Dossier: Financial planner Jerry Lynch
Plan now to save on taxes next year

By SALLY SILVERMAN • SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD • December 22, 2009

Jerry Lynch is president of JFL Consulting, a financial-planning company in Fairfield. With the close of the calendar year fast approaching, Lynch offers a few tips from his decades in the business about the value of year-end tax planning.

“Everybody needs to pay their fair share of taxes, but don’t leave a tip. It’s right to pay the minimum amount, that’s why you hire somebody like me, or a good CPA, and meet with them in November. Be proactive,” he said. “We get involved, most financial advisors don’t. If I can save you $5,000 in taxes, it justifies my fee.”

Tips:

Prepay January’s mortgage payment: If you make your January 2010 mortgage payment on your residence before the end of the year, you can deduct the interest portion of this payment on your 2009 income tax return.

Employ different strategies for negative taxable income. If your deductible expenses exceed your income, causing negative taxable income, your tax strategies could include the following: reducing your income tax deductions, paying medical expenses next year, deferring or reducing charitable contributions until 2010, paying state and property taxes in 2010.

Beginnings: Lynch was born in Jersey City on Sept. 11, 1963. He grew up in Mahwah and attended Don Bosco High School. After high school, he attended Moravian College and graduated from Ramapo College with a degree in operations management.

“I always liked investing and paying the least taxes possible. I should have been working in factory management, but I liked talking to people and they would listen, so it steered me in this direction,” he said.

Career path: Lynch started JFL Consulting in 1997 after working at Aetna as vice president of marketing.

“I have a virtual dream team and I am the financial architect,” Lynch said of outside professionals who work with him.

At home: Lynch lives in Mountain Lakes with his wife, Deena, and their three sons. In his spare time, Lynch likes to ride his Harley-Davidson, garden and add to his hot sauce collection. “I do a lot of cooking,” he said. His favorite restaurant is The Station in Mountain Lakes.

The recession: “The amount of time we spend with clients has double and quadrupled in order to reassure them. The amount of communications we send out, our newsletter, has double or tripled. This is a good time to get new clients. As a former volunteer fireman, I learned that you have to go in in a crisis situation,” he said.

Role models: “I like to work with experts in different areas to see how they handle situations,” he said.