We all know that accidents happen, and even a minor fender bender can cause headaches. But did you know that a seemingly insignificant crash can also affect your auto insurance premiums when it’s time to renew? In this blog post, we’ll break down why a single fender bender can lead to a significant increase in your insurance costs. Understanding these factors will help you navigate the insurance landscape more effectively.
As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, Congress and President Biden have not yet reached an agreement to prevent a crisis that could occur if the debt ceiling is not raised by early June. The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of money the U.S. Treasury is permitted to borrow to pay for U.S. government obligations such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, military spending, interest payments, and tax refunds. An increase of this limit is not an authorization of new spending; rather, it gives the government the ability to fulfill already existing legal obligations by issuing new debt such as Treasury bills, bonds, and notes.
Money market funds are all the rage for investors seeking yield. Last month, the Boston Globe reported that in the last six months investors have dumped $500 billion into money market funds, searching for higher yielding alternatives to traditional checking and savings accounts. Last month’s failure at Silicon Valley Bank also helped accelerate the flight of cash from banks to money market funds. Money market funds are commonly used as the default cash holding in brokerage or retirement accounts, but there are many misconceptions among investors about these funds. This blog post will explain what money market funds are and how they are different from cash held in a bank account. It will also review FDIC insurance and SIPC protection and explain how each protects bank accounts and money market funds, respectively.
As a fee-only financial advisor, CPA, and CFP® professional, I often get asked about the best investment options for retirement planning, longevity planning, and long-term care planning. In recent times, market volatility has made some clients nervous, prompting them to explore alternatives such as certificates of deposit (CDs), money market accounts , or annuities. However, I believe a stock portfolio that is well diversified, primarily through low-cost mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) , remains the optimal choice for funding your retirement.
Rolling 529 Plan Funds into a Roth IRA The ability to roll funds penalty free from a 529 plan into a Roth IRA was one of the most headline-grabbing aspects of the SECURE Act 2.0, which passed at the end of 2022. This post delves into the detailed requirements of these new rules, which will take effect in 2024, and discusses who can benefit most. How It Works While the new rules are intended to ease the concerns many families have about overfunding a 529 plan, several limitations exist. For starters, there is a $35,000 lifetime limit per beneficiary, which may be indexed for inflation in future years. The account must have been in existence for at least 15 years before transfers to a Roth IRA are allowed. Additionally, any contributions or earnings on those contributions made in the previous five years cannot be transferred.
Long-term care planning is an essential aspect of financial planning, particularly for individuals and couples who have accumulated significant assets. As life expectancy continues to rise, so does the likelihood of needing long-term care services at some point. These services can be costly and may significantly impact your financial security and legacy if not planned for appropriately. This blog will discuss key considerations for planning for long-term care, including long-term care insurance, continuing care retirement communities, in-home care options, and other viable alternatives.
When you offer gifts to anyone other than your spouse, federal gift tax rules may come into play. However, this seldom leads to any tax payments. In this blog post, we will discuss the yearly gift tax exclusion, how the gift tax and estate tax work together, and the generation-skipping tax as it applies to gifts made to irrevocable trusts.
Estate planning is a crucial part of any financial plan. One of the first discussions we have with new clients is about whom they want to oversee their financial and health decisions if they are unable to do so themselves. It is crucial to have primary and contingent people identified for each role. There is a lot of confusion about the various estate terms, so we have put together this primer.
Considering the multiple security breaches recently disclosed by LastPass, we thought we would dust off and repost a prior blog regarding online security. While some people are calling for users to ditch LastPass entirely, a password manager is often much more secure than other methods of storing sensitive data. In addition, if your account is protected by 2-factor authentication and password best practices, your data is much less likely to be compromised.
For many, the new year is a time for fresh starts and new beginnings. It’s quite common for people to set new goals and resolutions at the start of a year. Behind exercising more and losing weight are almost always goals around money. Often these goals include saving more and spending less this coming year. As we all know, the problem with most New Year’s resolutions is that the vast majority fail. While we all know the statistics, there are certain things you can do to improve your odds of sticking to your resolutions in 2023.
It seems like yesterday, but in the pre-COVID-19 calm before the storm of December 2019, Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The Act had many provisions, but the most important were increasing the beginning age for taking[MKS1] RMDs from age 70.5 to 72 and a new set of guidelines that effectively ended the Stretch IRA [MKS2] for most non-spouse beneficiaries of IRAs. Well, three years later, on December 23, 2022, Congress tucked SECURE 2.0 into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, and here we go again. SECURE 2.0 has a bonanza of changes related to retirement plans. Some have broad effects and others apply to small groups of people. Implementation of the new rules is spread out over the next 10 years, but most are effective in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Recently citizens in Massachusetts were asked to vote on an amendment to the state constitution to levy a surtax on certain high-earning individuals. After a tight vote, the amendment passed, and starting in 2023 the Mass. Millionaire Tax will begin to take effect. In this post we’ll explore some of the details of this new tax, whom it may impact, and potential tax-planning implications.