KENSINGTON, MARYLAND. April 2, 2009 – – Individuals need to realize that traditional financial advisers don’t necessarily have the solutions they are seeking, and turn to advisers who offer common-sense solutions based on investing facts. That’s the advice of Samuel N. Asare, MBA, CRPC, CMFC, and senior financial strategist at Laser Financial Group, LC.
Asare, a Washington D.C.-based financial strategist, takes a radically different approach to helping people save for retirement than many of the financial experts who are on TV or authoring financial advice columns.
Secure Investments Do Exist
“The public has been brainwashed into thinking that in order to grow a sizable nest egg, they must accept risk, volatility, and unpredictability,” says Asare. Laser Financial Group teaches that serious cash should not be invested directly in the stock market.
When people have their investments directly tied to the stock market, a decline like we’ve witnessed in recent months impacts their entire account. That can be catastrophic. Instead, Laser Financial Group recommends investments that are linked to a stock market index.
“Our methodology allows investors to make decent returns when the market is up, but not lose money when it plummets,” explains Asare. He added that none of their clients lost money last year. Instead, they earned between one and five percent, depending on their specific contracts with their respective carriers.
“We have long recommended that people utilize a more stable, less volatile investment strategy that provides some predictability in managing their nest eggs. Most Americans never expected to find themselves in this predicament. But our nation’s current economic calamity may be the wake-up call that rattles people enough to question the basic assumptions they’ve been given, and makes them consider alternative strategies,” said Asare.
Forget about traditional advice such as paying off your home mortgage as fast as you can, using a qualified retirement plan, such as an IRA or 401(k), diversifying your retirement portfolios in broad-spectrum mutual funds or stocks, and then trusting that everything will work out, says Asare.
He points out that millions of Americans have faithfully done all of that, only to see their retirement savings decimated. “But even if the current economic crisis had not hit, many Americans have and will reach retirement and find that their financial situation is much worse than they’d anticipated,” he emphasizes.
Retirement Can Mean a Higher Tax Bracket
Asare explains that one of the reasons people find their situation worse than anticipated is that they are getting clobbered with taxes due to the fact that they have fewer deductions and exemptions than ever because:
- If they have paid down or paid off their mortgage, they no longer have the mortgage interest tax deduction;
- They are no longer making contributions into qualified retirement plans;
- And they must start paying taxes when they withdraw money from their IRA or 401(k).
“In fact, the average retired couple will pay eight to 12 times the taxes during their retirement years than the taxes they saved during their contribution/accumulation years,” says Asare.
Laser Financial and a few other savvy financial planners around the nation advocate nonqualified retirement plans that are funded with after-tax dollars that accumulate and are withdrawn income tax-free. “Almost everyone in this country believes that future tax rates will likely be higher. Yet, so-called financial advisers are advocating retirement plans that postpone tax liabilities,” says Asare.
To more fully explain their investing philosophies, Laser Financial Group conducts educational seminars entitled “Wealth Optimization.” Their next seminar is scheduled for Saturday, April 25th, 1 p.m., at the Exit Realty Office, 5300 Westview Drive, Suite 105 Frederick, MD 21703. For more details and to request complimentary tickets call (877) 656-9111 or visit www.laserfg.com
About Samuel N. Asare:
A maverick in the financial services arena, Asare is a Senior Financial Strategist with Laser Financial Group, LC. He is a master at simplifying complex financial strategies and has a real passion for helping people take control of their finances by showing them how to accumulate money on a tax-favored basis so that they can achieve the highest possible net spend-able retirement income.
As a speaker and presenter who is in high demand, Mr. Asare brings to his dynamic seminars plenty of real-world examples, humor, and practical applications from his years of experience in retirement planning, equity management, accounting, mortgages, wealth optimization, business management, economics, and tax planning.
He has served as a Financial Analyst, Finance Manager, and Vice President of Finance & Operations. Mr. Asare holds an MBA and is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC), Charted Mutual Fund Counselor (CMFC), Certified Treasury Professional (CTP), and Certified Business Manager (CBM).