Pension Planners Listing

Michael J. Jones
Thompson Jones Ltd.
2508 Quentin
Minneapolis, MN 55416
Phone: (612) 922-6227
Fax: (612) 924-6075

Since 1990, a high concentration of my practice has been on estate planning for retirement benefits of qualified plans and IRAs (both pre- and post-mortem engagements). I will be pleased to provide a more detailed practice description and resume on request.

I am a recognized national-level instructor/lecturer and course developer on this topic for attorneys, CPAs, Insurance professionals and financial planners, earning top ratings by participants at such conferences as the 1996 NYU Annual Tax and Estate Planning Instute. Many of my lecture appearances are joint presentations with Professor Jerry A. Kasner, a leading authority on estate planning.

Most of my clients are residents of California or Minnesota. The net worth of the clients I serve ranges from around $2,000,000 up to $350,000,000. The retirement plans in these estates is typically over $1,500,000. The clients that I can best serve are concerned with how to efficiently transfer assets to family members or charity without sacrificing their own financial security. They find themselves faced with financial complexity of such magnitude that it obscures their “planning vision”. Assuming that I can earn the trust of the client and their key advisors and that I do the work of listening, it is my role to participate in identifying sensible strategies, then independently evaluate the relative economic value of each strategy. The work is summarized in educational reports necessary for the client to make decisions. I often continue to participate in the planning process through implementation.

Collaboration with other professionals has proven to yield the greatest success stories. Generally, I do not seek to replace services that can be provided by the clients’ existing advisors. I prefer to confirm those important long-term relationships. My engagement letters with clients normally authorize consultation with other advisors so that there is an opportunity for all to participate in developing and delivering a unified message to the client.

I also have been very active in analyzing charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, aggressive lifetime gift programs, estate liquidity planning, house trusts and life insurance. It would be fair to say that much of my work utilizes specialized transfer tax knowledge.