Retirement

Ohio is one of the few states in the country that does not have a state “false claims” law modeled after the federal “qui tam” law. A long-overdue clean-up of all the state pensions may be coming if Wall Street vendors to the public pensions can finally be prosecuted under state law for fraud.  

It was a good year for China’s richest 100 on the Forbes China Rich List unveiled in November. Overall, China’s 100 Richest saw their collective net worth rise to $1.48 trillion from $1.33 trillion a year earlier.  Mainland China is second only to the United States in its number of billionaires. What’s next for this powerful group?

SLATs have been the planning acronym du jour for several years. You create a trust for your spouse and perhaps other beneficiaries, and your spouse creates a trust for you and other beneficiaries. The groovy part of the SLAT pitch is that now you have all the assets in both trusts outside the reach of

To say 2021 has been an interesting year in the market is an understatement. The Total Return on the S&P 500 for 2021 through 11/26/21 has been over 25%. Some stocks, like Moderna (MRNA), Ford (F), NVIDIA NVDA (NVDA) or Nucor NUE (NUE) are up over 100%. The pressing question is what to do with

By Kerry Hannon, Next Avenue Inflation rocketed by 6.2% in the 12 months through October 2021, the fastest pace since 1990, and retirees on fixed incomes are feeling the painful pinch. They’re seeing prices soaring for everything from rent to gasoline to Medicare prescription drug premiums, and low rates on bank savings accounts aren’t helping. The

By Nancy Collamer, Next Avenue Are you ready to take control of your work/life balance in 2022? I ask because, despite the dramatic rise in working from home during the pandemic, many employees and self-employed people report feeling more stressed than ever. Workplace consultant Lindsay Pollak writes that she’s “hearing from employees and leaders at all

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor One holiday gift for your children and grandchildren that won’t require you to worry about supply-chain disruptions and delivery delays: the gift of teaching them about money. To help you with some ideas — whether your kids or grandkids are six or 26 — my “Friends Talk Money” podcast co-hosts

This is a real case brought to my attention. A retiree, we’ll call her Betty, was notified last week by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that the monthly benefit amount to be deposited in her bank account on January 26, 2022, will be $1,179.20. Here’s her problem: the monthly benefit amount she currently receives is

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about when annual earnings limits are applied, survivor benefits after remarriage and child benefits when a parent is receiving disability benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more Ask Larry answers here. Have Social

I’ve owned a business for about 20 years, and time and again, I’ve learned that nothing is more critical to our success than happy and engaged employees. Here are a few ideas for how to keep your employees happy, despite the uncertainty we’re all facing during this ongoing pandemic. Responsible Paid Time Off We’ve heard

When I talk to my financial planning clients about their Social Security benefits, they always have a lot of questions. These range from “When is the best time to take Social Security?” “How Can I maximize my Social Security benefits?” “Are Social Security Benefits taxable?” “Can you help me choose the best time to start receiving

There are some fit seniors out there and I see them all around in my long-lived county. They walk, ride bikes, go to the gym, eat wisely. They are the exception. 60% of Americans do not exercise as recommended and some are very sedentary. Too many chronic health problems go along with being inactive and

So, you have an irrevocable trust (or several) and you want to take a loan from the trust. While that might sound simple it really may not be as simple and you think, and you should discuss the decision with your trust attorney, CPA, and the trustee (especially if it’s a professional or institutional trustee

We spend most of our working lives putting money into our retirement accounts (hopefully), but what happens when we retire? How do we turn that nest egg into income that will last at least as long as we do? Let’s take a look at some options: Live off interest and dividends The most conservative option

As of December 7th, the 2021 Open Enrollment Period is history. This is always a challenging and hectic time. As we look back on the past seven weeks, here are five observations.  1.) There was a significant reduction in the number of stand-alone Part D drug plans.  In most areas, beneficiaries have nine to 10 fewer plans

Social Security benefits are a major part of many American retirement incomes. As people are living longer, many more are working past the age of 70. If this is you, or maybe you in the future, you are likely wondering if working past the age of 70 will increase your Social Security benefits. How To

In a previous Forbes post on inherited IRAs, I discussed the importance of making sure an RMD (required minimum distribution) was taken before the end of the year by a person inheriting an IRA (individual retirement account) if the IRA owner died and had not taken his or her required distribution for the year. The

Let’s talk about the “4% rule,” originally from Bill Bengen’s seminal retirement distribution strategy research published in the Journal of Financial Planning in 1994.  In his research, Bengen found that historically at that time, you could have taken 4%, adjusted for inflation each year from an investment portfolio of a 50/50 mix of large cap U.S. stocks and government bonds, and it would not have run out of money in a 30

Wealth depletion by retirees reduces the size of their estates. This is seldom an issue for those who retire wealthy, or for those without any heirs they care about. For the larger group of non-affluent retirees who do care, however, the conflict is inescapable. The retiree, for example, may have to choose between taking a

Series I Savings Bonds (aka I bonds) have several features that can be particularly useful for middle-income pre-retirees and retirees building their retirement income portfolio. They offer high interest rates (currently yielding 7.12% per year), guarantees of principal and interest, and long-term liquidity (with a few caveats).   My last two posts described I bonds in