Business News

I’m frequently struck by the number of job seekers who are struggling to achieve career success, lost in endless frustration at answering on-line job postings.  They’ll answer tens, even hundreds, of postings with little to no positive results.
There are a series of explanations and unintended outcomes that happen along the way, especially when one’s job search is not well planned or executed.

We all work hard to accumulate our assets and many of us think we are protecting them simply by having insurance.  That is true to a point but shifting the risk to an insurance company may not give you all the protection you need.
There are certain asset protection strategies that involve shifting legal ownership of the assets to other entities.  We will start with the most common way most people protect their wealth.

Wealth can be a mixed blessing -- one that creates great opportunity as well as weighty responsibility -- especially for children. As a parent, grandparent, or concerned relative, you hope to pass on what you have learned about managing and preserving wealth to the younger generation. However, you want the family legacy to be about more than astute money management; you want it to reflect your personal values, which may include a social conscience and philanthropic ideals.
How do you combine financial knowledge and charitable intent in your wealth management lessons? Following are some thoughts for your consideration.

“I was afraid to report my work accident because I thought my employer might fire me.”  During the hundreds of depositions I’ve been involved with, this is the phrase I hear the most.  The fact of the matter is, however, your employer not only wants you to report your work injury, but, by law, they must encourage you to do so and on a timely basis. 

We only have to worry about taxes once a year, right?  But what happens if you have to revise your return?  What if you find out in the middle of the year that you’re getting a big inheritance?  How about if an investment opportunity comes your way?  What if you need a financial statement?  These are all areas your CPA can help with.

College of the Canyons Chancellor Dr. Dianne Van Hook (center) is presented a $15,000 check from Janice Dollar (left), Wells Fargo Bank Regional Service Manager for the Los Angeles Region, and a contingent of Wells Fargo employees, during the college’s recent Silver Spur Celebration, held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Air Force One Pavilion.

With spring comes the season of Golf and the SCV Chambers highly anticipated 28th Annual Oak Tree Classic, an annual fundraiser hosted by the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.  This year’s event will be held on Monday, April 23 at the Tournament Players Club Valencia, and once again, Chiquita Canyon will serve as the event’s title sponsor.

There are two major mistakes that accident victims sometimes make which drastically reduces the value of their injury case.  What are they?  Many times, an injured party will wait to get treated or limit his or her treatment.  These are mistakes that can, and often times do, reduce the value of the injured party’s case.  Why?  Any delay in treatment is always used by the insurance company to attack the claim. 

Bookkeeping can be time consuming and confusing.  The goal is to provide clients with hassle free solutions for all their bookkeeping needs, and help small business owners better understand and control their financial standing without having to do the detail work themselves.  This allows the client to focus on growing their business and keeping their clients happy.
What a bookkeeping service can do for you!

You spend night and day complaining to your adult kids, friends, family and parents at your kids’ school about how your ex is unfair, vicious, and lousy.  “He is a jerk”; “She is a greedy witch”.  You refuse to have normal co-parenting conversation with your ex and act abnormally, refusing to engage, because he or she “Doesn’t get it”.  The list goes on and on.  I see it everyday in my family law practice.  And you might even be right.  But guess what? 

There are times when you can look at leadership from more than one viewpoint.  Many people feel that leadership is guiding people in a specific direction to accomplish specific things in a specific way.  There is also a view of leadership which involves getting people to follow what they will.  This view requires learning what they will follow.

Gifting assets to loved ones while you are alive can prove deeply satisfying, especially if those assets are used to pay for meaningful financial objectives like starting a business, purchasing a home or educating a grandchild.  In addition, every gift you make removes assets from your estate and may help you achieve some of the following objectives:

Difficult financial times are pushing strapped consumers over the edge.  Delinquencies and balances on delinquent credit cards are on the rise.  Faced with layoffs and difficult economic times, I have seen a lot of people resorting to use of their credit cards in order to pay for basic living expenses such as food and housing. 

According to the IRS millions of taxpayers every year choose whether to take the standard deduction or to itemize their deductions.  The following seven facts from the IRS can help you choose the method that gives you the lowest tax.

Sadly this is tax season and a question often arises: can I discharge taxes in bankruptcy? The answer may surprise you, but yes you can discharge some taxes in bankruptcy depending on the type of taxes owed and other circumstances.  Chapters 7 and 13 offer different forms of relief from taxes. 

As we all know, this is an election year and there are some tax issues being discussed.  Here are some of the terms you may want to brush up on during the coming months.
Bush Era Tax Cuts – Time sure has passed by quickly. 

With interest rates at historic lows, everyone is talking about refinancing.  Whether you refinanced in 2011 or are planning to refinance this year, there are a number of tax issues you should consider.  
We all know that as one of the benefits of owning your own home, you can deduct mortgage interest and property taxes.  But what about after a refinance?  Do the same rules apply?