Retirement Watch Weekly
Finding the Best Long-Term Care Insurance Deal
Too many people aren’t receiving enough long-term care coverage for the premiums they’re paying. Some are paying twice what they should be. It’s not surprising. Insurance is an inefficient market. It’s tough for consumers to find prices and other details, and it’s something they don’t want to do to begin with. So, when people buy […]
Saving Taxes on Required Distributions
Taxes take their toll on IRAs. There are strong incentives to pack money into IRAs and other qualified retirement plans during the accumulation years. Yet, there’s a downside. In the distribution years the taxes can be high. Think of the taxes as the mortgage on your IRA. The government lent you money during the accumulation […]
Annuities: Valuing the New Guaranteed Income Offers
The hottest offering in guaranteed lifetime income plans now is the guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (GLWB). This is a rider to variable annuity policies, and it also is available on some other insurance offerings. GLWB resurrected variable annuity sales after stocks crashed in 2008 and now is attracting even conservative investors. The rider is so […]
June 2012
June 29, 2012 04:30 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review European leaders delivered a pleasant surprise to the financial world by agreeing to a couple of things at their latest summit. But don’t get too excited by the developments. Afterwards the leaders didn’t seem to agree on what they’d done, and the developments still […]
Taking a New Look at Family Limited Partnerships for Estate Planning
Family limited partnerships deserve fresh consideration for inclusion in many Estate Planning strategies that don’t already have them. This is an especially good time to consider an FLP because of the potential tax changes scheduled at the start of 2013. FLP also offer substantial non-tax benefits. Another reason to take a fresh look at FLPs […]
More Estate Planning Time to Elect Estate Tax Exemption Portability
The estate tax exclusions of married people who pass away in 2011 and 2012 can be portable. For Estate Planning, their spouses can add the unused exemptions of the first spouse to die to their own exemptions. But to make the exemption portable, the estate must file the estate tax return, Form 706, even if […]
A Summary of Stock Market Warning Signs
Investors were lulled into a complacent state by the effects of the massive monetary injection by global central banks in late 2011. The new money turned around major global economies and boosted asset prices, especially equities and real estate. But that’s the past. The monetary expansion programs are winding down, and the global economy is […]
What Medicare is Worth to You
Most people don’t know much about Medicare, even current beneficiaries. People planning for retirement don’t know much either, as surveys consistently show. As this article says, they’re clueless. A few points it makes are that we aren’t paying into a trust fund that funds our benefits during retirement. In fact, most of the benefits paid […]
