Retirement Watch Weekly
Planning from Your Income Tax Return
Most of you recently completed your 2011 income tax returns or soon will. Don’t file your copies of the returns away just yet. The federal income tax return is one of the best financial planning documents available. Many financial planners insist on seeing the latest returns very early in the relationships with a potential client. […]
April 2012
April 27, 2012 04:20 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review Big decisions soon need to be made by policymakers and investors. As I’ve said the last few weeks, a wave of economic and market forces are coming together and forming a critical mass that’s creating a lot of stress on the system. It’s not […]
Good Estate Planning Is Not All About the Money
Estate Planning isn’t all about the money. At least, it’s not if you want the plan to be successful. Long-time readers know I’ve been saying for years that estate planning isn’t all about taxes. You need an estate plan even when the estate isn’t likely to be hit with federal estate taxes. You also need […]
Beware of State Estate and Inheritance Taxes
Many people are resting easy about estate taxes because of the $5 million federal estate tax exemption. They shouldn’t. Only 27 states have no estate or inheritance taxes. Of the 23 states with the taxes, most impose them at lower levels then the federal tax. Also, because of budget problems, a number of states imposed […]
Estate Planning for Grandparents Stepping in as Parents
A quiet trend in the U.S. is that a growing number of parents serve as the primary parents for their grandchildren. The Census Bureau started tabulating this information in 2000, and since then the numbers have grown. The 2010 census showed that 3.1 million children are living without their biological parents, and 59% of them […]
Picking IRA Beneficiaries
Many people make serious mistakes when naming beneficiaries for IRAs and similar accounts. Talk to almost any financial planner or estate planner and you’ll hear wild stories. People often have no beneficiaries named. Or a divorced or deceased spouse is the primary beneficiary. Some of the mistakes are so bad they end up in court. […]
Are TIPS Best for Retirees?
There’s an ongoing debate in the finance community about the best portfolio for retirees whose savings aren’t clearly enough to sustain their spending indefinitely. One recommendation that’s getting a lot of attention is from Zvi Brodie of Boston College and co-author of the new book, Risk Less and Prosper. Brodie’s strategy is to buy Treasury […]
America’s Real Retirement Problem
Social Security isn’t a major problem. It can be fixed with a few tweaks, and the sooner changes are made the easier the tweaks will be. That doesn’t mean every American will have adequate retirement income, says Clive Crook of Bloomberg. Social Security doesn’t replace a lot of working years’ income for most people, and […]
