My dad was a life insurance salesman. I remember rummaging around in his sales materials and finding a service he subscribed to that reported on the estate tax problems of the rich and famous and even the not-so-famous. He used the reports to make the point that his prospective clients needed to do some estate […]
As many will recall, then candidate Trump promised to eliminate the estate tax. That was then. This is now–he’s the President. What will he actually do? Will he also eliminate the estate tax’s two siblings: the gift tax and the generation skipping tax? No one knows, though many people care, especially those who preach tax […]
Mr. Crook is more like it. Folks, you can’t be too careful. Lots of good attorneys and financial advisors out there. Pick one of them. Stay away from the too-good-to-be-true guys and gals.
I’ve been reading Steven B. Gorin’s massive “book” (he calls the 1053 page PDF a “mere compilation of preliminary ideas”) titled Structuring Ownership of Privately Owned Businesses: Taxation and Estate Planning Implications. I’ve yet to do a deep dive–again, it’s 1053 pages of very dense, complicated reading–but I will. And I will because it’s chock […]
I’ve listened to Dave Ramsey. My wife owns a couple of his books. I get what he does, and I think he probably does a some good–in the debt area, at least. But he’s not always right. For example, I don’t care for some of his opinions about life insurance and much of his investment […]
Shot: “For clients who are planning to stay in their homes, a reverse mortgage can be a good source of needed cash flow. This allows them to tap their home equity and supplement their retirement income. “Additionally, most reverse mortgages are Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM), which are non-recourse loans insured by the FHA. If the balance outstanding […]
That’s the claim in this piece by the Motley Fool. Myth 1: Social Security benefits will disappear in the future. Myth 2: You should always take Social Security benefits as soon as you qualify. Myth 3: What you do with your Social Security has no effect on your family. I won’t take time here to […]
What’s a stretch IRA, you say? Well, it’s not a new type of IRA, rather it’s a strategy to preserve the value of an inherited IRA, to defer the tax on as much of the IRA as possible for as long as possible. As the law now stands, the owner of an IRA has to […]
As a freelance financial writer, I worked with the people in Northern Trust’s wealth management arm. They are bright and very good at what they do. So when they talk, consider listening. For example, in the audio at this link, you’ll find a good discussion of what to look for when you’re searching for a […]
Hey, I know I have a bit of a bias, but be careful when you hire an attorney. Not all is at it seems, as this story illustrates. The woman in the story is probably not the first to do this–to such a degree, and the problem is not limited to the legal profession. Lots of […]