Weekly Strategy PERFORMANCE

February 1, 2021, marked 40 years since the founding of Flexible Plan Investments (FPI).

In 1981, Flexible Plan Investments was founded based on the idea that everyone should have access to high-end investment strategies, tools, and technology—not just institutional or high-net-worth investors.

Since then, FPI’s cutting-edge, dynamically risk-managed strategies have become available at some of the largest investment institutions in the country. This strategic growth has made FPI strategies accessible to tens of thousands of investors, including those with 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and variable annuities. Today, FPI continues to innovate by providing financial advisers solutions designed to protect and grow their clients’ investments. Learn more in our press release.

The success and growth of the firm can be attributed to all of you, our valued clients and financial advisers, along with our dedicated staff.

As a special “thank you,” we’re inviting you to join us in celebrating our 40 years of innovation with 40 acts of giving. Visit our anniversary page to nominate a charity and pledge a donation. We’ll match donations to the first 40 qualifying charities submitted (with a maximum match of $1,000 total to each organization).

Tax forms will be mailed and available online through E*Trade Advisor Services’ Liberty website on the following dates:

• Form 1099-R: January 31, 2021.
• All nonretirement account tax forms: February 15, 2021.
• Required minimum distribution (RMD) letters were also issued to clients on January 31, 2021.

Reminder: Legislation effective January 1, 2020, changed the RMD age from 70 1/2 to age 72. Therefore, anyone turning 70 1/2 after January 1, 2020, does not have to take an RMD until they turn 72.

Tax data will be available for import into both  Turbo Tax and H&R Block tax programs. Clients will need to establish a  Liberty login and password before using the import process. Select “E*Trade Advisor  Services” from the list of financial institutions and then authenticate your identity using your Liberty login and password. Online assistance is available  through the Help Center services of both Turbo Tax and H&R Block. Note:This import process is not available on the free version of Turbo Tax.

We encourage you to retrieve statements on Liberty or to sign up for e-statements instead of waiting for the hard copy to arrive by mail as the USPS or other carrier services may continue to experience delays. Signing up for e-statements helps the environment, reduces clutter, and allows you to access and store your statements safely and securely online. Simply log in to sign up.

If your clients hold a mutual fund, exchange-traded fund (ETF), or real estate investment trust (REIT) in their portfolio, there is a high probability a portion of the dividend payments made throughout the year will be reallocated for tax reporting purposes. Due to late reallocation notices, some account owners will receive a corrected tax form.

Each year we get questions from reps and tax preparers about how to handle transaction data for taxable accounts. While Flexible Plan does not provide tax advice, the following procedural information may be useful.

To avoid having to enter each buy/sell transaction, you can use one of the following methods:

• E*Trade Advisor Services integrates with Turbo Tax and H&R Block’s tax software, allowing you to download the data directly into the software program. E*Trade Advisor Services also provides the 1099-B tax data in CSV/spreadsheet format, which can be used with other software programs.
• Totals can be entered on Schedule D, and a hard copy of the 1099-B data can be submitted separately from the electronically filed return. Totals entered using this method could be labeled “Per schedule submitted with Form 8453.” You would then submit an IRS Form 8453 with the 1099-B tax data to the following address:

Internal Revenue Service

Attn: Shipping and Receiving, 0254

Receipt and Control Branch

Austin, TX 73344-0254

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