase assorted fees that will  cause services to become more  expensive.

Eventually the great golden state will be the highest with unemployment unless they inspire entrepenurism but we know they just tax the heck out of them. The unemployment rate will skyrocket as we are taxed the highest in the union for sales tax on goods and services and basic needs and then the Health Care Reform Act kicks in to put a bite in your profits. The rest of the country just does not understand what it costs for a decent lifestyle in California and in particular Southern California. When i ran the numbers in 2004 a family of 3 needed a minimum of $150,000 just to get by and to be really comfortable you needed closer to $200,000 and then they’ll just tax the living T^%T**^%%^** out of you.

YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID!!  SO VOTE CAUTIOUSLY IF CALIFORNIA IS TO SURVIVE.

Accountability in your Personal Retirement Planning

As the author of “The 3 Secret Pillars of Wealth” I have identified what I think are seven to eight steps all Americans need to respond to and become accountable to right now. Accountability is when you’re going to get serious about what you’re doing and where you’re going. Jeff Combs, a great coach and trainer says “your word is your bond” and what is your word worth to yourself? Do you constantly procrastinate and fail to examine your finances because your fearful, don’t understand them or you are addicted to poverty consciousness rather than prosperity consciousness? Some people are addicted to struggle so much that they get in their own way of success.

It is shocking how many Americans are not accountable for their own retirement and do not do the things it takes to be financially independent. The Wall Street Journal recounted on how much apathy is out there and there is no room for slip-ups or lackadaisical attitude.

Here are the 7 things you absolutely must be doing to get the type of result you’re looking for which is financial independence in your retirement.

1. Build up cash flows
2. Build an emergency fund
3. Eliminate debt – (bankruptcy, short sale or debt settlement)
4. Rebuild credit if necessary
5. Create an emergency fund (all families need this for unexpected events)
6. Protect what you have (protect your principal from market loss
7. Build a plan for long-term income and savings
8. Have an estate plan in place to care for your affairs

It is very effective to just have steps or a checklist. Some of the most complicated machines (aircraft) and computers are run on systems and they have checklists to keep them functioning optimally. Why avoid this evident fact of how to keep things in order and follow a checklist? Everything you need is in 8 steps to financial freedom. Sure, there is a little bit of work in each step but things are now isolated and broken down into manageable pieces and that is problem solving.

To your success,

James Burns

Wealth Strategies – click here

Uncle Sam’s Snake Oil

Uncle Sam and his band of merry-men, better known as Congress, have been pushing snake oil on the unsuspecting public in the form of retirement plans. But wait, isn’t a pension plan one of the perks we look to when shopping for an employer? Well, not all pension planning is created equal and in most cases, quite disastrous.

Distributions from all qualified plans must begin no later than April 1st of the calendar year following the year that the participant attains age 70 1/2, or the calendar year in which the employee retires. Special rules apply if the distribution is made to a 5 percent owner of the business. The purpose of minimum distribution rules for retirement plans is to force the owner or participant of the pension plan to withdraw money from the plans, thus triggering an income tax on these monies. On April 16, 2002, the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations as to these distributions.

Generally, the idea pursuant to the regulations is to have the owner or participant of the pension plan begin taking the money out of the pension plan beginning at the later of when he finishes working or age 70.5. One purpose of this is to insure that these monies will be subject to income tax prior to the death of the owner.[1]

Based on the current system the government has created with pension plans, the average retired couple will pay eight to twelve times more in taxes on their IRAs and 401(k)s during their retirement years than they saved during their contribution and accumulation years.[2] Generally, it is understood that you put money into your pension plan and tax is deferred and this is a great thing. Unfortunately, you may well be in a higher tax bracket if your pension accumulation is done right.

In addition to a higher tax bracket upon reaching retirement, many people find themselves with a free and clear home; they no longer have mortgage interest deductions to offset income tax. Many Americans find they are now paying back everything they saved in taxes during their accumulation and contributions years within the first two years of distributions. Therefore, there is an insidious income tax awaiting most people and if they didn’t plan their estates, double taxation in the form of both income and estate tax.

Many postpone the transfer of their qualified funds until age 59 ½ in order to avoid the 10% tax penalty. Sometimes by delaying the payment of taxes, retirees will find themselves in a higher tax bracket after age 59 ½ because Congress could raise tax rates because of a political change. Inevitably, one must pay the piper now or later.

What is the answer? Simple, savings grade life insurance. This type of life insurance is not the same as the one you get countless letters about in the mail. This is life insurance that is focused on building up a triple compound because it is tax deferred. The difference between the deferral that life insurance experiences and pension plans is that when it comes time for payout, life insurance is received as a loan. This is a powerful concept because the proceeds will not be taxed; loans are not a form of taxable income. However, as a loan you will have interest on the payments. Most people mistakenly think they are going to pay interest on their own money with life insurance. While in theory that is true, the best insurance carriers provide for zero wash loans where the interest basically is forgiven or taken out of the death benefit when a person passes on. We are talking about real life insurance not the typical death insurance that most people have because you use it while you’re alive.

The best candidates for creating amazing wealth with Savings grade life insurance are those in the age rages of thirty to fifty. Once committed and in the proper product it is foreseeable they will retire wealthy and without the annoying taxation that surrounds a pension plan. There are even strategies to start a contribution plan to your investment that only requires repositioning your current finances.

Social Security received a 2.7 percent boost in 2005, but Medicare will continue to eat up much of the increase and when the 79 million qualifying Americans sign-up – for Social Security look out below. This does not even account for the bail out with TARP funds that President Obama awarded bankers and the fact we are headed for Debtflation.

Long Term Nursing Care – are your prepared?

Many states have a high cost for long term care and nursing but California is very explosive in expenses.

State Median Annual Care Costs for 2010 are:

Nursing Home Care

1. Private Room                                                      $87,345
2. Semi-private Room                                          $73,000

Assisted Living Facility

1. Private, one bedroom                                     $42,000

Adult Day Health Care

1. Adult day health care                                    $20,020

Home Care

1. Home health aide                                           $46,904
2. Homemaker Services                                   $45,646

The statistics are that 7 in 10 people will require one of these types of long term care in their senior years. The question is what have you done to take care of this potential problem?

You need to look at a long term care policy or better yet, an insurance policy that provides for supplemental retirement income but also has living benefits if you need them like nursing care. To ignore the numbers is to ignore a fact like you’re going to get old and that everyone has to pay taxes. You need to be responsible to your loved ones and in order to preserve all that you are and have worked for from going out the window to pay for this.

James Burns, Esq.

www.jamesgburns.com

Domestic Financial Terrorism – How do we defend?

The level of destruction on our financial system is incredible compared to what even Timothy McVee did as a domestic terrorist. You have to ask yourself who do some of these bankers and investment firms work for when you look at what they’ve done to the once wealthiest nation in the world.

Right now we’ve got $2 trillion in short-term debt that has to be refinanced this year of 2010 and China, India and Russia are not buying. This is not counting the extra deficit spending which should top $1.35 trillion this year…more or less. The fact the countries we’ve relied on are not buying means we have to fire up the printing presses again. We would already acknowledge that we are at a 10% inflation but the money folks have been using tricky phrases like “core inflation” which ignores half the things we spend money on so that way they can keep the numbers looking low.

A great book called This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhard and Kenneth Rogoff shows that EVERY TIME a nation’s debt went above 90% of GDP or Growth Domestic Product…the nation failed. The book studies 25 countries over 800 years and there were NO exceptions to the 90% rule. Every nation that ran their deficits to this 90% ratio is now off the map or turned Third World.

Right now, the US is above 90% and there appears no way to bring it down for decades unless some obscure genius comes out of the woodwork as they are not in the White House, Treasury or Fed.

It is unclear what Americans will do, especially for their retirement as the very tool our bankers use against us (stock market) they expect us to hand over our life’s savings and just be ok with negative 30 or 40% loses. You know, its just the market reacting and it goes up and down. Why is that Ok? Why should we accept losses that take us forever to recover just to get back where we started be considered alright?

We need to redo some of the Healthcare Reform Act that President Obama so valiantly promoted before 2013 when our investments could be ravaged with a sur-tax just because we are in a certain income bracket and that bracket is not hard to be in if you live in a state with a high cost of living. Where is Sarah Palin and the Tea Party when we need them.

It is time to look at guaranteed opportunities that does not go down when the market goes down. When Wall Street was once honorable a man named Benjamin Graham (mentor to Warren Buffet) extolled what was an investment. It preserved principal and gave an adequate return. We need to get back to this simple idea and quit trying to find home runs since base hits get you to home plate just as well.

We also need tax-free strategies to weather the storm our own government and their brainy bankers have left before us. It was like turning on the gas to an already smoldering economy.

James Burns

To Dream the Impossible Dream – Beating the Stock Market

A few years ago after reviewing some portfolios for clients that tried their hand in stock market trading it was obvious to me that they were gambling as if they were at the roulette table in Vegas. As someone who has worked for a billionaire and observed the asset class relative to stock, the investments were safe blue chip stocks, bonds, Treasuries and Index funds because it is next to impossible to beat the market.  I then wrote my first book The 3 Secret Pillars of Wealth that discusses the fundamentals of what is an investment and what to look for every-time you start to consider an investment.  Benjamin Graham who was the mentor of Warren Buffet stated an investment was something that preserved principal and provided and adequate return.

In the book we also discuss John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Investments, views on investing and trying to beat the market. Mr. Bogle’s academic research proved that virtually no one could consistently beat the market over long stretches (like the 35 years we have to invest for retirement). The best you could hope for was to meet the market, which gave you returns that weren’t half bad. in my book we recount the research of looking at 355 mutual funds over the 35 years and that only 3 of them did anything compelling and that was in line with what the S&P 500 did. Hence, the idea is that going forward how would the average person who works uncover those 3 funds out of the masses; you can’t is the answer.

To this end, Mr. Bogle said we need to invest in a broad swath of stocks and bonds through low-cost index funds and forget about your portfolio. Spend your time living your life instead of researching stocks and bonds. That’s much more fun than sweating over investments anyway. If you’re going to research anything it would be real estate and starting your own business as other assets.

The other pundit of the idea that almost no one beats the market is Terrance Odean, a Berkeley professor who proved Bogle’s theory from another perspective. The more you trade, the more you lose, Odean discovered by examining the real-life portfolios and trading patterns of thousands of investors. His paper, Boys Will Be Boys, is a must-read for anyone who is trying to retire in comfort and not run out of money and for those who think they’re going to outsmart the stock market. You know the guys who have a super large screen in their office and they seem to be following the market and making trades. What they are really doing is creating taxes with capital gains and many of them short term which costs more, all for what?

Steady and consistent gets to the finish line if we remember what Aesop tried to teach us in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. The best way to invest with success is to get base hits and not try to get a home run all the time. If we look at baseball, a home run is great but really you accomplish more if you get a base hit and move it one base at a time to home plate; this is better than striking out.

James Burns, Esq.

Survival of the Smartest in Retirement

An estimated 47 percent of Americans born between 1948 and 1954 may not be able to afford basic expenses and uninsured health-care costs through retirement, according to the Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute. EBRI has a database of 24 million 401(k) participants and 20 million Individual Retirement Accounts.

“The risk of outliving one’s assets in retirement, or longevity risk, has been placed squarely on the shoulders of workers,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi said in testimony for the hearing. The life expectancy of a 65-year- old U.S. male is 82, and 85 for a 65-year-old female, according to the Social Security Administration.

There are solutions for guaranteed income contracts for life which makes sense to add to your planning. This provides predictability on outcome rather than riding the roller coaster of the market.

James Burns, Esq.

Health (scare) Care Reform and an Insidious Tax it Releases

The new Health care reform bill includes a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on unearned income including annuities, and possibly income recognized from the surrender or sale of life insurance.

Many clients have asked how to get out of annuities they don’t need to minimize a potential huge tax hit. This is only if you don’t think you’ll need this income as we can move it to an insurance policy that is free of the tax, leaves a legacy and still provide some income for you and your family.

This strategy spreads out potential tax payments over a 7-year period and moves funds from an existing annuity where funds are trapped and destined for taxes to efficiently transfer your wealth through life Insurance.

The benefit to you is that you keep more of what you earned and leave more to your family who should be the recipients of all your hard work.

Don’t fail to plan or get information on how this might affect you as the outcome could be disastrous.

James Burns

Powerful workout in a card that gets you in shape

A fun and easy way to keep fit even when you travel.

I’ve been using this Fitdeck product and getting amazing results. Even when I travel it only weighs a few ounces to have a super workout handy using only your body weight but there are so many cards for every sport.

CLICK BELOW to start learning how you can get in shape and have some fun.

Super Fitness

James Burns, Esq.
Former Recon Marine

Finance Insurance With Other People’s Money (OPM)

Succession Capital

Using other people’s money (OPM) with the intent to realize a financial gain is a financial concept that has been practiced by real estate developers, investors, business owners, and entrepreneurs for centuries. Most recently, this concept is being utilized to purchase life insurance, and has raised the eyebrows of insurance promoters and financial professionals alike. But, does this concept offer economic substance or is it just another sales tool to sell life insurance?[1]

Life insurance is an important part of any high net worth individual’s financial picture. Since adequate life insurance usually requires significant premium payments, the premium financing strategy can be an effective solution for clients who do not want to liquidate assets to fund their life insurance premiums.

Premium financing is a method of funding the purchase of life insurance for those individuals who have significant net worth and the insurable need, but do not have or want to use liquid capital to pay the premium on a life insurance policy.  By borrowing the money to pay the life insurance premiums with a loan, the insured individual frees up capital that can be used more efficiently.  The use of premium financing may lower out-of-pocket costs and potential gift taxes.

Most lender’s in this space base the current loan interest rate on the one-year London Interbank Offering Rate (LIBOR), adding a profit margin spread of 175 to 250 basis points. Essentially, lending rates are determined on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration the loan amount and the lenders’ risk exposure. Loan interest rates can be fixed on an annual basis, but may vary from year to year, based on fluctuations in LIBOR or changes in the borrower’s financial conditions, which must be updated annually. There was once a yen version that eventually went disastrous when markets changed and if an exit strategy was not built into the plan it could have cost the insured significantly.

There additional fees, such as loan origination fees (commonly 0.5 to 1.25%) of the expected total loan balance), associated with the loan that can offset any savings related to a low interest rate? Often times these fees must be paid up front while some lenders allow them to be financed with the policy premiums. In addition, is the interest variable or fixed, and if variable, how often does it reset? Typically, in most arrangements the interest is a variable rate, with a portion of the interest determined by an index resetting each year, but the spread on top of the index may be fixed for the life of the loan. The 12-month LIBOR is a common index as well as the prime rate. If there is a fixed interest rate, it is important to determine how long it will be fixed. In many instances the fixed rate is only for a certain time period such as five or 10 years. A cap will set on how high the loan interest rate can go during the loan term. So while the loan interest might be variable, there is a cap that will limit how high the interest rate can grow, such as 8%. When the loan interest has both a cap and a floor it is said to have a “collar.” The lender limits how high the loan rate can go, and the borrower agrees that the rate may never go a below a certain amount even if the index with the spread is below that rate. A cap by itself is more expensive than a collar, and the expense is usually expressed in a loan origination fee or in the amount of spread placed in the offer. Caps and collars are generally offered only in fairly sizable loan arrangements, generally in excess of $1 million.

The best candidates for premium-financed life insurance typically have a minimum net worth of $5 million.  Collateral for the loan usually consists of personal assets and can be reduced by the cash value in the policy being financed.

Plan highlights include:

· Target market: at least $5 million estate and a minimum of $100,000 annual life insurance premium

· Frees up business or personal investment capital for more efficient usage.

· Leverages available assets to provide needed insurance coverage with minimal out-of-pocket expenses.

· Potential to reduce gift taxes.

· Loan rate typically tied to a published rate like LIBOR, plus a spread.

· Required collateral can be offset by cash values growing tax-deferred in the policy.

· Can provide substantially greater internal rate of return on the life insurance policy death benefit over non-financed payment methods.

The power of premium financing lies within the same simple concepts related to the leveraging of permanent life insurance for estate liquidity and wealth transfer planning. The key is to evaluate premium financing not as a stand-alone transaction, but as an alternative to the traditional funding of life insurance using the same capital base.

The single greatest misconception is that the client must have an arbitrage opportunity for the financed transaction to provide a benefit over traditional funding. The power of premium financing is based on the leveraging effect created by combining the financing piece with a properly designed life insurance policy so one of the Secret Pillars predominates over the other.[2]

I have been involved in cases where it made sense to not drain cash flow and use leverage to accomplish payments of the life premiums. If the structure is designed properly it can have an exit strategy built in. There is one planning technique for families that have done no estate planning but are uninsurable and have healthy children. This planning tool is too technical to discuss here but if you’re reading this and know someone with over $10,000,000 of net worth without an estate plan and they have an illness, you can have them give my office a call.