Retirement Watch Weekly
August 2015
August 28, 2015 04:15 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review There’s not much about the latest market turmoil that I can add to the email I sent out on Tuesday. I ventured that investors overreacted, that recent events were not another 2008. We likely would have a rally that would last for a few […]
Payoffs from Making Charitable Gifts Now
Estate planning often has multiple goals, especially in this era when most people don’t have to worry about federal estate taxes. Estate planning should be coordinated with your income tax planning and your income needs as well as your charitable gift giving plans. These needs and goals should be included in your estate planning along […]
Popular Tax Exemption Strategy Upheld
The IRS recently lost a Tax Court case involving an estate and gift tax exemption strategy that the IRS and some in Washington have been trying to eliminate. The estate planning strategy is known as the Crummey trust, named after the taxpayer in the case that originally approved it. The recent case not only upheld […]
The Truth About Retirement Living
Retirement living and housing myths still circulate. The myths continue not only among prospective retirees but also among financial advisors and the media. That’s unfortunate, because where to live is one of the most important and far-reaching retirement decisions. It affects both the financial and non-financial aspects of your retirement. Let’s take a look at […]
Getting the Most for the Least from Your Insurers
Perhaps the most neglected area of financial planning is insurance. The older you are, and the more wealth you have, the more likely you are to have the wrong coverage and be paying too much for the coverage you have. I’m talking here about the plain vanilla policies for insuring your home, autos, and any […]
Avoiding Expensive IRA Mistakes
Too many people leave too much money on the table when managing their IRAs. It’s not surprising. IRA rules and strategies can be more complicated once the early contribution and accumulation years are behind us. There are various tricks and traps in the IRA rules, and there are strategies for maximizing IRA values that aren’t […]
Strategies for Spending Your Nest Egg
The missing link in many retirement plans is the withdraw-al, distribution, or spending strategy. Accumulating for retirement is the easy part, and many people enter retirement with what seem to be adequate resources. Yet, a high percentage of Americans die owning their home equity and little more. Most rely heavily on Social Security to fund […]
Learning the Nuts and Bolts of Living Trusts for Estate Planning
Living Trusts are probably the most used way to avoid probate. They are mainstays of Estate Planning in states with expensive or time-consuming probate procedures. Last month we discussed the different ways of avoiding probate, including the advantages and disadvantages. This month we discuss the nuts and bolts of operating living trusts. In this discussion […]
