This presentation was created by Greg Maxwell, Esq., CFP® of Amicus Settlement Planners. If you have any questions about deferring legal fees, you may schedule a complimentary call with Greg via this link: bit.ly/book-a-call-with-greg-maxwell, or you can email Greg at Contact@AmicusPlanners.com.

1. How to Reduce Plaintiff
How to Reduce Plaintiff
Attorneys' Income Taxes
Attorneys' Income Taxes
and Build Wealth Using
and Build Wealth Using
Contingency Fees
Contingency Fees
Greg Maxwell, Esq., CFP
Greg Maxwell, Esq., CFP®
®

2. Show the exact strategy that we
use to save tens of thousands of
dollars in income taxes every year
for personal injury attorneys
all over the country.
Teach attorneys why this strategy
is the most effective way
to reduce income taxes and build
wealth (and why other planning
options pale in comparison).
1 2

3. You're paying more income tax than you want to pay, or
Your firm's cash flows are irregular, or
You want to save for retirement, or
You haven't found a satisfactory way to reduce your income
taxes — and your financial planner's or CPA's suggestion aren't
that helpful or enticing
You are a contingency fee-based attorney and:
You are a contingency fee-based attorney and:

4. Solo attorneys
Small firm attorneys
Mid-size firm attorneys
Large firm attorneys
Mass tort attorneys
High-volume, single event attorneys
Low-volume, single event attorneys
Works for ANY contingency fee-based attorney and ANY type of law firm

5. I am Greg Maxwell, an attorney
and Certified Financial Planner.
My firm, Amicus Settlement Planners, focuses solely on financial
planning for contingency fee-based attorneys nationwide.

7. The vast majority of
financial advisors and
CPAs have never even
heard of the strategy
in this presentation.
Your financial advisor
and CPA work with
dentists, doctors,
businessmen, and
others who are not
attorneys.

8. This strategy is completely unique — only contingency fee-based
attorneys have access to it.
Your financial advisors and CPA are clueless — you're wasting tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars on income taxes every year.
If you have a "structure guy", he only wants to talk about
annuities because that's how he gets his commission.

10. Contingency fee-based attorneys
are completely unique in the revenue
streams, expenses, and challenges
you face in your practice.
Unpredictable income
and expenses
Limited access
to bank debt
Inability to
deduct case
costs

11. You pay too much in taxes.
You have to borrow at higher interest rates.
You have limited capital to invest in cases.

12. This material has been prepared solely for information purposes only.
This presentation is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for
tax, legal, or accounting advice.
You should do your own research and analysis before making any
investment based on your personal circumstances.
You should do your own tax, legal, and accounting advisers before taking any
action on the material presented.

13. Part 1
How to Use the
Same Strategy as
Fortune 500 CEOs
to Slash Your
Income Tax Bill
Part 2
How to Implement
This Strategy Without
Using an Annuity and
Without Any Defense
Involvement
Part 3
How to Get
Started With This
Strategy in Less
Than 60 Minutes

14. Part 1
Part 1

15. of Fortune 500 companies offered
non-qualified deferred compensation
plans for their executives in 2017
92%
Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation (NQDC)
Elective deferral programs (EDPs)
Section 409A plans
Also referred
to as:

16. Deferred compensation plans allow executives to defer
a large portion of their compensation to future years — and
defer taxes on the money until the deferred funds are paid.
Fortune 500 CEOs saved $78 million on their 2014 tax bills by
putting $197 million into deferred compensation plans.

17. As a contingency fee-based attorney, you have the ability
to defer the receipt of your legal fees and to place
those fees into your own deferred compensation plan.

18. In other words, by
making a "deferral"
election, you delay the
recognition of taxable
income by postponing
your receipt of your
legal fees.
Plaintiff
attorneys have
the unique ability
to defer the
receipt of legal
fees to future
years.
This allows you
to postpone the
tax obligation
until the year in
which payments
are received.

19. YES
YES
Non-qualified deferred compensation plans have been
around for years.
Childs vs. Commissioner, 103 T.C. 634 (1994), held
that lawyers can defer the receipt of contingent legal
fees — to future tax years.

20. Childs was affirmed without opinion in two years later (89 F.3rd 856, 11th Cir. 1996).
In Private Letter Ruling ("PLR") 200836019, the IRS cites Childs with approval.
IRS has not challenged a lawyer's ability to defer legal fees since the Childs case.
Both the program administrator and law firms and attorneys using deferred
compensation plans have been audited by the IRS without issue.
The programs we use have the highest level tax opinion from multiple tax attorneys.

21. In a deferred compensation plan, you are able to fund your
account on a pre-tax basis — and the growth in the account
is tax-deferred.
You're using the same strategy as Fortune 500 CEOs but you
have full control over the amount and timing of the addition to
and withdrawals from your deferred compensation plan.

22. With a deferred compensation plan, you can control the amount of income
you recognize in any year. This allows you to reduce the amount of taxable
income and maximize your Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction.
No need to wait until retirement to withdraw funds
Can be used to pay for case and firm expenses
No employee participation requirement
No annual contribution limits

23. Why Not Just Pay Taxes and
Why Not Just Pay Taxes and
Then Invest What's Left?
Then Invest What's Left?

25. Illustration is a 9% annual return and a combined initial tax rate of 47%. The annual growth (for the after-tax investing scenario)
is taxed at 24%. Illustration is inclusive of all fees.
$3,869,684
$1,345,906

26. $13,159,553
$5,334,541

27. If you have lots of small cases, you
If you have lots of small cases, you
can
can make a one-time election
make a one-time election and
and
defer an unlimited number
defer an unlimited number of cases
of cases
in that year.
in that year.
The size of the case
The size of the case
does not
does not matter.
matter.
There is no
There is no
minimum
minimum
contribution.
contribution.
But I don't get large
enough or multi-
million dollar
cases...

28. Some of them
deferred as minimal
as $5,000 per case.
Some of them
deferred a certain
percentage
on each case.
Others deferred as
much as 80%-90%
of their fees once
they have covered
their firm overhead
for the year.

29. Using deferred compensation plans for deferring fees will work for
any attorney in any firm.
You don't need to be a partner in your firm to set up a deferred
compensation plan. This strategy works regardless of your ownership
status in the firm (even new associates).
Even if you are a partner, the other partners in the firm do not have to
participate in the deferred compensation plan. You can be the only
one in your firm to use this strategy.

30. Part 2
Part 2

31. NO!
NO!
Using a structured settlement
Using a structured settlement
annuity to defer fees is an
annuity to defer fees is an
alternative
alternative to using a deferred
to using a deferred
compensation plan.
compensation plan.
For our clients, we most often
For our clients, we most often
recommend
recommend using the deferred
using the deferred
compensation plan approach
compensation plan approach for
for
the reasons we'll discuss in this
the reasons we'll discuss in this
section.
section.
Do I have to use a structured
annuity to fund my deferred
compensation plan?
Is this the same thing?
I've only heard of
structured fees.

32. Life insurance companies and
Life insurance companies and
structure brokers
structure brokers only make their
only make their
commissions
commissions when you use a
when you use a
structured annuity.
structured annuity.
They don't want you to know
They don't want you to know
about this because a run-of-the-
about this because a run-of-the-
mill insurance salesman or
mill insurance salesman or
structure broker
structure broker can't help you
can't help you
set up and manage
set up and manage your deferred
your deferred
compensation plan.
compensation plan.
Why have I only heard
of structured fees?

33. You fund the deferred compensation plan with cash.
The cash is then deposited by the deferred compensation
plan administrator into an investment account
Once the plan is funded, the funds are invested in a portfolio that
matches your risk tolerance and preferences, allowing you to earn
market rates of return.

34. You can fund your deferred compensation straight from your IOLTA
account.
In a deferred compensation plan, you do not have to include
any language in the release agreement (unlike in an annuity).
The defense does not have to cut separate checks. All settlement
funds can go straight to your IOLTA.

35. Defendant pays the
entire settlement
check to your IOLTA
account
1
Pay any lienholders
2
Distribute settlement
funds to your clients
3
Pay co-counsel fees to
any referring attorneys
4
Amount of fees you
chose to defer is
paid to the deferred
compensation plan
5
Remainder is paid
to your firm's
operating account
6

36. Flow of funds is 100% U.S. based (no offshore assignment company like an
annuity)
You can defer one or hundreds of cases with one
document. No more jumping through hoops on every case.
No minimum amount to defer nor any setup fee.
Some defendant insurers will disallow you to defer fees (so an annuity becomes
impossible). There is no defense knowledge or approval of your fee deferral in a
deferred compensation plan.

37. The deferred compensation plan does not have mandatory or
fixed payout dates.
You can elect to withdraw funds at any time, and you do not have to
schedule your withdrawals at the time of deferral.

39. Most deferred compensation plan administrators can extend you a
line of credit — which allows you to access up to 90% of the deferred
funds on an as-needed basis.
The interest rate on the lines of credit are much lower than traditional
law firm loans (usually 4% - 6%)
Borrowing from your line of credit does not result in taxable income
You can borrow for any reason (personal and professional funding)

40. The deferred compensation election is very flexible. You can defer on a case-by-case basis, or you
can elect to defer all the cases in your pipeline.
You can defer a set dollar amount, a percentage of a fee, or a combination of collars and
percentage:
Defer $100,000
Defer 50% of the fee
Percentage of all fees that are in excess of a certain dollar amount
Percentage of the first $100,000 and another percentage of everything in excess of $100,000
Have enough money to live on for the year? If your personal and firm's needs are met and you have
enough revenue for the year, you can defer 100%

41. Defer taxes on current income
Invest in a portfolio of your choosing
100% US based (no offshore element)
Flexible payout schedule
No minimum fee and no setup fees
Borrow against your deferred fees
No defense involvement required
Defer directly from your trust account

42. Part 3
Part 3

43. You can establish your deferred compensation account any time - even
if you don't have a case right now where you are able to defer fees.
We recommend that attorneys open the account now, so that when
they're ready to defer fees on a case, everything is ready to go.

44. You fill-out a basic
deferred
compensation plan
application
We work with the
account admin to
set up your
dedicated
investment account
You enter into a
deferral payment
agreement
specifying the cases
or percentage you
want to defer

45. Our Firm is Here to
Our Firm is Here to Help
Help You
You
We act as the
We act as the investment
investment
manager
manager for your deferred
for your deferred
compensation account and
compensation account and
invest your deferred fees based
invest your deferred fees based
on your goals, risk tolerance, age,
on your goals, risk tolerance, age,
and wishes.
and wishes.
But I don't know how to...
invest
make portfolio allocation
and diversification
decisions
manage investments
rebalance investments

46. You will be able to
You will be able to login 24/7
login 24/7 to
to
view the account (just like you can
view the account (just like you can
with your other investment
with your other investment
accounts).
accounts).
All of your fees go into a
All of your fees go into a single
single
account
account - unlike an annuity, where
- unlike an annuity, where
you eventually have to deal with:
you eventually have to deal with:
Will I be Able to See
What's Going On?

48. On our strategy session call,
On our strategy session call,
we will discuss your situation
we will discuss your situation
and see if you may be missing
and see if you may be missing
out on
out on significant tax savings
significant tax savings
opportunities.
opportunities.
We'll explore some of the
We'll explore some of the
strategies
strategies available to you
available to you
and discuss in more detail
and discuss in more detail
how this would actually work
how this would actually work
for
for you and your firm
you and your firm.
.
What Should I Expect
in the Call?

49. We'll also discuss other planning strategies available to
you through using a deferred compensation plan like:
Wealth transfer to heirs
Golden handcuffs for key employees, associates, paralegals,
and staff
Borrowing at 4-6% to fund case expenses
Using deferred fees to smooth your firm's cash flows

50. If we're not a good fit or if my firm can't help you, I'll let you know
right away. This will not be a high-pressure sales call.
I'm a fellow attorney - my time is valuable, and your time is valuable.
I have no interest in wasting either of our time if I don't think we can
help you. However, we've helped many attorneys, and I'm confident
we can help you.