Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is scheduled to sunset. Get your planning done soon so you don't miss out. "Due to personally owned life insurance and estate growth over time, more clients than you might think could be impacted by the estate tax sunset." The current estate tax exemption amount is historically high, but it’s [...]
The State of Play In a July 21 open letter posted on social media, President Biden wrote that he has concluded “it is in the best interest” of the Democratic Party and the country for him to “stand down from reelection” and subsequently posted on X that Vice President Kamala Harris has his “full [...]
Obtaining professional advice is a significant step and should not be approached lightly. As with investors and their objectives and constraints, professional advisors also differ in their philosophy, processes, services, education, experience, and their ability to add value. Professional advisors work in many fields and hold various titles, such as investment advisor, financial planner, accountant, [...]
Tax Freedom Day® Tax Freedom Day, as calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan economic research think tank, is the day when the U.S. as a whole has earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year. It provides an easy way for Americans to gauge the total amount of taxes [...]
A health care proxy allows you to designate a person who can make medical decisions for you in the event that you are too seriously incapacitated through illness or injury to make those decisions yourself. In some states, a health care proxy is known as a medical power of attorney. Many legal and health care [...]
Here’s why it can be a good idea. You may have read that you don’t need to buy life insurance early in life. That’s not necessarily true. In fact, getting a policy before midlife may prove wise. Relatively few people opt for life insurance coverage between the ages of 18 and 45, yet there are [...]
Pay for long term care without paying taxes on an annuity withdrawal. A tax break with an additional benefit. Did you know that, since taking effect in 2010, you are allowed to withdraw money from a certain kind of annuity without paying taxes as long as you use it to pay for qualified long term [...]
What can you do to lessen its impact for your heirs? Probate subtly reduces the value of many estates. It can take more than a year in some cases, and attorney’s fees, appraiser’s fees and court costs may eat up as much as 5% of a decedent’s accumulated assets. Think tens of thousands of dollars, [...]
A lack of vision is often the answer to that question Many are the stories of family wealth lost. In the late 19th century, industrial tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed the equivalent of $100 billion in today’s dollars – but when 120 of his descendants met at a family gathering in 1973, there were no millionaires [...]
Who should inherit your IRA or 401(k)? See that they do. Here’s a simple financial question: who is the beneficiary of your IRA? How about your 401(k), life insurance policy, or annuity? You may be able to answer such a question quickly and easily. Or you may be saying, “You know … I’m not totally [...]
