Arthur S. Miller started his career as a business consultant in the greater Boston area, where he provided management consulting services to family owned businesses in the region. During his time as a consultant, Arthur boosted sales by streamlining operations such as direct customer response, market analysis, and consultative sales language. After 10 years as a business consultant, he accepted an offer to become a member of the sales and financial planning team at John Hancock and Heritage Financial Consultants. In this role, Arthur worked with a diverse array of individual and institutional clients, helping them lay the groundwork for business success in the long term. A longtime financial services executive and current president of Capital Preservation Strategies, Inc., Arthur S. Miller has established himself as an industry leader in the Highland Park, Illinois area. Besides leading his firm in Highland Park, Illinois, Arthur S. Miller is a published poet, enjoys reading the works of Mark Twain, writing a screenplay, and cooking food from across the world.
Gretchen Rubin's new book, out today, is Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits -- to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life. In answer to my questions, she shared her insights on how habits can free us, the importance of understanding ourselves, and the 21 strategies we can use to make or break habits -- and in doing so, begin to live the lives we want, not the lives we settle for.
A retirement planning specialist based in Highland Park, Illinois, Arthur S. Miller serves as president of Capital Preservation Strategies, Inc. Also a published poet, Arthur S. Miller enjoys writing and reading poetry in his free time. He particularly enjoys the work of Wallace Stevens.
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1879, Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet who is known for technical and thematic poetry that employs memorable phrasing, extraordinary vocabulary, and philosophical ruminations. His work often explores the connection between imagination and objective reality and is regularly listed among the best writing of the 20th century.
Although Stevens began writing at an early age, much of his life was devoted to his work as a successful insurance lawyer. His first book of poetry was published in 1923, and some of his best-known work was written when Stevens was in his 60s and 70s. Prior to his death in 1955, Stevens received several writing awards, including the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, two National Book Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
A seasoned financial professional in Highland Park, Illinois, Arthur S. Miller currently serves as the president of Capital Preservation Strategies. In this capacity, Arthur S. Miller reviews the importance of issues pertaining to estate planning and discusses the significance of monitoring taxation of retirement plan distributions. Following those conversations, Arthur S. Miller recommends attorneys who specialize in estate planning and Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) who have developed a mastery of the complex retirement plan distribution tax rules. Among the most ubiquitous financial professionals for many people in the United States today, CPAs perform a number of important tax and capital management duties for both individuals and organizations.
First and foremost, CPAs help clients maintain their financial records, primarily by overseeing bookkeeping efforts and preparing tax statements for government review. CPAs possess an intimate knowledge of the U.S. and state tax codes, which enable them to save their clients money at various junctures. In addition to creating and analyzing budgets at either the individual or corporate level, CPAs can advise businesses on the tax consequences of certain decisions. Other common CPA duties include identifying and investigating variances, managing accounts payable and receivable, and reporting financial information to management.
With decades of experience in the field of retirement planning, Arthur S. Miller served as the owner of Highland Park, Illinois’s Asset Protection Associates until 2013. Currently the president of Capital Preservation Strategies, Inc., Arthur S. Miller provides his clients with retirement planning guidance. He also provides estate planning information, as it pertains to beneficiary issues surrounding qualified retirement plans and life insurance.
No matter what point you may be at in your life, estate planning is an important step to prepare for unexpected life changes. Depending on your family and financial situation, estate planning can be complicated, and there are a few things to keep in mind to prepare for the unexpected.
-Put things in writing. In addition to a will, provide family members with documents that may be useful while you are still alive. Further, granting someone a durable power of attorney for property allows that person to manage your finances and other legal affairs if you are unable to do so.
-Consider life insurance. Especially helpful if your beneficiaries will have significant income or inheritance taxes to pay, life insurance can keep the taxes from draining all of the taxable assets they inherit. Life insurance proceeds are also not taxed as income, so the entire amount will be given to your beneficiaries.
-Start early. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, people with lower net worth need estate planning the most, as what they leave behind may need to stretch farther. In any case, having a solid estate plan as soon as possible can give you and your beneficiaries peace of mind.
As president of Capital Preservation Strategies, Inc., in Highland Park, Illinois, Arthur S. Miller offers retirement planning advice to individuals seeking to maintain their assets throughout their lifetimes. From his Highland Park, Illinois, office, Arthur S. Miller addresses the need for continuing income and for resources to support long-term care.
In the summer of 2014, the US Department of the Treasury announced final rules for longevity annuities. These products function as a deferred income product that takes effect when an individual reaches a certain age and continues throughout life. An individual simply pays a single sum at a particular age and designates the advanced age at which he or she wishes to receive regular income payments. Monthly payments increase with each year an account holder waits to begin receiving income.
Under the new rules, longevity annuities are available to holders of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) and 401(k) plans. Plan holders may now channel as much as 25 percent of their account balances into a deferred income annuity, which, when an individual reaches 70.5 years of age, becomes exempt from the minimum distribution requirements that govern a 401(k). Payments typically cease with the account holder's death, yet the Treasury does allow plan distributors to offer refunds for unpaid premiums or to let buyers designate beneficiaries to receive payments after the account holder passes.
