>>Welcome!

Dear Friends:

This firm is committed to providing quality service to its clients. This eNewsletter is one means of providing that quality service.

We hope you enjoy this issue, with an overview on how new tax provisions impact nonqualified deferred compensation plans, as well as information on avoiding common life insurance mistakes and preventing home improvement fraud. We feel all our clients and acquaintances could benefit from this information. Feel free to pass this eNewsletter along to others.

Please let me know if there is an area of interest that you want covered in future newsletters.

Feedback and suggestions? Please e-mail me:
whc@whc-law.com

>>Learn How to Prevent Home Improvement Fraud

Have you thought about repairing a leaky roof, adding an extra room to your home, or remodeling the exterior of your home? If so… check out all the facts before you hire a contractor or sign anything. The process of improving your home can be an economic nightmare to the unwary consumer.

(Click here to read the full article)

>>Ten Common Life Insurance Mistakes

There are 10 mistakes people make over and over with respect to life insurance. Each of these mistakes has two things in common: First, each has potentially serious consequences in terms of both expense and aggravation. Second, each could easily have been avoided or if found in time can be corrected quickly and inexpensively. Ironically, and fortunately, there is a relatively simple solution to each of these ten common mistakes.

(Click here to read the full article)

>>Please Visit Our New Updated Website!

The Law Offices of William Copperthwaite has recently updated its website www.whc-law.com. Additionally, if you missed any of our past eNewsletters, feel free to view them in our eNewsletter Archive on the website.

Check here to see the new website and the eNewsletter Archive.

>>Top 10 Estate Planning Mistakes

1. Failure in not having a Will (or not updating your existing Will).
2. Failure to have successor Executors, successor Guardians and successor Trustees.
3. Failure of not planning or discussing your Will with your beneficiaries.
4. Failure to take taxes into consideration when preparing your Will
5. Failure to have a Power of Attorney.
6. Failure to have an Advance Directive for Medical Care with appointment for a health care agent (“living will”).
7. Appointing the wrong fiduciaries.
8. Failure to plan for contingent beneficiaries.
9. Failure to review and update the beneficiaries of the life insurance policies (and/or retirement plans).
10. Failure of not hiring an Attorney.

For more information on planning your will or estate,
please e-mail me at: whc@whc-law.com

>>New Tax Provisions Impact Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans

Recent changes in federal tax laws have made it potentially more difficult to optimize the tax benefits of nonqualified deferred compensation plans. These changes, which comprise Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code, generally apply to amounts deferred after December 31, 2004. The changes pertain largely to a) the timing of decisions (“elections”) to defer income and b) the circumstances under which the income can be distributed.

(Click here to read the full article)

>>"Shining City on a Hill"

“Let us resolve tonight that young Americans will always…find there a city of hope in a country that is free… And let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation, we did keep the faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves, that we did protect pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill.”

- Ronald Reagan, Election Eve Speech, November 3, 1980