Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Voiceover: Welcome to Retirement Unlocked with Larry Heller, your life Your Way, unlimited possibilities. Join us as we explore how tailored financial planning and investments can help you navigate life transitions with confidence. Let’s dive into this week’s episode. 

[00:00:20] Matt Halloran: Hello and welcome to another Retirement Unlock podcast with your host, Larry Heller today, top Retirement Tax Pitfalls to Avoid with Rob Prem Slar.

[00:00:28] Matt Halloran: Okay, so Rob is the owner of Prem Slar, CPA, A full service accounting firm that specializes in tax and retirement strategies for business owners and high net worth individuals. His career spans from roles at KPMG, Merck and as a partner at a predominant. Prominent. Yeah. Making up words. CPA firm bringing deep expertise in complex financial and regulatory matters.

[00:00:52] Matt Halloran: Rob combines big firm experience with personalized service to help clients navigate critical financial transitions with confidence. Alright, [00:01:00] Larry, take it away. 

[00:01:00] Larry Heller: Thanks Matt. Rob, thank you so much for joining us as a former CPA. I always love talking up to about it to another CPA, especially a, on a very important topic in taxes in retirement.

[00:01:12] Larry Heller: ’cause a lot of people don’t even. Think about taxes when it comes to retirement. They just figure out how much money that they need. So, so let’s kind of jump right into it, Matt. So what are the kind of the most common tax pitfalls that you see when retirees, um, begin? 

[00:01:30] Rob Premselaar: Uh, well first off, thanks Larry.

[00:01:31] Rob Premselaar: Thanks for having me, Matt. Thanks for, uh, kicking it off. Uh, so one of the biggest pitfalls I, I see is just underestimating how taxable, uh, retirement income is, right? So people have traditional IRAs, or IRAs, I like to call ’em IRAs. In the bi in the business they have Roth, uh, the, you know. Most people have heard of both.

[00:01:49] Rob Premselaar: Um, and they also might have deferred compensation plans. Um, a, uh, a, a business asset could be a, uh, retirement plan in a way. Uh, and [00:02:00] just understanding how the tax consequences will play out when they start drawing on that income. 

[00:02:06] Larry Heller: Yeah, I, I, I would think you’ve, there’s a few different areas when it comes to that, that, that, that people kind of need to keep, you know, be attuned with.

[00:02:15] Larry Heller: Like, one that comes off the top of my head is kind of social security. So why don’t you kind of talk about how that plays in on taxes? 

[00:02:22] Rob Premselaar: Yeah. So social security, the, the basic rule is if, if it’s your only source of income that social security is not taxable. Uh, you don’t need to even file a return. I would suggest still filing a return, uh, just so at least that there’s something on record.

[00:02:35] Rob Premselaar: Uh, but, um, the more income that you make, uh, the more of your social security benefits, uh, becomes taxable. The most amount of, uh, social security income that is eligible for tax is 85%. So that doesn’t mean it’s an 85% tax. It means up to 85% of your social security benefit. Is eligible for taxation. Uh, and then we, and then we combine all your other income [00:03:00] deductions, et cetera, and we impose, and the IRS impose a tax rate on it.

[00:03:03] Rob Premselaar: So, uh, the threshold is about 30, 35,000, uh, in turn, uh, when the ma uh, when the social security starts to become taxable. And another thing about social security income benefits is many states, most states, all states do not tax social security benefits. Uh, and so when we, a lot of times when we project income.

[00:03:24] Rob Premselaar: Uh, we, for all sources of income, we consider all types of income, but social security benefits are not taxable at the state level. 

[00:03:31] Larry Heller: Right? So, one thing to, to let our audience know, we’re recording this June, 2025 before any new tax bill that comes out. So I don’t know if there’s even any thoughts of changing the social security, but just in case you wanna just check after there’s a new tax bill that’s finalized.

[00:03:48] Larry Heller: Any thoughts on that? Matt? Uh, Rob, 

[00:03:51] Rob Premselaar: uh, you know, if you follow this. Week in and week out you can go. You know, it flops back and forth. You know, we’ve had so many [00:04:00] changes in the tax laws these past seven or eight years. I’m waiting for it to become final. Uh, you know, the House and the Senate and the Republican Democrats, they, they, they keep negotiating on things.

[00:04:09] Rob Premselaar: Um, you know, there are some things I’d probably bet that are gonna happen, but for right now, let’s just focus on what is law. Uh, and then you could always invite me back, Larry. Once, uh, there you, the big, the big beautiful bill, uh, does get finalized ’cause there will be planning opportunities both for retirees, uh, and a lot for business owners as well.

[00:04:28] Larry Heller: Right? So let’s, let’s talk about one of the ones that is kind of right now here, and it’s an extra kind of. Tax, it’s kind of what the, Imma the extra tax you have to pay on Medicare. Can you kind of let us know kind of what that, what that is? 

[00:04:44] Rob Premselaar: Sure. So the, uh, Irma is essentially a surcharge, it’s a tax, a surcharge that, uh, is based on the last file tax return.

[00:04:52] Rob Premselaar: And what, when you are claiming Medicare or when you are, uh, yeah, when you are claiming Medicare. Uh, depending on your tax return [00:05:00] filed and the income reported on that, uh, Medicare will come back and say, we’re gonna charge you X dollars more on those Medicare benefits, uh, that, that you’ve received. So you won’t get probably notified for at least a year after that tax return is filed, uh, that your surcharge has increased.

[00:05:17] Rob Premselaar: Um, the max actual increase could be up to five, $600 per month. So it can be quite expensive. What we. Can do what the government does offer. It does a, uh, allow for an appeal process. Um, so let’s say, uh, your, your income is fairly steady and in one year it spikes for, you know, a business sale or you took an IRA distribution for whatever reason.

[00:05:42] Rob Premselaar: Uh, let’s say you hit a, a, a big scratch off and your income spiked the Irma, uh, you will be imposed an Irma surcharge, uh, for that particular year, but then you’re allowed to appeal that and say, for XY reason, uh, change in circumstance, change in financial circumstance, change in, uh, [00:06:00] life circumstance. Uh, you can appeal that Irma surcharge.

[00:06:03] Rob Premselaar: Uh, and there is a, a formal process and application to do that. 

[00:06:07] Larry Heller: Right. And I believe the, for joint file is the, the standard is anything less than 212,000. And then above that there’s different break points going all the way up to, I think three quarters of a million where you hit your highest, highest Imma 

[00:06:22] Rob Premselaar: Right.

[00:06:23] Rob Premselaar: And that’s for a married filing Co, uh, married couple. Uh, single. It starts at about 1 0 6 of the Irma surcharge. And then, uh, anything above a half a million, right, you would be imposed to search charge. The funny thing 

[00:06:33] Larry Heller: is with Irma, ’cause I, I get it now, and how much money that you have on, if their income goes up because they made more money, or we’ll talk about kind of requirement, minimum distributions later on, and they get this surcharge and they’re like, what’s this?

[00:06:47] Larry Heller: All of a sudden I’m paying more from my Medicare. Um, I didn’t know about this. So it’s kind of one of those. Things that a lot of people kind of don’t know about until they get a letter saying that you’re gonna get less money because [00:07:00] of this, of this surcharge. Um, right. And it’s 

[00:07:02] Rob Premselaar: typically notified a year after the return is filed.

[00:07:06] Rob Premselaar: So you mean, again, you might have experienced a spike in income, then you come back down and you’re thinking, all right, my income is, has been reduced for whatever reason, and all of a sudden. You’re retroactively kind of, they’re looking at a return from over a year ago, and they’re imposing that surcharge and then they’re gonna, they’re gonna impose that surcharge via reduction of your social security benefits.

[00:07:24] Rob Premselaar: And so why are my monthly benefits hence reduced? And it’s because of those reasons. 

[00:07:28] Larry Heller: Right. And then not that we kind of look at this to save money on arm entirely, but if you get to the end of the year and you think you may be close to one of these break points, you may want to consider kind of, you know, um, something that maybe can minimize, uh, what’s that’s gonna be.

[00:07:44] Larry Heller: So that’s some of the planning ideas that could, that could be done. Yeah. Along those lines. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Other 

[00:07:49] Rob Premselaar: than income tax, the Irma surcharge planning opportunity as well. 

[00:07:53] Larry Heller: Right. So let’s talk about some of the other pitfalls. Any other pitfalls for, um, that you see for retirees when they [00:08:00] start to, uh, to get to that point?

[00:08:02] Rob Premselaar: Yeah, it’s, um, understanding the RMDH. Uh, you know, when do I have to start taking my distribution? Uh, uh, several years ago, uh, Congress passed the law that increased, uh, the RMD age from 70 to 72. And now from 72 slowly creeping up to 75, that you don’t need to start taking your RMD, your req, your distribution that is re that, the minimum distribution that you’re required to take.

[00:08:30] Rob Premselaar: So I’ve had clients that have missed, right, or their financial advisor. Did not notify them or they didn’t know themselves, that they had to take an RMD. And there actually is an excise penalty on that, um, to abate the penalty, uh, or that excise tax. Uh, there is a procedure to do that and there is a fairly good win rate on that, but you do need to, uh, abate that penalty and abate that excise penalty.

[00:08:52] Rob Premselaar: Another one is not understanding your. Charitable options in terms of taking IRA [00:09:00] distributions you can do, uh, you can, if you’re very charitable, you can take an IRA distribution and set it aside for a 5 0 1 C3 organization. Uh. Does two things, allows you to, uh, give a charitable donation and does not, will not require you to pick up that, uh, IRA or that retirement plan income for that particular year.

[00:09:21] Larry Heller: You’re talking about aqua A QCD is what you’re referring to, right? Qcd. Right? Right. And you can only do the QCD when you’re eligible for the require minimum distribution. Is that correct? 

[00:09:31] Rob Premselaar: Correct. Right. So, uh, if you have other income to live on, but you have to take the RMD. Um, you can satisfy that RMD by doing the QCD, just like you said.

[00:09:40] Rob Premselaar: Yep. And then also it’s just overall poor timing of, uh, when you take the money out, right? So it’s, we’re looking at, uh, your needs, right? And that’s where we bring in a financial advisor, what are your cashflow needs, right? And then from what account do we take it from? Do we take it from. Uh, uh, a tax qualified account, which would be [00:10:00] taxable.

[00:10:00] Rob Premselaar: Do we take it from a Roth account? Maybe you take it from a, a non-qualified, a, a brokerage account. Um, and so mending your, your cashflow needs with the cha and understanding the character of your accounts, retirement and non-retirement is really what you should be looking for and when you don’t, is a major pitfall.

[00:10:18] Larry Heller: Right, and you make such a, a great point there because now if you combine the two with the RMDs being pushed back to 73 and maybe 75 and, and if you retire at 65, you may have like 10 years where you’ve got possibly lower brackets. So not, you may wanna take some money out of. Your qualified, your non-qualified accounts, rather than waiting for your qualified accounts to grow.

[00:10:45] Larry Heller: So, you know, we kind of call that the donut hole. We’ll talk about some of the other planning options you can do though, during those years. But those, those 10 years are critical to really understand what your tax brackets are gonna be and figure out, figure out how you go there. Do you [00:11:00] guy, do you go into that with, uh, with your clients?

[00:11:02] Larry Heller: Yeah, 

[00:11:03] Rob Premselaar: totally. 

[00:11:03] Larry Heller: Uh, 

[00:11:04] Rob Premselaar: we do, you know, and, and the general rule, people think, oh, you know, uh, my income is gonna be less in retirement. Well, not for everybody, right? I mean, what am if you’re selling a business, uh, what am if you have a buyout of some sort, uh, it’s, it’s not a guarantee that your income is going to decrease in the future.

[00:11:21] Rob Premselaar: Uh, you know, for somebody like me who has a little bit more time, uh, you know, before they start thinking of those RMD ages, who knows where the rates will be? In the future, who knows what my income will be in the future. So, you know, we, you know, the general rules, again, income will be lesser in the future.

[00:11:37] Rob Premselaar: Uh, but who knows, right? Hopefully it’s not right. But for most it is, but not for everybody. I. 

[00:11:42] Larry Heller: Right, so it may make sense to pay a little bit less tax and avoid a lot more tax late later on. So it’s really critical to try to plan this kind of forward seeking and then kind of revise it year, year by year.

[00:11:54] Larry Heller: So that’s why it’s so important, you know, for, for us as a financial advisor to coordinate that with [00:12:00] your accounts so we can make sure that you pay as minimal amount of taxes as possible. So, um, yeah, I think you mentioned one thing before, but let’s kind of talk about some of the retirement tax planning pitfalls for, uh, for business owners.

[00:12:16] Rob Premselaar: Yeah. Uh, so again, it’s not planning for the impact of the exit, right? So, um, there’s cer there’s many different ways that you can structure an exit. You could structure an exit. Or a cash payment down, you could structure it as an installment sale over x number of years. You, you have to, you have to understand the, the, the nature and the character of the income.

[00:12:37] Rob Premselaar: It could be ordinary income or capital gain income. So all that needs to be considered, uh, when properly setting up an exit strategy for, uh, when somebody is going to be, uh, in the midst of retirement during, during that, uh, exit. 

[00:12:53] Larry Heller: Right. So then how can business owners use their retirement plans to maximize their, their savings before they even [00:13:00] retire?

[00:13:00] Rob Premselaar: Yeah, so this is probably one of the most effective tax saving tools. Simplest, a lot simplest. Most straightforward. Probably one of the easier to understand is being able to contribute to a plan. Today, I call it a cocoon, right? You put it in an account or a cocoon and you’re gonna put it away to the future.

[00:13:23] Rob Premselaar: A lot of these plans provide you a tax deduction today, so then you can. Draw on it and pick up the income in the future. Now, which plan is right for you? Right? What, which plan is right for this particular business owner? Many different factors. Number of employees, your income, your needs, your tax bracket.

[00:13:44] Rob Premselaar: So there’s a whole slew, uh, of menu options where most people think, oh, my 401k or my IRA, well, there’s a lot of. Bells and whistles when we come into each of these plans that you must adhere to. Right. The Department of Labor That it, it’s not the IRS, right? Well, it’s [00:14:00] kind of the IRS, but, but the Department of Labor has certain rules that you must, uh, stay within, uh, a lot of guidelines that if not, that’s, that’s a major breach.

[00:14:08] Rob Premselaar: Uh, so things such as the solo 401k Sep IRA Cash balance plans, you can contribute really anything from these plans I listed from 6,500. All the way up to $300,000. Now, not in each of these plans, but in the right plan, and you can pick and choose different bells and whistles and at different attributes, you can set up the correct plan that’s right for you, which requires a lot of planning.

[00:14:34] Rob Premselaar: It requires your financial advisor likely requires a, uh, an actuary that that’s on board. Um, but the moral of the story is there are options out there. There is no one size fits all. Um, all these professionals along with your CPA can assist you in making that right determination. 

[00:14:53] Larry Heller: Right. You mentioned one, one thing.

[00:14:54] Larry Heller: I mean, we do a lot of these types of plans of putting in place and, um, you mentioned all the 4 0 1 ks and the [00:15:00] steps, but the one thing that we, that we see a lot of people don’t really understand, and there are certain parameters that you mentioned. One of them is also age and your census, but is the cash balance plan and able to, and in a lot of cases, able to sock away a lot of money for those that are making a lot of money and it doesn’t work for everybody.

[00:15:20] Larry Heller: It’s something that you should really be aware of. We’ve had situations where we’ve come to and they had their plan with their payroll company and we looked at it and we said, you know, you can put away an extra quarter of a million dollars tax and get a tax savings from it. And they had no, they had no clue.

[00:15:38] Larry Heller: So for those of you out there that Rob’s talking about that cash balance plan, it’s something you should be asking your account, asking your financial advisor, is this something that is. Will work for you if you’re able to put away some significant dollars. 

[00:15:51] Rob Premselaar: Right. And one, one other thing I I wanna mention is everybody says tax deduction and they assume federal and state, uh, out of northern New [00:16:00] Jersey, I know the New Jersey tax laws, uh, in and out.

[00:16:02] Rob Premselaar: New Jersey does not provide a deduction. For IRA contributions. So that’s a traditional IRA and a sep IRA. You take that, what’s with that state? Rob, come on. You have no, I, every line item is different. Uh, so yeah, there’s some other 

[00:16:18] Larry Heller: things there, right? They don’t, we can go talk about any, that they don’t do tax loss carry forwards either.

[00:16:23] Larry Heller: So, uh. Um, yeah. 

[00:16:25] Rob Premselaar: Yeah. It’s considered an income state, so everything on the ta on the front of the tax return is all positive income. They don’t allow any negatives to flow through, so take it, for example, you’re deciding between an, uh, a certain retirement account, a SEP IRA, and a solo 401k. So it acts almost entirely the same way, but.

[00:16:43] Rob Premselaar: A solo 401k because it’s a 401k, the contribution to it does provide a deduction on, on a New Jersey tax return. So if you’re in a, most people, their 6.37% rate, but if you’re upwards of 10 or 11%. Just changing from its sep IRA to [00:17:00] a solo 401k provides you that incremental tax deduction. Now, if you’re in other states, most other states do provide a deduction for the IRAs, but solo 4 0 1 KI kinda lean a little bit.

[00:17:10] Rob Premselaar: I, I like a little bit more for New Jersey business owners because of that incremental tax deduction at at the state level. 

[00:17:16] Larry Heller: Great point. And you, you have to worry both your federal, state and your state taxes. So one other thing that I just want to kind of let everyone know, I mean it’s not really just for a business owner, but something new and ways of saving retirement is a super catch up.

[00:17:28] Larry Heller: The enhanced catch up. Um, you wanna just talk a little bit about that? I. 

[00:17:32] Rob Premselaar: Yeah, I’m not, I don’t do too much of that. I mean, is there something that, that, yeah, so yeah, I’ll kind 

[00:17:37] Larry Heller: of just do that. So for your age, 60 to 63, you’re now able to put away more than your age 50 catch up. I think we did a whole podcast on that.

[00:17:46] Larry Heller: So just something to be, you know, if you’re talking about saving for retirement. Saving some taxes that the government has got now has got a little bit of a little kicker that you can do for those three years. It only could be done for those three years. So don’t miss [00:18:00] it if you’re just, if you’re in that timeframe.

[00:18:02] Rob Premselaar: Yeah. One other thing I kinda, um, like to explain to business owners when they’re considering retirement plans, uh, certain retirement plans, uh, like a traditional 401k that you, if you’re a W2 earner, um, those contributions are, are. Cash basis, meaning if you want the deduction, let’s say in 2025, you need to make that deduction from your W2 paycheck.

[00:18:27] Rob Premselaar: Buy a paycheck that’s dated 2025 for other retirement plans. Uh, for business owner set IRA and solo 4 0 1 Ks. You actually have the ability to accrue, meaning take the deduction on your 25 return, but you have until April. September, or even October, depending on your retirement plan and the type of file that you are.

[00:18:49] Rob Premselaar: So you take the deduction on, let’s say your 25 return, and you don’t actually have to cut the check to that cocoon. We call to that retirement plan potentially [00:19:00] until nine and a half months later. 

[00:19:02] Larry Heller: Right. It’s a great point. And actually I can go one step further. They changed the rules now that if you haven’t done some retirement plans for 2024, you can actually create those now in 2025.

[00:19:14] Larry Heller: You can’t do some safe harbors, but there are some plans that you can put in place that you can actually put in place now for 2024. So it’s not too, it’s not too late for 2024 if you haven’t filed your, filed your tax returns yet. So, um, so let’s talk, let’s kind of, you know, talk about, you know, some of the, the, the pros and cons.

[00:19:35] Larry Heller: We talked about some of the ideas on how to save, how to save money. Um, and one of the things that you can do that to look at, uh, is Roth conversions. So, yep. You know, what, what are the advantages, the disadvantages of doing a, doing a Roth conversion? 

[00:19:52] Rob Premselaar: Yeah. So. The advantage is your money is sitting in Roth.

[00:19:57] Rob Premselaar: What is Roth? Right? What are Roth dollars? Roth dollars. It [00:20:00] allows your account to grow tax free when you take the money out. Your corpus, your principle, your contribution plus the growth when you take it out. And retirement is not subject to income tax. Very powerful. Very, very powerful tax tool. One thing I really like, uh, probably the strongest character of a Roth is, uh, ’cause the money is sitting is all post-tax money.

[00:20:26] Rob Premselaar: Uh, is that you’re not required to take a minimum distribution. You’re not, you don’t have to, you, you don’t have an RMD on that Roth money. So with the traditional, uh. Account, the IRS is waiting for their, for their tax on that income. That’s appreciated. Or you’ve taken the deduction on as well, and they’re waiting for you to take a distribution and, and pay the tax on it.

[00:20:50] Rob Premselaar: That’s why they require a minimum distribution in RMD Ross don’t have an RMD, so the IIRS is not, cannot tell you when. [00:21:00] The timing of that income needs to be distributed. Now, a really good estate planning tool is, uh, when you, I hope that they should ever come, but when, when you should pass away, your beneficiaries inherit the account with the same character as the account owner.

[00:21:18] Rob Premselaar: So, uh, when you. When your beneficiary were to inherit an IRA, let’s say a traditional IRA, if it’s a nons spousal beneficiary, a child, a friend, what have you, the that beneficiary has to take the account out, deplete it over 10 years from the date ther the 10th anniversary, the date of death. But if a’s a traditional IRA or traditional account, it’s all taxable, a Roth.

[00:21:43] Rob Premselaar: Again, same rule that it needs to be fully depleted by the 10th anniversary of the date of passing of the original account owner. But there’s no tax on it. It’s a, uh, very, very strong asset building wealth transfer mechanism. Uh, I think that to be the, the [00:22:00] strongest. Benefit of a Roth. Now the con, it’s expensive, right?

[00:22:04] Rob Premselaar: For you, if I, if I have to tell a taxpayer, look, you could put X dollars into this cocoon, but you can’t touch it. You know, you could always can, you know, but subject to, but subject to a penalty, you’re not getting a deduction on a Roth. It’s expensive. Right? Why not put my money and have liquidity in a regular checking account or a regular brokerage account?

[00:22:22] Rob Premselaar: I can, I, I can touch it and not be subject to a penalty. Sure. But the asset. Potential and the growth potential and the tax potential tax savings potential is not the same as a Roth. So that’s the major con, um, is that frankly it’s expensive. Uh, and I totally understand if when clients, you know. Can’t, don’t wanna put money aside and pay, pay the same tax as they would’ve been without the deduct.

[00:22:46] Rob Premselaar: Right. 

[00:22:47] Larry Heller: So you’re talking about annual co contributions, but what about, you’ve accumulated a lot of money in your IRA and and now maybe should you convert that over to a Roth? Yeah. [00:23:00] You know, I I what we find here that, you know, most CPAs don’t like recommending to pay taxes now, but what are your thoughts on that?

[00:23:06] Larry Heller: I. 

[00:23:07] Rob Premselaar: Yeah, look, if you’re in a lower tax year, um, for whatever reason, uh, business is down or lower W2 and you have money sitting in a traditional ira, it could make sense to fill up that tax bracket and that, and that’s what we look at. If you’re in a 12%, 22%, 24%, where you’re projecting to be in a 35 or a 37% bracket in the coming years, and then in retirement, let’s fill up that gap.

[00:23:32] Rob Premselaar: And we, a lot of times we, we, we look at that, uh, with beneficiaries. Um, when do we want to, uh, deplete the account in terms of timing over the 10 years? But that same, that same theory and the same math makes sense for, uh, income, you know, uh, in just regular, uh, your, your regular earning years. Um, so that’s what we look for if you’re in a higher income bracket.

[00:23:58] Rob Premselaar: Does it make sense to, to [00:24:00] convert to a Roth? Uh, but when you’re typically in the lower income years for a one-off, let’s say it makes sense to fill up that tax bracket. 

[00:24:07] Larry Heller: Right. And we actually look at, I mentioned before, those years when you retire, before you receiving your requirement distribution, because I kind of call it the donut hole.

[00:24:17] Larry Heller: There may be a, a lot of years where’re in your lower bracket, and if you don’t. Plan and you don’t think about it. Like you said, when you have to take a requirement distribution, you can be kicked into a much higher bracket. So planning and doing those years, doing it together with a financial advisor and accountant can try to do that.

[00:24:36] Larry Heller: And we show people that Roth, like you had mentioned, if you’re doing a Roth conversion in your. Sixties and you’re gonna live into your nineties. The appreciation of a Roth account growing that either you could take it out later on or your kids would be huge amount of savings. So, uh, so I think that, that, that’s such a critical factor in, in planning for retirement that you mentioned.

[00:24:59] Larry Heller: [00:25:00] Mm-hmm. So, Rob, you, you kind of mentioned, I think Matt mentioned in the opening that you kind of, you worked at a, a big, um, in my previous life I did as well. So, so how does the background of working at a big firm help you now with your own practice? 

[00:25:14] Rob Premselaar: So, I, I, I say that I, uh, I. Started my, I I I grew up, uh, between the ages of 21 to 28.

[00:25:23] Rob Premselaar: I grew up in KPMG in the audit practice, and I had real great experience working with Fortune 100 companies. Uh, I’ve seen the audit world, I’ve seen internal controls, I’ve seen business processes, uh, and I I’m a real auditor. I know the assertions and bringing it to the small business environment where.

[00:25:44] Rob Premselaar: Uh, a lot of my clients might not have access to those types of professionals, and that type of thinking really has lend itself tremendous value. Uh, you know, I’m consistently just thinking outside of the tax box and just, just being a general business advisor and [00:26:00] because of my big corporate, uh, audit experience, that really is a big differentiator.

[00:26:05] Rob Premselaar: I believe in me providing my, uh, professional service. 

[00:26:09] Larry Heller: Yeah, I, I couldn’t agree with you more. I came up from the auditing side, just the way you think from an auditor, whether it’s handling a business or even on a personal side, thinking as your mm-hmm. Kind of personal CFO, that training in there, and the step-by-step training and when you can relate to clients and.

[00:26:26] Larry Heller: This step, this step, this step where I see where I have new associates here, they just don’t have that same thinking capacity that kind of was drilled into us when we training from the audit side. So, uh, so I agree with you a thousand percent on that. 

[00:26:40] Rob Premselaar: And, and also, I mean, look, I also got a lot of my documentation.

[00:26:44] Rob Premselaar: Skills, being able to draft letters, uh, uh, uh, explain things in work papers. A lot of that I, I actually give a lot of credit to my experience in the big four, um, because they drill down to you. If it’s not documented, it’s not done [00:27:00] right. So, uh, a lot of my, uh, skill sets now include the ability to document.

[00:27:05] Rob Premselaar: Right. 

[00:27:06] Larry Heller: Well, I won’t tell you that I was with the big eight, so it was a little bit before your time, but any, any last minute thoughts, Rob, before we kind of close, close this out? 

[00:27:15] Rob Premselaar: No, I mean, I think the moral of the story is know that there are options. Know there’s not one size fits all. Know that. Your financial advisor and your and CPAs and financial institutions are trained on this type of stuff.

[00:27:30] Rob Premselaar: You know, when you’re, what I call cocktail talk, when you’re out at a barbecue and you hear a friend or a neighbor or a colleague speak about what worked for them, could work for you, I don’t know. You know, you need to, your, your situation might be different. Who knows what they have under, you know, their belt, uh, and what, what their, what their account statuses are.

[00:27:47] Rob Premselaar: Um, but just know that reach out to a professional. Uh, we’re, we’re, we’re here to help and we’re trained to. 

[00:27:53] Larry Heller: That sounds great. Rob, if someone wants to reach out to you, where’s the best way they can get ahold of you? 

[00:27:58] Rob Premselaar: Uh, my website, premselaarcpa.com. My email rob@premselaarcpa.com. Uh, we have a really good online portal where you can download a mobile app, message us right in message, right into us, and then, uh, yeah, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll leave it at that.

[00:28:13] Rob Premselaar: If you want to find my phone number, you could just gimme a Google search. 

[00:28:16] Larry Heller: Sounds good. Rob, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks Larry. 

[00:28:20] Matt Halloran: And we will make sure that we have all of those links in the show notes to make sure that you click over there. So thanks for tuning into Retirement Unlocked.

[00:28:26] Matt Halloran: If you found this episode helpful, please like, subscribe and share it with somebody who might benefit from this episode. But if you wanna take the next step in the episode description below, you’ll find a link to Heller Wealth Management’s website. With more resources and the option to schedule a complimentary 20 minute call with the team, your ideal retirement starts with a conversation.

[00:28:45] Matt Halloran: So let’s get started. We’ll see you next time on Retirement Unlocked.