Financial Planning

Financial planning and tax prep firm Gilman + Ciocia, based here, has plans to expand in the Northeast, with the opening of three new offices slated for this month.

Practitioners who began adding tax planning services to their basic preparation several years back have found that it's a small step to branch out completely into year-round financial planning.

Saving for college has become a cottage industry. There are now over 80 varieties of the Section 529 plan alone. The result is a complex maze of investment options, cost structures, tax benefits and financial aid implications. The federal government's attention to the complexities has some thinking that there might be significant changes on the way.The National Association of Securities Dealers is currently looking into the sales practices of some 20 brokers, questioning whether these brokers are actually presenting the plans that best suit each client's needs.

Hedge funds.Billionaire investor Warren Buffett thinks they're a fad, while fellow billionaire George Soros used them to strike it rich. Hedge funds are controversial, complex and often shrouded in mystery. And while they've long been a secret haven for the ultra-wealthy, mainstream investors are starting to take notice.

It's possible for transfers to a trust to be completed gifts for gift and estate tax purposes, even though that trust may still be treated as a grantor trust for income tax purposes, so that the income of the trust is taxable to the grantor even though retained in the trust or distributed to beneficiaries of the trust.

E&Y SHEDS INVESTMENT BANKING ARM: Big Four firm Ernst & Young has shed its investment banking arm by selling the practice to the consulting firm run by former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.Giuliani Partners LLC bought Ernst & Young Corporate Finance LLC, an affiliate of the Big Four accounting firm, and simultaneously launched Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC, which will advise companies on acquisitions, restructurings and other deals.

H&R Block Inc. announced that Brian L. Nygaard, president and chief executive officer of H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc., has decided to leave the company.

The AARP, the high-profile lobbying group for 36 million Americans over 50, plans to launch a two-week advertising campaign to battle President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security via the rollout of ownership accounts. The group headquartered here, plans to spend some $5 million on the advertising push to fight the creation of the proposed accounts, which would be funded through payroll taxes. According to reports, the full-page ads are scheduled to appear in roughly 50 newspapers across the country. One of the ads displays a picture of stock traders with the tagline, "Winners and losers are stock market terms. Do you really want them to become retirement terms?" Another shows a couple saying, "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2005-5 providing guidance on the new automatic (or default) rollover rules for qualified retirement plans. These new rules were added to the Internal Revenue Code as part of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, but they will not be effective until March 28, 2005, which is the effective date of related final regulations published by the Department of Labor. The guidance answers questions regarding the application of the new requirement and will make it easier for plan sponsors to comply in a timely manner. The new automatic rollover rule requires that mandatory distributions of more than $1,000 from a qualified retirement plan be paid in a direct rollover to an Individual Retirement Account unless the distributee elects to have the amount rolled over to another retirement plan or to receive the distribution directly. EGTRRA also requires that the plan administrator notify the distributee in writing that the distribution may be paid in a direct rollover to an IRA. The guidance responds to comments received by the Department of Labor, Treasury, and the IRS. For example, the guidance clarifies that the automatic rollover requirement applies to governmental and church plans although a transition rule is provided for these plans to comply. The guidance provides that all plans have until the end of 2005 to establish administrative procedures for processing the automatic rollovers and clarifies that rollover IRAs can be set up without the participant's participation. Finally, the guidance includes a sample amendment that plan sponsors can use to amend their plans to comply with the new rule.

The Internal Revenue Service has released final regs totaling over 230 pages with rules for plans that permit employees to make pre-tax contributions and for plans that have employer matching contributions or employee after-tax contributions. The existing regulations covering these plans were last updated in 1994. Since then, there have been significant statutory changes. The new regs will be fully effective for plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2006, although employers are permitted to use the new rules for any plan year that ends after Dec. 28, 2004. These comprehensive final rules are the result of a long effort of input gathering from retirement plan participants, sponsors, and service providers. Specifically, they address many of the concerns raised by comments submitted in response to the proposed regulations. These final regulations will make it easier for employers to sponsor plans to help employees save for their retirement and will assist administrators in keeping the plans qualified. The final regulations update and simplify many of the current rules for 401(k) plans. In addition, the new regulations strengthen the nondiscrimination rules that ensure benefits for rank-and-file employees. They require certain employer contributions to be spread over a large group of rank-and-file employees before they can boost the ability of high-paid employees to defer income under the plan.