Cruise & Associates is a comprehensive wealth management firm. We offer a variety of services ranging from wealth management to estate planning. We are committed to building long term relationships with our clients while helping them navigate and manage all the unexpected changes that life, and the economy can throw at us.

Robert Cruise brings a great deal of wealth management experience to the table, when you combine that knowledge with our knowledge in the income tax and accounting laws. Our goal is to provide you with a personalized financial strategy that can provide potential tax benefits.

Our wealth management department works with a broad and diverse group of clients, both individual and businesses. Please see the lists of services we offer below.

Your investment portfolio, regardless of its size is vital to your financial success. Whether your interests are in asset preservation, asset accumulation, or income strategies, we will develop a comprehensive plan that helps you pursue your goals.

Robert F. Cruise will design a plan that will help direct you from your current financial situation, towards your life’s goals.  As we all know, the only sure thing in life is change, so we provide regular reviews, and if necessary, will recommend changes to your portfolio to make sure your plan stays on track.

Americans are spending more years in retirement than ever before, and this is a trend that will continue to increase.  A sound retirement begins with a well thought out plan to make sure you don’t out live your assets.  Robert F. Cruise will help you create realistic goals for you to maintain or enhance your current lifestyle.

Has your IRA or 401(k) rolled over and played dead?  Robert F. Cruise knows all the ins and outs of IRA’s, IRA Rollovers, 401k’s and will explain the pros and cons of each option.

Just as many people between ages of 30 and 50 lack a will, many also lack life insurance.  A March 2011 survey from Genworth Financial and the University of Virginia’s Daren School of Business found that almost 70% of single parents and 45% of married couples were living without any coverage.

Why don’t more young adults buy life insurance?  Shopping for life insurance may seem confusing, boring, or unnecessary.  Yet when you have kids, get married, buy a home or live a lifestyle funded by significant salaries, the need arises.

We look at life insurance on a needs only basis, not as an investment.  So when the need is there, we will recommend the proper death benefit and type of life insurance. Some common needs include paying off a mortgage on a house or income replacement if one spouse would pass away.

Please keep in mind the primary reason to purchase a life insurance product is the death benefit. Life insurance products contain fees, such as mortality and expense changes, and may contain restrictions, such as surrender periods.

With the constant changes in the health care laws, and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care), all Americans must now look at their health insurance options.  As we all know, failure to have health insurance will now create a penalty on your income tax return, in addition for those that are under the 400% poverty level the government will be giving subsidies to help people pay the premiums.

We are here to help navigate through this complex law.   We will review your options with you, let you know what your costs are and help with all the paperwork to make sure you are in full compliance with the law.

At age 65, you should apply for Medicare Benefits, even if you are covered by a group health plan. Most health insurance plans will assume that you will do this.  You can apply for original Medicare (Part A and B) at age 65 even if you haven’t retired.  Part A (hospital insurance) is free for all insured Americans, even those who have health coverage.  Part B (medical insurance) pays for doctor’s services, outpatient care and other miscellaneous medical services.

Next, you should apply for Medicare Supplement Insurance. These policies cover the costs and expenses that are not covered by Medicare and are very inexpensive.

As we have all worked to build a comfortable retirement, we have saved money using 401(k)’s, Traditional IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, building equity in our house, etc.  As we move into our retirement years, it is important to know that you will not out live your savings.  So, you need to protect all those assets from the high costs of long term care.  This includes home health care, assisted living, and or traditional nursing home care.  The law requires that a person or couple deplete most if not all their assets, including the equity in your home, to pay for these expenses prior to Medicare kicking in.

Long-term care insurance is one of many strategies our professionals use in protecting our clients life time savings.  Others might include, but not limited to, life estates, gifting programs, trusts, etc.

Proper planning can help you maximize your social security benefits. We can help you analyze your financial situation and estimate the best time to take your social security to increase the dollars you receive.

You have an estate, everyone does.  It doesn’t matter how limited, or unlimited, your means may be, and it does not matter if you own a mansion or a motor home you need estate planning.

Rich or poor, when you die you leave behind an estate.  For some, this can mean real property, cash, and an investment portfolio. For others, it could be a $10 bill in your wallet, in any case you have an estate.

While it is absolutely possible to die without planning your estate, I wouldn’t say that is advisable.  If you don’t leave behind an estate plan, your family could face major legal issues and possibly bitter disputes.  We feel everyone should do some form of estate planning. This could include wills and trusts, life insurance, a living will, power of attorneys for financial and health care and more.

Contact our office today to find out more information.

Improve your business retirement plan with Cruise & Associates. We will design a business retirement package that has certain tax advantages and can potentially increase your retirement savings dollars.

401(k) plans are for any business owner that wants to put the most retirement dollars to work for them.  Currently, the IRS has pre-approved six different types of 401(k) plans; these include plans for the one person business up to a business with thousands of employees.  We will review your situation and assist with the selection and evaluation of  various service providers to plan in a cost effective manner. The cost on these plans can be a lot less than you think.

Executive Deferred Compensation programs fall into three different categories.  First, they may be well suited for the high income business owner who wants to defer taxes on more than is allowed under a 401(k).  Second, they are perfect when a business owner has a key employee he or she would like to keep around; sometimes these plans are called “Golden Handcuff” plans.  Lastly, these programs are an ideal way to extract excess cash that has built up inside a C-Corporation.

With the constant changes in the health care laws, all business owners must now look at their legal requirements and health insurance benefits.  There are many requirements and decisions that need to be made for both businesses with less than 50 employees and for those with more than 50 employees.

Cruise & Associates has extensive knowledge of the income tax, payroll tax and health care laws, so we can give our business owners the information they need to make sound business decisions.

A nice and not very expensive benefit that most business could provide to their employees is a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan.  These plans allow for an employee to pay for out of pocket medical expenses, out of pocket health insurance, out of pocket dependent care expenses all with pre-tax dollars.  On the employer’s side, our system requires very little work. The cost to administer the plan can be as low as a few hundred dollars a year, and your employees receive a valuable benefit.

We find a lot of clients have a big misconception when it comes to business succession planning.  They think this only needs to be done when they decide to retire and pass the business onto a family member. Business succession planning should be done as soon as the business has passed the startup phase and has become a significant personal asset.

“Why?” you might ask.  Business succession planning has more to do with preserving that asset if the owner was no longer capable of working anymore.

Questions to consider are: Would the business owner lose a major asset if the business would close?  Would all the loyal employees that have been with you for many years lose their jobs?  Would your family’s lifestyle change if the income from the business ended?  These are questions  we work with every day, and we can help answer them and design a plan that is right for you.

A 529 savings plan allows for tax free withdraws for qualified educational expenses such as tuition and books. There are also other tax advantages to make your money work harder for you. We can help design an investment plan to fit your risk tolerance, time frame and savings goals.

*Services are offered by Robert F. Cruise through Grove Point Investments, LLC.

There are risks involved with investing, including possible loss of principal. Investments will fluctuate and maybe worth more or less than when originally purchased.

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The information contained in this article is not intended to constitute legal, accounting, tax, investment, consulting or other professional advice or services. For specific information that applies to your circumstances you should consult a qualified tax advisor. In accordance with IRS Circular 230 Disclosure, and to ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any tax advice contained in this article was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of (1) avoiding tax-related penalties under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code or (2) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any tax-related matters addressed therein.