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Awards & Media
January 2012 – Morning Scramble.
December 2011 – Morning Scramble.
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December 2011 – Brent earned the Registered Financial Consultant – RFC® designation. The RFC® designation is awarded by the International Associate of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC) to financial advisors who meet high standards of education, experience, and integrity.
November 2011 – Brent earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM (CFP®) designation. The CFP® mark is offered – and governed – by the Certified Financial Planner® Board of Standards in Washington, DC and it is perhaps the most widely recognized and most sought after credential in the financial services industry today.
October 2011 – Morning Scramble.
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July 2011 – Brent Mekosh talks with Pat McMahon on the debt ceiling.
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July 2011 – Brent Mekosh quoted in the Phoenix Business Journal on the debt ceiling. Read the article here.
July 2011 – Brent Mekosh and Cheryl Budgett discuss Retirement Planning on AZTV.
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July 2011 – Rudi K – Radio show 7/16/11 – Brent Mekosh, Jeff Smith and Rudi K discuss the debt ceiling. Listen to the show here.
June 2011 – Pat and Brent discuss market volatility.
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June 2011 – Brent was profiled in The Republic. Click here to view it.
May 2011 – Brent and pat discuss the possible effects of Osama Bin Laden's death on the economy.
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April 2011 – Brent was profiled in the Phoenix Business Journal – Arizona's premier business publication. Click here to view it.
April 2011 – Brent joined Steve Henry on KKNT 960 AM to discuss entrepreneurship in America. Listen to the show here.
March 2011 – Brent and Pat discuss the ongoing unrest in Libya and the disaster in Japan.
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March 2011 – Brent joined Dr. Byron Schlomach, Economist for the Goldwater Institute and Host Rudi K on "Mainstreet Outloud" – the premier political talk show on weekend radio to discuss the disaster in Japan, the Federal Reserve, and high energy prices. Listen to the show here.
February 2011 – Brent and Pat discuss the ongoing unrest in the Middle East.
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January 2011 – Brent arrived for our regular spot on McMahon Group expecting to discuss "Investing in Emerging Markets" on AZTV with Angela Scott. Angela had other ideas, and for the first 3:45 Brent was caught quite off-guard. Brent was indeed nominated for this honor in Arizona, but he wasn't expecting to Angela to discuss in on live television. The result was something a little bit different than our normal TV appearance. Enjoy!
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December 2010 – Brent made another television appearance on the McMahon Group when Angela Scott interviewed him about the specific issues regarding woman and investing. Also in December, Brent was invited to appear once-a-month on McMahon Group during the coming year in 2011. Brent is looking forward to discussing a wide variety of topics with our friends at AZ-TV over the next 12 months.
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December 2010 – Brent earned the professional designation CEP® after completing the Certified Estate PlannerTM course work and passing the qualifying exam issued by The National Institute of Certified Estate Planners (NICEP). This designation is representative of the high level of planning that Mekosh Financial Services and Raymond James is capable of providing to our clients. In conjunction with non-affiliated legal and tax professionals around the country, we have expanded upon our ability to bring every client a custom tailored estate plan.
November 2010 – Brent stopped by the "Chat Room" on AZ-TV for a live television discussion with Lisa Schneider-Cipriano and Angela Scott to discuss Federal Reserve policy and the global economy.
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September 2010 – Brent appeared in an article in "The Wall Street Journal" about the successful financial advisors. The article – written by Kelly Eggers and Jeremy Greenfield – spotlighted the daily activities of financial advisors who focus on exceptional client service. To read the article, click HERE.
June 2010 – Lisa Schneider-Cipriano and Angela Scott invited me to the "Chat Room" on AZ-TV for a live television interview to discuss woman's financial issues and the financial impacts surrounding divorce.
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June 2010 – Brent participated in an hour-long roundtable discussion with Arizona Attorney General and Gubernatorial Candidate Terry Goddard, FOX 10 News Anchor Kari Lake, and radio personality Pat McMahon on FM News/Talk 92.3 – Arizona's #1 radio station. We discussed the economy, the BP spill, and even Africa! To listen to the discussion, click HERE.
June, 2010 – Brent was asked by AZ Business to write an article on the use of Personally Owned Life Insurance (POLI) as an asset protection tool. Arizona Business Magazine is the state's leading monthly business publication for high-level corporate executives and business owners. To read Brent's article, click HERE.
Asset Protection
Using Personally Owned Life Insurance (POLI) as a sinking fund
Affluent families and individuals, successful business owners, and those engaged in certain occupations, such as the medical or construction industry, all face similar challenges when choosing to invest: They have worked hard to accumulate wealth, and now they want to keep it.
Wealthy investors are driven by the same concerns: preservation of assets; liquidity; protection from creditors and frivolous lawsuits; control; and minimizing taxes.
To address these concerns, affluent investors and their advisers have many investments to choose from, such as IRA and Roth IRAs, equities and mutual funds. There also is personally owned life insurance (POLI). What is POLI? To answer this question, we need to look at life insurance in an entirely different way.
Getting the most out of your investment type
What if instead of shopping for the most death benefit for our premium payment dollars, we sought out the federal minimum required death benefit in our policy to keep our insurance costs low and our investment value high? What if we created a “sinking fund” by investing in personally owned life insurance to create a tax-advantaged retirement supplement plan, and much more?
People often don’t recognize the value of permanent life insurance as an asset in their portfolios. Cash value life insurance offers much more than simple death protection.
Qualified plan and annuity assets, in addition to being included in the taxable estate of an owner, are also subject to income in respect of decedent (IRD) at death. Seventy percent is an estimate of the combined impact of estate and IRD taxes, as well as credits given in the high net-worth decedent’s estate.
Death benefits of a life insurance policy are generally received income tax-free by the owner of the policy. In order to avoid estate inclusion, the death benefit must be received outside the estate, often by designating the “B” Trust as the contingent owner and beneficiary of a policy owned by a decedent. Certain types of split dollar and loan transactions used in conjunction with an irrevocable life insurance trust also can be used to exclude the death benefit from estate inclusion. These techniques may involve gift tax implications, such as using a portion of the annual gift tax exclusions.
Brent Mekosh is president of Scottsdale-based Mekosh Financial Services. He may be reached at Brent.mekosh@mekoshfinancial.com.
To read more about personally owned life insurance pick up a copy of the June issue of AZ Business Magazine on newsstands now.
May 2010: – Brent joined the Board of Governors at Opportunity International with a focus on microfinance operations in Colombia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mission of Opportunity International (O.I.) is to empower people to work their way out of chronic poverty thus transforming their lives, their children?s futures, and their communities. O.I. provides microfinance services, including lending, savings, insurance and transformational training, to vibrant entrepreneurs throughout the developing world. The Board of Governors is a community of Opportunity International supporters who share a common passion to help people in the developing world work their way out of poverty. Currently, O.I. has 610 governor families nationwide. To learn more about O.I. click HERE.
April, 2010 – Brent joined Pat McMahon of the McMahon Group for a live television interview to discuss investing and global economics. The McMahon Group is a fast-paced hour-long program that airs live weekdays at 9am on AZ-TV. Pat McMahon was voted the 2009 'Best Local TV Personality' by AZCentral.com.
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March 2010 – "SheKnows" – the authoritive online source for woman ages 18-54 – asked Brent to offer 5 budgeting tips for woman. SheKnows attracts more than 12.5 million unique visitors and is consistently one of the top 10 properties for women, generating over 150 million page views each month. To read the interview with Brent, click HERE.
February 2010 – Brent was interviewed by Scottsdale Leadership about his motivation to join Scottsdale Leadership, the importance of leadership, and his future plans for continuing leadership in Scottsdale.
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December 2009 – Brent became a Founding Donor of Arizona Autism United a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization providing services to children with autism spectrum disorders in Arizona. To learn more about becoming a Founding Donor to Arizona Autism United, click HERE.
July 2009 – Brent Mekosh was selected from a large pool of applicants for the Class XXIV of Scottsdale Leadership. Scottsdale Leadership's core program, a nine-month community leadership development program, has graduated more than 700 men and women who actively participate and lead civic, business, and philanthropic organizations in Scottsdale and throughout the Valley. Participants learn about the issues facing Scottsdale, develop the leadership skills needed to make an impact, and build a network of resources to help them effect change. To learn more about Scottsdale Leadership, please click here.
April 2009 – Brent Mekosh was selected by the Phoenix Business Journal to the "Forty-Under-40" Class of 2009. Forty-Under-40 is the premier program honoring the best young leaders in the Phoenix metro market. Each year this program recognizes a diverse collection of business, community, government and non-profit leaders who have achieved impressive milestones in their businesses and careers and have made significant contributions to the Valley?s overall quality of life. To read the entire story, click here.
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