Carbon Monoxide

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is often referred to as a “silent killer” since it is a toxic gas that is odorless and tasteless.  In 2011 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated there were over 500 fatalities and 15,000 emergency room visits resulting from CO poisoning.  CO is produced as a by-product from the burning of fossil fuels such as propane, natural gas, oil, kerosene and wood.  At low levels, CO exposure can cause nausea or flu-like symptoms.  People with certain medical conditions can suffer greater impact at lower exposure levels.  Higher levels of exposure will cause unconsciousness and death.

Many businesses and homes have exposure to CO.  Examples include:

  • Leaking vents from furnace, gas fired hot water heater or gas fireplace
  • Portable generators and other gas powered construction equipment used outside but vented too close to a residence or building
  • Vehicle exhaust
  • Swimming pool heaters
  • Gas dryers
  • Vents blocked by snow or other obstructions

CO detectors are mandatory in many jurisdictions for residences and certain types of commercial operations such as schools, nursing homes, lodging and apartment operations.  For example, Massachusetts requires that CO detectors be installed in any single or multifamily residence that has fossil fuel burning equipment or an attached enclosed garage.  This MA law requires detectors be installed on each level and must be located within 10 feet of each bedroom door.  Additional specifics can be found at   http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/dfs/osfm/pubed/flyers/consumers-guide-w-sell-1-and-2-fam.pdf

Numerous resources are available to learn more about the dangers of CO poisoning and loss prevention. Your insurance carrier or local fire departments are good sources for information.  The CDC has published a number of different resources which are available at http://www.cdc.gov/co/default.htm.

At Cleary, we will evaluate your business exposures and work with you to develop a comprehensive plan to safeguard your business. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700.

What is Commercial Surety?

Presented by Michael Regan

Contract surety refers to bonds that guarantee the performance of a contractor according to the terms & conditions of a contract. It includes the payment of all bills to suppliers, subcontractors and laborers on the project the bond is written for. Commercial surety is an umbrella term referring to all other types of bonds.

Commercial surety falls into a number of categories including the following examples:

  • License & Permit (ex. – street opening and real estate broker bonds)
  • Court & Fiduciary (ex. – release of lien and guardian bonds)
  • Public Official (ex. – treasurer and tax collection bonds)
  • Federal (ex. – customer bonds)
  • Crime (ex. – employee dishonesty bonds)
  • Miscellaneous (ex. – self-insured workers compensation bonds)

Here are a few types of industries and jobs that will require surety bonds:

  • Trucking and bus companies
  • Importers
  • Plaintiffs appealing judgments
  • Banks
  • Bankruptcy trustees
  • IT Consultants
  • Alcoholic beverage distillers and distributors
  • Collection Agents
  • And many more!

Contact Cleary Insurance with any questions about commercial bonds. We can offer you business advise and technical expertise.

At Cleary, we will evaluate your business exposures and work with you to develop a comprehensive plan to safeguard your business. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700.

DOL Investigations and New Minimum Wage – 2015

Presented by Al Corvigno

DOL Investigations

According to the Government Contracts Enforcement Department at the US Labor Wage and Hour Division, over eight hundred investigations took place in fiscal year 2013. Seventy five percent of those resulted in violations which included retroactive wage fines totaling over thirty four million dollars and twenty three contractor debarments. Overtime violations (not paying time and one half when employees work more than 40 hours each week) and OSHA violations for unsafe practices including fatalities were at the top of the list.

Maintaining copious records is the cornerstone for violation prevention. One way to ensure your employees fully understand Service Contract Act (SCA) procedures and Fair Labor Standards (FLSA) is to have all personnel properly trained.

Al Corvigno offers a one day SCA course which covers practical training that will teach you how to apply the laws and remain in compliance. If you are interested in his course he can be reached by email at acorvigno@marallc.com.

Minimum Wage – 2015

Executive Order 13658 was signed on February 12, 2014, establishing a minimum wage for contractors. Effective January 1, 2015, the order raised the hourly minimum wage paid by contractors to workers performing on or in connection with covered federal contracts to $10.10 per hour.  The amount of the Executive Order minimum wage will be determined by the Secretary beginning January 1, 2016 and annually thereafter.

This amount will be published by the Secretary at least 90 days before the new minimum wage is to take effect and will include the following:

  • No less than the amount in effect on the date of such determination
  • Increased from such amount by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index

As required by this Executive Order, the Departments final rule incorporates existing definitions, procedures, remedies, and enforcement procedures under the FLSA, SCA, and Davis-Bacon Act.

At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your fringe-benefit obligations and provides your employees with valuable benefits.

2015 Tax Tips

The year 2015 brings a number of important changes to personal and small business tax laws and regulations. It’s important that you be aware of them in order to minimize your tax bill and keep more of what you earn on an after-tax basis. Here are some of the most common tax moves you can make that may make a difference in your wallet for 2015.

1. Don’t forget your last-minute 2014 retirement plan contributions. For 401(k) plans, you’ll need to make your last minute contributions before the end of the year. Otherwise you’ll have to wait a year before you get the tax benefit of having contributed (though even if you don’t make the contribution until January you’ll still have the benefit of a year’s worth of tax-deferred growth).

For IRAs, on the other hand, you can still make your tax year 2014 contribution until April 15th, 2015 – your normal filing deadline. If you haven’t contributed the maximum allowable amount for 2014, prioritize that over 2015 contributions. You may well be able to catch up on 2015 contributions later in the year.

2. Try to bunch deductions. Do you have a lot of miscellaneous itemized deductions so far this year? Try to commit to planned deductible expenses before the New Year. If you don’t have a lot of itemized deductions for 2014, or you expect to have a lot of them in 2015, then try to put as many as you can in the same year. This allows you to get the maximum tax benefit out of your miscellaneous itemized deductions, which have to exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income (7.5 percent for medical expenses) in order for you to take the deduction. You may be able to pay local and property taxes early, for example, to secure them for this year’s miscellaneous itemized deductions.

3. Did you have capital gains during the year? Try to sell some losing positions and reinvest the proceeds somewhere more productive. This may help you in three ways: You can cancel out your capital gains taxes with capital losses. If you have more losses than gains, and you sell your losing position(s), you can deduct up to $3,000 of those losses against ordinary income. Any additional losses over $3,000 can be carried forward to future years.

Another technique to minimize capital gains taxes is to structure the sale as an installment sale. This spreads the gains out over several years, giving you more time to cancel them out with losses, and also potentially lowering the amount of capital gains exposed to the 3.8 percent Medicare surtax on higher income individuals.

Are you near the threshold for having to pay the 3.8 percent Medicare surtax? Consider moving some IRA contributions from Roth IRAs to traditional IRAs and 401(k)s. This increases your current year deductions and lowers your AGI – potentially keeping you below the income threshold that exposes you to this tax.

4. Be alert for the alternative minimum tax. This tax is increasingly snagging even middle-income families – especially those who have large families, houses, lots of deductions, and who live in high-tax states.

5. Assess whether it may make sense to increase contributions to these plans:

College/Education Savings

Coverdell ESAs
Section 529 Plans
Prepaid tuition programs
Deductible professional education courses (subject to certain restrictions

Retirement savings plans

Traditional deductible IRAs
Non-deductible IRAs
Roth IRAs
Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP IRA
401(k) Plans, including Solo 401(k)s for self-employed individuals and couples
SIMPLE IRAs

Health care-related plans and deductions

Health Savings Accounts (must be in conjunction with a qualified high-deductible health plan)
Employer FSAs
Deductions for medical insurance and expenses

6. Take the home office tax deduction. The IRS recently established a ‘safe harbor’ removing some of the more onerous record-keeping requirements for the business use of a home. Click here to learn more about the new simplified method for calculating the home office deduction. For more information, see IRS Publication 587 – Business Use of Your Home.

7. Go over your employee benefits. Ensure you are taking full advantage of any flexible savings accounts your employer offers that may be of use for you. Examples include health care FSAs, dependent care FSAs or commuting/transportation FSAs.

At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your business objectives, takes into account state and federal laws, and capitalizes on incentives and innovative solutions now being offered.

Long Term Care: Make Sure You and Your Team are Covered

Now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure you have a complete financial strategy in place. Does your plan for retirement consider individual long term care insurance?

It should.

An individual long term care insurance policy may provide you and your employees with:

  • relief from paying large long term care bills
  • options that fit a variety of budgets
  • savings on Federal income taxes

Now is the time to learn more.

Douglas W. Greene CFP® CLU®
101 Federal Street, Suite 800 | Boston, MA 02110
Phone 617-305-0360 | Cell 781-640-5718 | Fax 617-723-7275

Schernecker Property Services, Inc.

This winter we are delighted to spotlight one of our clients Schernecker Property Services, Inc. (SPS). They are committed to delivering outstanding customer service and exceptional value.
SPS is a full-service contractor that focuses on large-scale building envelope projects for condominium and multi-residential communities across New England.
For more than 25 years, SPS has built a reputation for doing the job right and standing behind its work -providing peace of mind for their clients.
 Click hear to read about their success stories!

Client Spotlight: Holyhood Cemetery

This fall we are pleased to spotlight our client Holyhood Cemetery.  We are extremely proud of the relationship we’ve forged over the many years of working together.  Our own Nancy Burns has worked with Holyhood Cemetery for well over 15 years.  She knows first hand how dedicated their staff is to maintaining and preserving the historical status and authenticity of the grounds.

History

The Holyhood Cemetery Association has an extensive history which spans over 150 years.  It was established in 1857 and incorporated in 1872.  At the time it was laid out in 1857, Holyhood Cemetery reflected the mid-19th century influence of romantic landscape cemetery planning begun at Cambridge’s Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the 1830’s. It was the first such cemetery in Brookline. The name Holyhood was derived from the term used to designate the winding sheet in which the body of our Saviour was surrounded before interment.

Please click here to learn more about The Holyhood Cemetery Association.

Give and Take

Donate to charity with a CRT or CLT and enjoy multiple benefits

You take pride in knowing that your charitable gifts will help further the work of your favorite charitable organizations and enjoy a feeling of goodwill. When you make donations through a charitable remainder trust (CRT) or a charitable lead trust (CLT), you can enjoy many other benefits too. In fact, using these trust types can allow you to achieve some combination of the following objectives while you give to charity: minimize capital gains tax, diversify your portfolio, receive an income stream, and make gifts to loved ones at a reduced gift and estate tax cost.

Double giving power

Both a CRT and a CLT — which you can fund with assets such as stock or real estate — have split interests, meaning they have charitable and non-charitable beneficiaries.

With a CRT, the income beneficiaries — you and your spouse, for example — receive payouts under a formula from the trust for a set period or for the rest of your lives. At the end of the trust term, the “remainder” interest (what’s left in the trust) passes to one or more charities. The CRT assets won’t be included in your taxable estate. (But there will be gift tax consequences if you name someone other than you and your spouse as income beneficiary.) Additionally, you’ll enjoy an immediate, though only partial, income tax deduction when you create the trust, calculated based on the present value of the charity’s remainder interest.

With a CLT, the charity receives the “lead” interest — periodic payouts throughout the trust’s term. At the end of the term, the remaining principal reverts to you (what’s known as a grantor trust) or goes to one or more of your noncharitable beneficiaries, such as your children. A grantor CLT works similarly to a CRTin that you receive an immediate income tax deduction when you create the trust (for the present value of the charity’s interest) — but you have to pay tax on the CLT’s income and the CLT assets remain in your estate. With a nongrantor CLT, there are gift tax consequences — but you also get an income tax deduction and don’t have to pay tax on the CLT’s income. The CLT assets won’t be included in your taxable estate.

CRT at work

A CRT can be an ideal way to dispose of an asset that doesn’t produce much income and would create a large capital gain if you sold it, such as a highly appreciated stock that pays no dividend. By funding a CRT with appreciated assets and naming yourself the noncharitable beneficiary, you can not only increase your cash flow (through the CRT payouts) but also defer (and possibly even eliminate some) capital gains taxes while diversifying your portfolio. The CRT can sell the appreciated assets and use the proceeds to purchase diverse, income-producing assets.

The trust won’t incur capital gains tax because the charity is the remainder beneficiary. You’ll pay capital gains tax only on payouts you receive from the trust that are attributable to the capital gain.

CLT at work

A CLT can be useful if you’re charitably inclined and hold assets that you expect to appreciate substantially in the future, such as stock in an early stage company. The trust can allow you to ultimately transfer the assets to, for example, your children, at a substantially reduced gift tax cost.

Only the present value of the non-charitable interest at the time you fund the trust is subject to gift tax. So if the CLT assets’ growth rate is greater than the rate from the IRS tables used to determine the gift tax value, the excess growth will pass to the non-charitable beneficiary free of gift tax. (See “Benefiting charity now, a loved one later” for an example.)

Win-win

A CRT or a CLT can help you meet your charitable goals as well as other financial goals, such as reducing estate taxes and eliminating capital gains tax. Which one you should choose depends on your particular circumstances.

Sidebar: Benefiting charity now, a loved one later

Tom wants to give $50,000 per year to his favorite charity for the next 15 years. He transfers assets valued at $1 million into a CLT. The trust provides that 5%, or $50,000, will be payable to charity each year for the next 15 years, and at the end of the term the remaining trust assets will pass to Tom’s daughter, Lily. If the trust earns 8% per year, Lily will receive $1.8 million. If the present value of Lily’s interest for gift tax purposes, based on government tables, is only $500,000, that means $1.3 million passes to her tax-free in this example.

The accompanying pages have been developed by an independent third party. Commonwealth Financial Network is not responsible for their content and does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness, and they should not be relied upon as such. These materials are general in nature and do not address your specific situation. For your specific investment needs, please discuss your individual circumstances with
your representative. Commonwealth does not provide tax or legal advice, and nothing in the accompanying pages should be construed as specific tax or legal advice. Securities offered through Commonwealth Financial Network, Member FINRA/SIPC.

Securities and advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, member FINRA/SIPC, a registered investment advisor. Fixed Insurance products and services offered by Wealth Planning Resources are separate and unrelated to Commonwealth. Wealth Planning Resources, LLC. 460 Totten Pond Road, Suite 600 Waltham, MA 02451. (781) 547-5620.
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John B. Steiger is a financial consultant located at 460 Totten Pond Road Suite 600 Waltham, MA 02451. He offers securities as a Registered Representative of Commonwealth Financial Network®, Member FINRA/SIPC.. He can be reached at 781.547.5621 or at john@financialconnector.com.

Do You Need Flood Insurance?

September is National Flood Preparedness Month

If flood insurance isn’t required as a condition of your mortgage, you’re not obligated to carry it; however it may be a good investment. Consider five factors as you decide whether or not you need this type of insurance coverage.

  1. Do you live in an area with a high flood risk? If so, you definitely want flood insurance coverage. That’s because your home, located near a river, stream, lake or flash-flood zone, faces a high threat of flooding. Protect your home and its contents when you buy a flood insurance policy.
  2. Do you live in a low flood risk zone? Consider that the local sewer system or nearby storm drain could overflow and cause extensive damage. Because a flood insurance policy typically costs less for customers who live in low-risk areas, purchasing a policy makes sense even if you don’t live near a major body of water or in a flood zone.
  3. Do you rent your home? Most landlord insurance policies cover the buildings only. They do not insure your home’s contents. Consider flood insurance that replaces any possessions that are damaged by flooding.
  4. Do you have a mortgage? Check with your lender about flood insurance requirements. If you live in a flood zone, you will most likely need to carry this coverage and prove that you’ve purchased a policy before you can sign the loan documents.
  5. Do you own any possessions? In just a few inches of water, your appliances, furniture and other belongings can be damaged beyond repair. So, if you own any possessions, consider flood insurance that provides financial reimbursement and allows you to replace items that are damaged by excessive water.

Before discounting flood insurance, talk to your Cleary Insurance Representative. He or she will answer your questions and help you decide if coverage is a wise investment for you. In many cases, the coverage is invaluable.

Concerned about your personal insurance coverage? At Cleary, our experienced Personal Lines department will work with you to evaluate your insurance needs, identify exposures, and create a customized insurance portfolio. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700

Named Insured vs. Additional Insured

Presented by Mike Regan

In insurance parlance, a Named Insured is the person, or organization in whose name an insurance policy is written. Typically, it is the person or organization that has paid for the policy.

Additional Insureds are other organizations that have been automatically added by the terms & conditions of the policy or by specific endorsement of the policy. An example of an automatic Additional Insured would be a Named Insureds real estate manager. These automatic Additional Insureds can be found in the “Who Is An Insured” section of the policy. Anyone other than these would need to be specifically added as an Additional Insured.

Additional Insureds have coverage as a result of the actions of and business relationship with the Named Insured. Additional Insureds that are not automatically added have to be listed on a separate Additional Insured endorsement to the policy. The endorsement may include a premium charge.

The most typical situation we see for an Additional Insured status is when a Subcontractor needs to add a General Contractor to his policy or when a General Contractor has to add a job Owner to his policy. In addition, not all Additional Insured endorsements are the same. Carriers frequently have their own proprietary forms. Some restrict coverage by time or for premises/operations only and do not include completed operations. As such, it is important that you and your broker review these forms for accuracy and compliance.

At Cleary, we will evaluate your business exposures and work with you to develop a comprehensive plan to safeguard your business. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700.