When a young woman suddenly inherited a significant portfolio of investments and real estate from her grandmother, she found herself overwhelmed. She had never dealt with anything like this — taxes, estate issues, legal complexities, and a future that suddenly depended on decisions she didn't feel equipped to make. Her accountant recognized she needed more than tax advice and referred her to Point Sur Advisors. Working alongside her CPA, we built a strategy that sheltered a substantial portion of her assets from taxation, secured her long term retirement, and created supplemental income while she was still early in her career.

After more than ten years of delays following her divorce, a client came to us with a QDRO that had never been executed — and a retirement that was slipping further out of reach because of it. She knew the assets were rightfully hers but didn't know how to pursue it against opposing counsel. We stepped in, worked alongside her attorney to negotiate an equitable split, and coordinated the complex distribution paperwork across three separate financial institutions. The result — six figures of assets transferred into her name, and a retirement she had almost given up on finally within reach.

After losing her husband, a widowed client found herself alone in navigating her finances — and quietly being taken advantage of. Over the years a timeshare company had pressured her into upgrading contracts she didn't need, and her monthly fees had climbed to just under $10,000. At that rate her retirement would be compromised within five years. Her former advisors had never caught it.

We coordinated with her newly assembled team of advisors to cancel the timeshare contracts, address the income shortfalls, and helped her children step in to bring stability back to her finances. But the most critical discovery came quietly — her retirement account beneficiaries were titled incorrectly, a mistake that could have severely jeopardized the transfer of assets to her adult child with special needs.

Sometimes the most important thing an advisor does is find what everyone else missed.

When a physician couple with separate medical practices came to Point Sur Advisors to set up 401k plans, what started as a straightforward engagement quickly revealed layers of complexity. Their joint interests in multi-state practices triggered controlled group testing requirements and plan corrections that, if left unaddressed, could have resulted in significant IRS penalties. We helped them retain an ERISA attorney and brought both plans into compliance quickly.

But the bigger discovery was in their insurance. Their existing whole life policies had become increasingly expensive to maintain. After a thorough review we helped them convert to more efficient permanent life insurance policies that more than doubled their coverage — from $6 million to $15 million — while cutting their monthly premiums by over 40%. Each policy also included $1 million in long-term care coverage.

The new policies had one more advantage nobody expected. Using the superior loan features of the new policies, the couple was able to borrow from their own cash value at 3% to 5% interest to fund construction of their new home — far below what any traditional lender would have offered.

This is what happens when someone finally looks at the whole picture.