Retirement Watch Weekly
Lining Up Your Sources of Emergency Cash
Retirees depend on their nest eggs for much of their cash. When money is needed, they plan to raise it from either income generated by the nest egg or sales of assets, such as mutual funds or stocks. Most people enter retirement with no other ways of raising cash. Selling more assets to raise cash incurs […]
Stop Overpaying for Retirement Medical Care
Medicare open enrollment season is almost upon us again. This is your annual opportunity to improve your coverage or reduce costs or both. Even if you are satisfied with your coverage, review what’s available and compare it to your current coverage. Also, be sure to review changes your plan announced for next year. The fact […]
IRS Makes it Easier to Waive 60-Day IRA Rollover Requirement
New IRS guidelines make it easier to obtain a waiver for missing the 60-day requirement to rollover a distribution from an IRA or qualified retirement plan. When money or property is taken from a traditional IRA, 401(k), or other qualified retirement plan, the amount of the distribution normally has to be included in gross income. […]
Be Sure Your Heirs Don’t Mess Up Your IRA
Most of you put a lot of resources into accumulating your IRAs. They’re among the most valuable assets you own. You also took the time to include IRAs in your estate plan so they can pass to your loved ones at the lowest tax cost. You probably planned for your loved ones to benefit from […]
Central Banks Surprise Investors and Themselves
There are a lot of problems to worry about over the long term. For a considerable time, economic growth and investment returns are likely to be less than the long-term averages. Developed economies are burdened with excess debt in both the private and public sectors. Populations are aging in the developed world. Central banks are […]
IRS Curbs Some Estate Planning for Taxes of the Wealthy
The IRS never has liked estate planning strategies that result in what are known as valuation discounts. In August, it issued proposed regulations that would curb many of these strategies. Only a small number of estates will be affected by the new rules, since most estates avoid the federal estate and gift tax. After indexing […]
5 Important Estate Planning Steps for Your Portfolio – An Estate Planning Checklist
How will your investment portfolio and other assets be managed in the future? The odds are that, after you no longer are managing the assets, nothing good is going to happen. Many people neglect to include an investment portfolio transition in their estate plans, so the returns flounder or worse. Many estate planners don’t realize […]
The Economy Slows a Notch
Just when most analysts were sure the pieces were in place for an interest rate increase in September (December at the latest), the monthly employment reports changed everything last Friday. The positive news is that the previous month’s large number of new jobs was revised higher, from 255,000 to 275,000. But there were several […]
