A business owner couple planned to leave California for Florida before selling their company. Their advisor ran the session by voice, and Helmsted showed the move saves about $6.7 million if the sale closes as a stock sale after they move, $1.1 million if the buyer treats it as an asset purchase, and what it takes to prove the move to California.
A business owner couple had two offers for their company: $24.7 million from a private equity firm that wanted them to reinvest, and $28.0 million from a competitor with an earnout, shares and a large escrow. Helmsted showed both put about $12.2 million in their account at closing, mapped how far each could move from there, and gave the advisor one presentation to work through with the couple, their CPA and their attorney before signing.
A plan called for two HSAs, and none were on record. Helmsted raised it under Suggested next, and one click opened a session that gathered the context, checked eligibility, split the $10,750 between the spouses, picked the funding, wrote the client a plan and drafted the emails. Every suggestion handled teaches Helmsted more about how the firm works.
A client weighing a $3M or a $6M gift to his children's trusts after selling his company had stopped reading reports. His advisor asked Helmsted for a presentation: seven slides, one decision on each, with live sliders for spending, return and life expectancy, and where everything ends up under each gift.
The owner of a seven-person commercial services company wanted to add a retirement plan. His advisor worked through the options with Helmsted, narrowed them to a SIMPLE IRA and a safe harbor 401(k) with profit sharing, then asked for a side-by-side breakdown, what happens as the team grows, and the headcount where the math changes.
A couple wanted to bring her mother to live with them, but worried about moving off a 3.25% mortgage into a 7% market. Their advisor asked Helmsted for an interactive that shows what the move does in today's rate environment: four ways to finance it, each priced against staying put, and how much of the higher cost is the house and how much is the rate.
A client watched the Fed raise rates and asked what it does to his portfolio. From a dropped-in statement, Helmsted helped his advisor split every holding's rate risk between the rate the Fed sets and the rate the market sets, and show that the hikes cost him $620 in price and add $629 a year of forward income, close to a wash, while the duration in his bond sleeves answers to the 10 year.
A couple nine months from retirement with a pension election, three stock windows, a Medicare gap, and nine in ten retirement dollars still untaxed. One ask to Helmsted turned it into an interactive map: a timeline of what happens when, live controls for each choice, and four charts that move together.
A household with strong income, a rental, and a side business, and a checking account that never matched. One ask to Helmsted turned it into a four-step interactive: where the money goes, a normal month, the choices, and what those choices add up to.
Since contributions opened in July, the same question in every young-parent meeting. The answer is one condition: a Trump Account only wins if it is converted to a Roth and held past 60.
A young couple pre-qualified for $1.5 million, a family plan that runs on one income, and a model that opens on the reality instead of the letter.
A couple set on claiming Social Security the moment they could, afraid the trust fund would not hold, and a claiming explorer built to start at their answer instead of the advisor's, with the fear modeled as a dial rather than dismissed.
A young couple who saved well but never opened a college fund. College gets covered by earmarking what they already hold, and the 529 does one job: tuition passes through, in and out the same year, capturing the state deduction without ever holding a balance.
A new client, a stack of operating agreements, and $46,786 back from a tax year that had already ended: a cash balance plan design with a September 15 window.
A newly retired couple, a subsidy cliff, legislation still moving, and a new HSA window: the gap years to Medicare on a single report.