Retirement Watch Weekly
How to Use Your House to Increase Wealth
Many of you have achieved that ultimate financial goal of owning a home debt-free. As comforting as that is, it might not be the best financial move. Home equity can be a low risk way to increase your after-tax wealth, especially in this era of low cost, low interest rate, easy-to-get home equity loans. I’ve […]
7 Simple Estate Planning Strategies To Protect Assets
I’ve never been a big fan of offshore trusts and other exotic strategies to protect your assets from lawsuits and creditors. They are expensive, you might have to deal with questionable people, and it is not even clear the strategies really work. Some recent cases show that these strategies don’t exactly build a rock-solid fortress. […]
How to Keep Control During a Major Illness
I have a friend who still is jealous of Malcolm Forbes. The owner and publisher of the magazine bearing his name died in his sleep of a heart attack, apparently never feeling any pain or knowing he was dying. Most people prefer that kind of death with dignity and say they definitely don’t want a […]
Estate Planning Steps For Saving The Family Business
It’s time I had a talk with the business owners out there. The sad fact is that, even if you follow all the Estate Planning advice I give, few of those businesses will survive to benefit your children. And a scant few will benefit your grandchildren. But that doesn’t have to happen. Lack of preparation […]
A Tax Break With Steady Income for Retirees
The old tax shelter industry promised something it couldn’t deliver: Tax breaks followed by a stream of income. Those limited partnerships never seemed to deliver the income, and some of the tax breaks were disallowed. But there is a strategy that will deliver current tax breaks with lifetime income, and it is tailor-made for retirees. […]
Escape Hatches For Estate Planning Trusts
It doesn’t take much to ruin a great estate plan. Many great plans, completed with careful work and good intentions, turn to disasters because of one simple decision – the wrong trustee was selected. Instead of being grateful that their parents and grandparents worked hard to provide for them, heirs become bitter and even resentful. […]
The Estate Planning Tool Of The Decade – Trusts
A good solution to many Estate Planning and asset protection problems is a trust. In past visits I’ve told you about many different types of trusts and the problems they can solve. But what I haven’t focused on is where to set up your trust. This question is almost as important as the type of […]
Tax Shelter For Corporate Owners
There’s a special tax shelter available only to owners of corporations. The shelter allows you to make a substantial contribution to charity using your corporation’s money, take the deduction on your own tax return, and avoid capital gains taxes on your stock profits. To make this deal work, you have to plan carefully and execute […]
