March 11, 2021 Anthony F. Prieto, Jr., CFP® Trial lawyers have been deferring fees into structured settlement products dating back to the early 1990s. The IRS challenged fee structure arrangements in Childs v. Commissioner.[1] In this seminal 1994 tax case, the IRS argued the fees should be taxed in the year earned; however, the lower…

May 13, 2020 An often-overlooked issue for plaintiff attorneys is the management of taxation of their own contingent legal fees. As part of the normal rhythm of their practices, many attorneys experience peaks and valleys with their own personal income. This leads to concerns for trial attorneys about the unpredictability of their own income. However,…

Reduce Taxes and Save for Retirement with Attorney Fee Deferrals A few months ago, a trial attorney in New York City had just settled a big case. He was like a lot of people reading this article; well-respected, successful, hardworking. But while he was excited about the result, he was frustrated with the massive amount…

According to Yahoo Finance, in 1998 59% of Fortune 500 companies offered traditionally defined benefit pension plans to new hires.  However, by 2017 Yahoo reported that only 16% of those same companies offered a traditional defined benefit pension plan.  Defined Benefits Pensions typically pay a retiring employee a percentage of their average earnings for the…

Investing your fees in a pre-tax and tax-deferred attorney fee deferral program is a very smart way to plan for the future. Attorney fee deferral programs are created for a variety of reasons. Based upon your specific planning needs and objectives, you can defer your contingent legal fees to accomplish any of the following: Cover…

Many attorneys have questions when it comes to how to avoid the spikes in income and the accompanying taxation common with contingent legal fees. There are custom tailored solutions for attorneys who work on a contingent fee basis to avoid these issues. Attorney fee structures and deferred compensation arrangements allow lawyers to avoid taking income…

If you have ever considered deferring some of your contingent legal fees, now is the time to take a harder look.  With looming changes to the tax scheme, now more than ever it may make sense to do so even if the rates of return are lower.  There are two primary ways that attorney fees…

As the Republican Party takes control of the White House and Congress in 2017 we can expect some changes to the tax code. Now is the time to consider doing some planning to take advantage of what likely will be a lower effective rate for attorneys and other investors. President-elect Donald Trump released his plan…

Leif Lundberg, LL.M and Ben Eisler, JurisPrudent Deferral Solutions Takeaways Defer compensation like Fortune 500 executives do, so your money grows faster. Tie your fee to the returns of investments that you select – stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. Gain access to low-interest loans, as needed, to fund cases (currently 3-4%). Use “golden handcuffs” to…

Bet On Your Health! A pre-tax and tax-deferred attorney fee structure offers great benefits to attorneys who earn contingent legal fees.  In essence, it is an unlimited retirement investment vehicle exclusively for attorneys.  Using annuity based fee structures, an attorney can get a guaranteed competitive fixed rate of return.  The returns are typically similar to…

Are you Cutting A Check to the IRS this Year? By Daniel J. Alvarez, J.D. and Anthony F. Prieto, Jr., CFP® As the tax season draws to a close, you may be reviewing your tax return with some displeasure.  Did you cut too large of a check to the Department of Treasury for your 2014…

Attorney Fee Deferral Programs  By Daniel J. Alvarez, J.D. and Anthony F. Prieto, Jr., CFP® Due to the contingent nature of compensation as a plaintiff lawyer, unique retirement planning options exist especially for you. Below we compare and contrast traditional small business retirement plans with some of the unique tax deferred planning options available when…

Lawyers who earn contingent legal fees have a unique ability to control the timing of their income with either attorney fee structures or deferred compensation arrangements.  While many lawyers fail to consider these vehicles due to lack of information, it is easy to see once one understands the options how powerful this can be for contingent legal fees.

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Synergy wants to congratulate one of our best clients on achieving one million dollars
in deferred legal fees since 2004.