Retirement Watch Weekly
Dealing With Increases in Long Term Care Insurance Premiums
Increases in premiums on many long-term care insurance (LTCI) policies are coming. Some of you already received notice of them. Others will receive notices soon. You need a plan for dealing with these increases (and likely future increases), and policyholders who don’t face the increases now should learn lessons from them. The increases generally are […]
How to Find the Highest Paying Annuity
The easiest, surest way to increase your retirement income is to shop for annuities just as you would for anything else. Few retirees or prospective retirees do this, but I’ve shown over the years shopping will increase income. Insurers and other annuity payers use different assumptions to determine their payouts. They consider estimated investment returns […]
February 2010
February 18, 2010 11:15 a.m. The Debate About Greece, and more The debt problems in Greece continue to be the focus of much attention and also moves the markets. Stocks have done all right the last couple of days because the EU has ordered Greece to come up with a plan, and investors have decided […]
Reviewing the Safe Spending Formula
You can spend a maximum of 4% of your retirement fund the first year and increase the distribution for inflation each year after. That’s standard spending advice for retirees and has been since the mid-1990s, when studies of past investment returns indicated 4% plus inflation was the maximum “safe spending rate.” Yet, surveys still show […]
Understanding Changes in Inflation Data
How inflation data are compiled usually interests only economists and statisticians, and only a few of them at that. Yet, retirees and those planning for retirement have more than a passing interest in the debate. The reported inflation rate determines increases in Social Security benefits and adjustments to Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). It also determines […]
Avoiding a Major Estate Planning Pitfall
Estate Planning mistakes fall into two major categories. Retaining too much control for too long is the first category of major mistakes. Detailed “incentive trusts” are a sign this mistake may be in the offing. These trusts parcel money over the years only as beneficiaries achieve detailed milestones. Incentive trusts sometimes try to control a […]
Dealing with Repeal of the Estate Tax
The estate tax was repealed, at least temporarily, but the news is not all good. You know the 2001 tax law phased out the estate tax so it would be eliminated for 2010. But in 2011 the old estate tax law is to be reinstated if Congress does not take action. Everyone assumed Congress would […]
Investing Your IRA to Escape Penalties
Investors are starting to fall into traps with their IRA investments. The law has had these traps for many years. They are being sprung now because more invest-ors are attracted to nontraditional investments. Investments in publicly-traded stocks, bonds, and mutual funds don’t pose problems, but purchases by IRAs of some nontraditional investments are prohibited or […]
