Retirement Watch Weekly
Five Common Retirement Mistakes
Most people get at least some aspect of retirement wrong. The key mistakes are made with some frequency. Your retirement will improve if you focus on avoiding common mistakes. Christine Benz of Morningstar recently wrote a post on five key retirement mistakes to avoid. These are summaries of themes we’ve addressed in Retirement Watch many […]
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 […]
Estate Planning Smart Transitions for Small Businesses
Including the exit strategy from your small business in your Estate Planning strategy is critical, but most business owners do it horribly wrong. You need to get this right, because most of your wealth, and perhaps your family legacy, are tied up in the business. Your net worth can drop substantially when the planning and […]
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 […]
