How many times have you seen articles reminding you how important it is to have a power of attorney (POA) document in place, just in case something happens, like an accident of some kind, that leaves you unable to care for yourself or make your own decisions. This is another of those articles, but let’s go a little farther and [...]
Estate planning, like most other things, uses a vast array of tools to accomplish its goal. One of the tools is a trust. But there are more trusts, as the old farmer said, than you can shake a stick at—revocable, irrevocable, living, testamentary, charitable remainder, qualified domestic, special needs, spendthrift, asset protection, and the list goes on and on. One [...]
It seems like you just finished filing your tax return and now it’s almost time to step into the ring with the IRS again. But as you contemplate gathering receipts and tax records for 2021, the IRS is at work adjusting tax brackets for 2022. The U.S. tax system uses a graduated scale, meaning you pay different percentages on your [...]
The end of the year is a financial opportunity—an opportunity to take advantage of remaining tax breaks and keep Uncle Sam’s hand from going deeper into your pocket than it has to, and an opportunity to clean up your portfolio and make sure your financial house is in order. Here is a year-end financial checklist. Tax Loss Harvesting What [...]
Healthcare during the senior years, especially the topic of long-term care, has been talked about and analyzed ad nauseam. And from all the research, one thing is clear. If you need long-term care, it will be expensive in both dollars and emotions. Here are a few of the most recent statistics about long-term care in America: 70% of people [...]
Finances, just like your body, can be sick or healthy. Both are important to your life and you need to pay attention to both. So, how do you take the temperature of your finances? Here are 11 steps to complete your own financial checkup from our friends at The Penny Hoarder. Update Your Budget Budgets should not be static. [...]
Medicare is a veritable alphabet soup of choices. There’s Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D, and when you get into Medicare Supplements, there are 10 options—A, B, C, D, F, G, K, L, M, and N. Make the wrong choices and you could be hit with lifetime penalties that drive up your Medicare premiums and a Medicare plan [...]
Today we hear the word fiduciary tossed around as some concept that means the same thing by everyone who utters it. Nothing could be further from the truth. A fiduciary, according to Investopedia is: … a person or organization that acts on behalf of another… putting their clients' interest ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good [...]
The Power of Attorney (POA) is one of the undisputed kings of planning documents. You appoint someone as your agent and give them authority to act on your behalf if you can’t—authority to pay bills, manage assets, make medical decisions, etc. If your physical or mental capabilities decline to the point you can’t make decisions or care for yourself and [...]
Identity theft is one of the major plagues of modern society costing its victims billions of dollars and untold man-hours to recover from it. In 2020, 1.4 million Americans were successfully attacked, which translates into a victim every 3 seconds. That’s more than double the number from the year before. Sophisticated scammers are breaching the walls of major corporations and [...]
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