Over four and a half decades of practice
Proud Grandfather Michael D. Anderson
Michael D. Anderson was recruited by Farm Bureau Insurance in the mid-1970s to become the youngest career underwriter in the company at that time. He beat his class in both life and casualty insurance sales winning their coveted first 90 days production "Totem Pole" Award. He was soon recruited within the company to become the youngest Agency Manager, first serving as temporary Agency Manager of Worth County; then graduating from the company's "Management Academy" and given the keys to managing a large two-county agency (Adair-Guthrie). In two years, he brought the agency from "last" to "second" in production in his division.
Resigning in August 1982 to start his own financial planning company, he was offered the second-largest agency in the company (Omaha-Council Bluffs) if he stayed with Farm Bureau. Instead, he proceeded to found Financial Growth Services, Inc. in Ankeny Iowa with partner Lew Doubleday. He soon bought out his partner and moved his corporate office to West Des Moines, becoming friends with Chuck Brooks, CPA. Chuck helped him meet the top business people in Des Moines during a weekly Christian businessman prayer breakfast. Financial planning was added to insurance services and one of the first financial plans was created for the then sports director for popular WHO radio.
Seeking a larger financial planning audience, and desiring a warmer climate, Mr. Anderson moved his family to Arizona in 1986, to become Vice President of sales with a well-known financial planning firm in Phoenix. He soon discovered the warm climate and warm reception by new clients were the grounds to re-incorporate in Arizona. In July 1990, he founded his own Arizona-based financial planning firm -- Financial Strategies, Inc.
Today, he interfaces with well-known national financial advisers and authors who value and praise his work over the years. A 2012 interview by the Wall Street Journal of Mr. Anderson's Inherited IRA rescue services resulted in nearly a hundred inquiries from readers (print and online). Those concerned readers, together, reported over $50,000,000 in retirement plan assets they wanted to protect from his "Inherited IRA Hell", referenced on his website. Today, Mr. Anderson assists beneficiaries after a plan owner’s death and rescues between 5 and 25 million dollars from needless instant taxation each year.
His own former partner's testimony a decade ago (before they were partners) summed up the way Mr. Anderson thinks, works, and the results he delivers for his client's:
"... I can personally attest to his business acumen, sharpness of mind, outstanding professional abilities, and most importantly, his honesty, integrity, and professionalism in accomplishing the most difficult and complex tasks put to him. Mike’s personal interest in the well-being and concern for the client’s interests entrusted to him is remarkable and noteworthy. His Estate Planning & Trust Portfolio has become a model for others attempting to match his efforts in producing such an important and meaningful document to both clients, their heirs, and family members.
Our office has constantly dealt with professionals in all sectors worldwide over the years and I can attest to that fact that Mike is head and shoulders above them all. We look forward to a continued and fruitful relationship with Michael Anderson and his firm for years to come." Dr. Saul S. Gefter
Get in touch
Give us a call today at 1-800-782-2806
We at Financial Strategies, Inc. have a singular purpose for prospective clients. To help you right now with your current financial problem or questions. Then "be there" just an email, text or phone call away to assist you. Whenever you need us. Meanwhile, as our client, we will "watch your back" consistently and constantly. And update you whenever something comes across our desk that may benefit or affect you, your family, your company or even your life. Who else does that? Exactly.
Arizona Certified Legal Document Preparer (AZCLDP)
M.D. Anderson
founder/owner/president
Michael D. Anderson, AZCLDP, Realtor, Notary
From starting and excelling in the insurance business as a young producer and manager, Michael (M.D.) Anderson learned everything he needed to know working for the "other guy" the first 7 years of his business career. Since August 1982 (other than a short stint as V.P. of Marketing with a Phoenix financial planning firm), Michael has worked for himself by following one of Zig Ziglar's popular sayings: "If you help enough people get what they want - then you will get what you want."
He networked with a popular Iowa CPA early on and built an impressive clientele, first in West Des Moines Iowa, and then in the Phoenix valley area since December 1986. He added tax preparation then tax consulting in 1988 to his insurance and investment advisory securities services. In 1990, he incorporated Financial Strategies, Inc., an Arizona company, and soon after networked with a Phoenix lawyer to offer living trust portfolios to his current insurance and tax clients. That relationship seeded his own legal document practice under his own firm when he designed his own trust portfolios in August 1992. Since then, his professionally prepared Living Trust Portfolio has been upgraded and enhanced constantly and his client portfolios have been successfully administered by major bank trust departments over the years, as well as private Successor Trustees without incident. And, after 45+ years of financial practice, he has never had even one regulatory complaint from any client of his firms.
Michael has represented as an estate agent, one of the most successful television ladies in the world in the 1950s to help sell her estate assets at her death, Dr. Francis Horwich. He has also assisted one of the most famous families in Brazil assisting International Attorney Dr. Saul S. Gefter in creating Arizona-based estate planning documents for the client's Arizona assets. Today, he has numerous popular and noteworthy trust portfolio clients who were referred to him by Arizona lawyers who do not practice in estate planning services.
After over four and a half decades of practice in professional financial services, Michael continues his life work zealously with a sixth sense to innovate in estate plan products and services. All so his clients may properly, in a modern world, prepare for the eventual transfer of their hard-earned work and results when they can no longer use or need those assets. And at the lowest cost and lowest hassle humanly possible.
Education
Waldorf University, Forest City, Iowa 1972-73
Graduate LIMRA - Insurance 1976-1977
Graduate - Farm Bureau Management Academy 1978
Annual Continued Education - no less than 32 hours (average) each year
Activities & Affiliations
• AZCLDP (Arizona Certified Legal Document Preparer)
• REALTOR & Member - National & Arizona Association of Realtors
• IRS ERO Provider Company and Registered Tax Preparer
• Arizona Notary Public
Licenses Held
• Insurance, AZCLDP, Real Estate, Notary - State of Arizona
M.D. Anderson Published Quotes in Articles
Inherited IRAs: a Sweet Deal
Wall Street Journal
(Sorry, you have to register to read the full article, but it is worth it!)
Eight Pitfalls to Avoid With an Inherited IRA
Fox Business News
8 ways to go wrong with an inherited IRA
Bankrate.com
IRA rollover rules – new rules close up loopholes
Yahoo.com
Naming a trust as your IRA beneficiary
Bankrate.com
Trusts as IRA Beneficiaries
Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Avoiding Letting Clients End Up In This Place
Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Our mention in attorney Natalie B. Choate's Newsletter May 2012
Choate's Notes
(She likes the fact we publish "horror stories" of victimized beneficiaries, so the public can be warned)
A Hellacious Inherited IRA Story