The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 13 No. 9 - December 12, 2012

BUSINESS

Donuts sizzle in Anna Maria

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Pat Copland | Sun
Brogan Sauls, 3, and Livia Sauls, 2,
eat their donuts covered with M&Ms.

ANNA MARIA – Owner Shawn Wampole moved fast to fill the orders of moms and kids, senior strollers and business owners who flocked into Anna Maria Donuts last week to get their fix of the cake-like delight.

Wampole, who sent samples out to fellow business owners on Pine Avenue prior to opening, said, “Everybody has been very welcoming. This is a really nice community.”

You can watch when the batter drops into the fryer and the donuts sizzle as they move up the conveyer and fall into an awaiting pan, hot and ready for embellishment. Each one is made to order, and you can choose your icing and topping.

Icings include chocolate, vanilla, glaze, caramel glaze and maple. Toppings are chocolate or multi-colored sprinkles, nuts, coconut, Oreo cookie, graham cracker, granola, Fruit Pebbles, bacon, Butterfinger, M&M and chocolate chip.

Then you can wash down your donut with premium coffee, roasted fresh every day and available in regular or a flavor of the day, sparkling water, Mexican sodas, juices and more while using the free WiFi.

“I envision this as being like an old fashioned donut shop where people gather,” Wampole said.

Wampole and his wife, Cecilia, and their three children are settling in to Island life after relocating here from Pennsylvania. Wampole, who has a master’s degree in journalism, was a newspaper page designer before becoming a police officer in Springfield Township outside Philadelphia.

“We had been looking for a business opportunity for awhile,” Wampole explained. “We came here on vacation and realized there was nowhere to get donuts except Publix.

“We thought it would be a good thing to have and started looking online for retail space. We came across the PAR (Pine Avenue Restoration) website and contacted Mike Coleman.

“Mike thought is was a good idea, and we wrote a letter of proposal for him to show to the merchants on the street. They approved it, we signed the lease in July and have been working on construction ever since.

The shop is located at 210C Pine Avenue. Hours are 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. seven days a week. The phone number is 941-896-3172.

Anna Maria Donuts

210 Pine Avenue
Anna Maria, FL 34216
Phone: 941-896-3172

7 a.m. to 1 p.m. seven days a week

www.annamariadonuts.com

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Estate planning challenges

Investment Corner

Unless Congress and the president are able to reach an agreement by the end of 2012, the federal estate and gift tax exemptions will roll back to the $1 million level from their present level of $5.12 million. In addition, estate tax rates are increasing, up to as high as 55 percent from the current level of 35 percent. With all the talk of the impending fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax increases which will also occur on Jan. 1 if no deal is struck, there hasn’t seemingly been too much attention paid to the estate planning challenges faced by families.

All of a sudden, quite a few people who probably weren’t too worried about estate tax planning now need to be. Before we reach the point of panic, it is highly likely that at some point in the next year we will see action to move the estate tax exemptions back to a more reasonable level, probably in the $3 million range at least. After all, most congressmen and women were somewhat successful in their business careers and many have estates larger than $1 million. They will want to, selfishly, protect their families, just like we do, and I believe action will ultimately be taken.

But, we cannot know for sure what form the final law will take or how long it will take to resolve the situation. There are enough unknowns at this time that those impacted should pay attention and consider actions they might take.

We don’t have enough space here to go into detail on the techniques you could employ to help reduce the potential impact of estate tax, but we can review who might be impacted and recommend that you seek counsel from an estate planning attorney in the next couple weeks to determine your best course of action if you have not already started the process.

Those families with total estate values under $1 million can stand down and enjoy the holidays. There will be no impact to you from the expiration of the current law and the aforementioned rollbacks. Ironically, those with estate values over $5.12 million have probably already taken action to structure their estate with trusts, insurance and other techniques to shelter them from the impact of the potential changes at the beginning of 2013.

Those with estate values in the $1 million to $5.12 million range are affected the most. These folks are perhaps less likely to have taken any action previously, and they and their heirs are now directly in the line of fire if nothing is done. It is not too late to take action, but you need to move quickly at this point to get trusts established or taxable value out of your estate through gifting. Again, consult an estate planning attorney before taking any significant action.

And lastly, keep in mind the most likely scenario is that some of the actions you take now may prove to be unnecessary once the political rhetoric in Washington calms down and some deals are finally negotiated. But again, there is no certainty at this point on any of these issues.

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. Visit www.breitercapital.com.

 


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