Financial Planning Software

[scagnt83]

Sorry to butt in and not trying to thread jack - I have a possible client. He has real estate that is cash flow positive and probably most is paid off. A real shirt sleeves kind of guy who is solid. He is looking to lower capital gains for a possible sale but he is young enough to want to keep running them.

I was trying to find some analysis software or something that might add value for him. The only thing I can think of is re-fi, pull out some cash and invest it into a ROTH or annuities with an income rider to build up his retirement plan. He gets a tax deduction and diversifies his holdings. The problem is it is hard to find a good alternative when someone is a savvy real estate investor.

Yeah, seasoned real estate investors can be difficult to deal with.

As far as software goes, I would suggest NaviPlan for this guy, especially if his income and net worth are/will be substantial.


The tax issue:
I am assuming the tax flow is from rental income.
There is no real good way to reduce the capital gains from a sale of property that I am aware of (granted my experience with real estate is not as much as others; there could possibly be some type of deductions out there that are transaction related, but I dont know what they are).

What he can do however is create an overall financial plan that will maximize any deductions that he could be utilizing, minimize his overall taxes in the long run, & maximize his retirement savings....

Your prospect's problem is that he is taking a "transactional approach" (or a "piece by piece" approach) to his financial plan; He needs to be taking a "Comprehensive Approach to his financial plan. When he does that, any taxes he incurs (capital gains or otherwise) are not only planned for, but are minimized to the fullest for his situation.


The ROTH approach is not a bad idea (assuming he qualifies). But I would be extremely careful with tapping into equity on property that is or almost is paid off.

Is the rental income his only form of income? Is that not sufficient to fund any personal retirement plans? Does he have a holding company set up that owns the properties? Is it multiple as in two, or multiple as in four or five?



I have a prospect who sounds exactly the same as this guy. He is so hesitant to not reinvest in real estate, its just ridiculous. But he has a HUGE amount of rental income flowing through each year; every bit of it is reinvested into real estate!
(looking at the guy, you would never guess he has that kind of money at all, & I met him at some hole in the wall bar in town... lol)
But at least he is gaining interest in diversifying! He is an acquaintance, and hopefully I can get him to do something by the end of the year...

What I am hoping to do with my guy, is for him to start doing some "lease to own" deals on some of his commercial properties eventually. And in the meantime divert his cash flow into some liquid/partly liquid retirement savings vehicles.

 

[blf]

Not familiar with eMoney, have to check it out. Profiles and Money Guide Pro are good comprehensive tools. Someone said Profiles publishes a book, it can, but you control what you print, as little or as much as you want.

 

[Freddie]

Yeah, seasoned real estate investors can be difficult to deal with.

As far as software goes, I would suggest NaviPlan for this

Great stuff snipped!

Many thanks. It sounds like the same sort of guy. Very self-made and matter of fact. Thanks for some great ideas.

 

[crimsontideagent]

We use eMoney and it is great. The account aggregation is working fine with almost all banks I've ran into.

eMoney developed LBS for Guardian but I'm pretty sure Guardian didn't "buy" them.

It is very impressive to clients though...

 

[CFP83]

just found this oldie but goodie thread.....

After going back and forth with several different planning softwares I finally settled down with eMoney and absolutely love it. As mentioned several times, it is pricey software and if your going to take the dive you might as well add the additional $1200 for the "marketing package" which is very cool.

I was first attracted to this tool for its ability to be a automatically updating financial-planning tool. However, the not so expected result has been much more "engaged client relationships". We see that many clients are logging into their websites several times per week and utilize it to organize all of their finances, monthly budgets and spending, as well as storing important documents in their client vault.

Overall, it is high-end software with a high-end price-tag, however if you can get your head around the idea that clients will pay for something that provides tremendous value to their life then the price-tag you have to pay as an advisor now becomes a "cost of doing business".

 

[trustandadvice]

The program is good. There are others. Fidelity just bought the entire company for $250,000,000.