Sterk Resources Spotlight: R. Lloyd & Co.

Financial Services

Financial Services in Orland Park

Sterk Family Law Resources Spotlight
For 40 years, Rick Lloyd has served clients in Orland Park and the surrounding area through his financial services business, R. Lloyd & Co., Ltd.  The firm started by focusing mainly on tax preparation until 20 years ago, when Lloyd decided to add financial management to the company’s offerings. Now the small financial services company employs about a dozen people, including Lloyd’s son, Rick Lloyd III. As a one-stop financial firm, the company performs personal and business tax returns, audits, business valuations, financial reviews and consulting work, in addition to managing $50 million in clients investments. Lloyd shared with us the company’s vision for helping customers, especially during difficult life and family situations.
Taxes and financial planning are serious subjects. People must be nervous when they visit your office.
Rick Lloyd: We take the approach that we’re a necessary evil. No one really wants to get their taxes done. But it’s one of those things you have to do, so we try to make it as painless as possible. I have a brother-in-law who’s a dentist. We like to joke about who people would rather see less of — me to do their taxes or him to do their dental work.
After four decades in the financial services business, you must have built a great deal of trust among your clients. Is that why you decided to start managing money?

Lloyd: When it comes to investing their money, people don’t necessarily know what to do, and don’t know who they can trust. We used to refer other people to brokers like Merrill Lynch, for example. And I just thought those people weren’t doing as good of a job as they could be. I thought, “I can do this.”

So I started offering the service to clients and it’s grown since then. If we’ve been doing their taxes for 25 years, people feel like they can trust us to manage their money.

You have experience in helping clients through divorce proceedings, to divide assets and make decisions about their children’s financial future. What’s your approach with helping couples through the financial aspects of legal separation?

Lloyd: My approach with divorce is: Let’s agree to disagree. Let’s be compatible enough that we don’t do stupid things financially. Let’s agree to file joint tax returns until we’re divorced. Let’s divide the assets in the most tax effective way.

If you have children, you have to make peace enough to do the smartest things financially. Otherwise you’re just going to make the situation worse. We don’t try to be counselors, or salvage the relationship in any way, but we will try to at least have them be agreeable enough to not do financially stupid things. When it comes to tax issues like claiming the children or college expenses, or how to divide the mortgage interest, we always say the one we’re looking to hurt most is the government. Let’s focus on that.

Can you help clients set up a financial trust for a family member?

Lloyd: We’re not attorneys so we don’t draft trusts. What we can do is sit down with you to decide what it is you want to accomplish, and then lay out a roadmap to take to an attorney. “Here’s what the client wants to accomplish. This is the net result that we want to achieve.” 

I’ve gone through a couple of situations where one spouse has dementia pretty bad. There are Medicare trusts you can set up so that one spouse can receive Medicaid without financially killing the other spouse. 

That’s an example of something we can help clients figure out to take to their attorney to draft the actual document.

For more information or to contact R. Lloyd and Company visit https://www.rlloyd.net/ or call 708-429-9500

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