ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> <title>Plachta, Murphy and Associates, P.C.</title> <style type="text/css"> @import url("css/pmastyle.css"); <!-- .style11 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height:18px; text-align:justify; padding-right:20px; } .style13 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #555555; } .style19 {font-size: 20px; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; color: #dddddd; } .style24 {font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; color: #660000; font-size: 17px;} a:link { color: #1a1f72; text-decoration:none; } a:visited { color: #1a1f72; text-decoration:none; } a:hover { color: #660000; text-decoration:none; } a:active { color: #FFFF00; } #nav a:link { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size:11px; color: #888888; text-decoration:none; text-transform:uppercase; } #nav a:visited { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size:11px; color: #888888; text-decoration:none; text-transform:capitalize; text-transform:uppercase; } #nav a:hover { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size:11px; color: #000066; text-decoration:none; text-transform:capitalize; text-transform:uppercase; } .style29 {font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:16px } .style31 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #555555; font-weight: bold; } --> </style> </head> <body><div id="header"> <table width="768" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="nav"> <tr> <td width="481"><img src="pmalogosmall.jpg" width="323" height="91"/></td> <td width="51" nowrap="nowrap"><div align="center" class="style29" style="border-right:1px solid #dddddd" ><a href="http://www.pmalawpc.com/">HOME</a></div></td> <td width="101" nowrap="nowrap"><div align="center" class="style29" style="border-right:1px solid #dddddd" ><a href="client.html">CLIENT ALERTS </a></div></td> <td width="53" nowrap="nowrap"><div align="center" class="style29" style="border-right:1px solid #dddddd" ><a href="about.html">ABOUT</a></div></td> <td width="67" nowrap="nowrap"><div align="center" class="style29" style="border-right:1px solid #dddddd"><a href="contact.html">CONTACT</a></div></td> <td width="82" nowrap="nowrap"><div align="center" class="style29" ><a href="directions.html">DIRECTIONS</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellspacing="0" id="body1"> <tr> <td align="center"> <table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="0" id="section1"> <tr> <td width="233" valign="top"><img src="lobby.jpg" alt="Stock Photo" name="stock" width="269" height="233" id="stock" style="" /></td> <td width="486" valign="top"><span class="boxhead"><br /> Business and Retirement Planning and Consultation<br /> <br /> </span> <div class="boxdetail">Plachta, Murphy & Associates provides a number of services for businesses as they deal with the Social Security Administration. Richard J. Cross and Miles J. Murphy, III can advise on a full range of Social Security questions, from basic retirement questions to spousal and survivor benefits, or any of the other 12 entitlement programs the SSA offers. <br><br> </div></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <div style="width:100%;background-image:url('Border.jpg');height:12px;border-bottom:1px solid #bbbbbb"> </div> <table width="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#efefef"><table width="800" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#dddddd" style="border-left:1px solid #cccccc;border-right:1px solid #cccccc"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="bodydetail">We advise businesses with employees suffering from an illness or disability. We may be able to get a disabled employee on to social security disability rather than worker s compensation, which will save money for that business. We are also willing to provide onsite Social Security seminars to employees and human resources staff. Please call our office at (616) 458-3994 to get started. <br><br> <b>Corporate Officer / Self-Employed Retirement</b> <br><br> Corporate officers and self-employed individuals who apply for social security benefits are subject to very thorough questioning. The SSA will investigate their actual work activity and their level of financial control of the business earnings. Failure to properly plan can result in being denied retirement benefits or having their monthly benefits cut. <br><br> Our social security team can help your clients do proper planning of their transition into retirement so they receive their maximum monthly hard-earned social security benefits. <br><br> The first question the Claims Representative at the Social Security Administration will ask a corporate officer or self-employed individual is: <br> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; " Are you really retired?<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; " How many hours (if any) do you intend to work? <br> <br> That s just for starters. There is also a five page self-employment/corporate officer questionnaire your client may be required to complete to obtain their retirement benefits. If the Claims Rep. is not convinced that your client is truly retiring, he/she will deny the claim. <br> <br> We are well-versed in eligibility requirements, dates of entitlement, benefit amounts, offset and earnings test (and/or corporate officer, self-employment) requirements, tax questions, Medicare and the possible effect on future pension or investment income. <br> <br> We are familiar with the forms and questionnaires that the SSA uses, as well as what they are really looking for and nuances of the process. Please call our office at (616) 458-3994 to discuss your retirement plans. <br> <br> <br> <b><u>Case Study</u></b><br><br> Recently, one of the accounting firms in Grand Rapids contacted our social security specialist, Rick Cross, to see if we could assist their clients in pre-retirement planning. We sat down with the client and their CPA and structured a plan so that the husband/business owner was able to transfer the business assets into a new entity solely owned by his wife. After the transition of the assets was accomplished, the husband was then able to formally retire and file his social security retirement claim. We advised the retiring husband of the minimum hours and salary he could obtain on a monthly basis so that he could continue to work a small amount in the business but not impact monthly social security retirement benefits. When he applied for social security, we were also able to advise him as to how to answer the interview questions with the claims representative. As a result, his claim for social security retirement benefits went through without a hitch. He is now happily retired and working part-time in his wife s business. <br><br> Additionally, the husband also showed signs of a lingering long-term disability. Accordingly, we identified the potential disability issue and were able to work with him to help him file a social security disability claim on top of his social security retirement claim. His Social Security Disability claim is currently pending and we expect a favorable result in the next 3 to 6 months which will further maximize his retirement benefits. </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>