White House Financial & Settlement Solutions, LLC

January 18, 2013   We recently had a client contact us who wanted to know what she was earning in our money market fund because she had heard that another advisor was claiming significantly higher earnings on what they had to offer. During my over 15 years in the financial advising and investment business I have encountered this kind of reaction from clients several times. My experience and gut told me that if we were truly comparing apples to apples in terms of financial vehicles, earning a return that the competing advisor was claiming was highly unlikely. However, we always give people the benefit of the doubt and I never claim to know everything! I contacted several trusted resources including our broker dealer who had several employees who had recently worked for the competitor who was supposedly offering this higher interest rate. All of the sources confirmed that the competitor did not have such a money market fund that earns what they were claiming and that the produ...

We hope that you had a safe and wonderful holiday season and wish you and your family a HAPPY NEW YEAR in 2013!!! We have been closely following the changes our government is advocating to avert the so called "fiscal cliff" and how it will affect our client's financial plans in the future.  While there are many details still to be hammered out and communicated, here is a summary of what we know now, based on the agreement currently on the table: Congress skidded to a halt with the front tires hanging over the fiscal cliff, with the House last night joining the Senate in passing Taxpayer Relief Act.  Initially, the stock markets have shown gains, however, we believe that this excitement will evaporate, because the buildup does not include raising the debt ceiling or longer-term budget cuts. Republicans and Democrats are hardening their positions ahead of the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling, which the government hit on Monday but which the Taxpayer Relief Act d...

At White House Financial we pride ourselves on being unique and different and hence we were going to attempt to NOT have any commentary on the “Fiscal Cliff”, however, prudence won out and we just wanted to make sure all of our friends and clients knew where we stand on this subject.   So here it is!!   Hot off the presses! For those of you who have been traveling far away from any type of “civilization” t he “F i sc al C li ff ” is a p a c k a g e of s i g ni f i c a n t tax h i k es a n d s p e n d i ng c uts sc h e d u l e d t o t a k e e ff e c t i n 2 0 1 3 . P r i or l e g i s l a t i v e c o m pr o m i s es o v er U . S . f i sc al p o l i c y h a v e s et t he s ta g e f or a u t o m at i c s p e n di n g c uts a n d tax h i k e s .   T he f i sc al c li f f re f e r s t o : 1.)     S un -s et t i n g o f B u sh- e r a t ax rat e s , 2.)  ...

  We have been advising many of our clients who are teachers in the Michigan Educational system on the proposed changes to their Retiree Healthcare and Pension options. The state wants to put more of the cost of retiree healthcare and pensions on the teachers themselves due to their fiscal issues. The most important advice we have for our clients is that they have to crunch the numbers or have someone crunch the numbers for them to see what the impact of their decision is on their total financial plan. Teachers should also consider how long they have worked as a teacher and how long they plan to continue working in the school system. Finally, consideration should be given to whether the teacher is comfortable with 100% of their healthcare and retirement future completely in the hands of the state of Michigan. The first change is in the retiree healthcare options where they have the option of selecting a Premium Subsidy or Personal Healthcare Fund. With the Premium Subsidy the ...

 October 22, 2012 Topic:  The ALMOST perfect client review meeting As a financial advisor and business owner my team and I are continuously trying to perfect our craft.  There are so many things we do for our clients, however, if I had to boil down everything we do to the two most important I would say they are: continuously and consistently communicating with our clients and meeting with our clients face- to- face to review their needs and goals and the strategy we are implementing to help them achieve them.  We are continuously honing our systems to deliver that perfect client review meeting, which today, I believe, we almost had! We met with long- time husband and wife clients today whom we will call, for the sake of confidentiality, Joe and Jane Doe.  I will get around to talking about the meeting itself, however, I should provide some background on this client relationship first, to set the stage.  We have worked with the Doe’s for arou...