Market Numbers

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week at 26,616.71, up over 20,000 points from its great recession low of 6,547.05 on March 9, 2009. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 2,872.87, up almost 2,200 points from its March 9, 2009 close of 676.53. The S&P 500 closed up 1.18% on Friday, the first day […]

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Bunching Charitable Gifts

With the dramatic increase in the standard deduction in 2018, to $24,000 for married couples, many charities are worried that the tax incentive for donations will disappear, leading to lower gifts.  Because the state and local tax deduction is now capped at $10,000, married taxpayers will need to have at least $14,001 in additional deductions […]

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Tax Reform Alters Popular Retirement Planning Technique

The ability to recharacterize (lookback and undo) the conversion of a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA no longer exists. Beginning in 2018 with Roth conversions, the one popular technique will no longer be available. Paul Fowler covers the details in a new post, Retirement planning after tax reform. On The One Hand Industrial production […]

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Trust Preserved

In 2009, Elizabeth Briggs amended her revocable living trust to disinherit her son, Thomas, leaving the trust assets to her daughter, Judith.  The amendment stated that Thomas knew the reasons for his disinheritance. After Elizabeth died in 2013, an attorney for the estate and trust advised Thomas that he had received no property from his […]

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Retirement planning after tax reform

Several tax reform ideas affecting retirement planning were bandied about as the recent legislation was being prepared, including limits on deductible 401(k) contributions, elimination of “stretch IRAs,” and requiring minimum distributions from Roth IRAs, similar to the treatment of traditional IRAs. In the end, only one significant change made it into the final legislation, together […]

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Tax reform and estate planning

The tax reform legislation signed by President Trump on December 22 last year included an important change for many wealthier families. As of January 1, 2018, the amount exempt from the federal estate and gift tax has doubled, to $10 million plus inflation adjustments since 2011 (so $11.2 million in 2018, still higher in the […]

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Bitcoin and Taxes

Bitcoin, the popular digital currency, went on a tear in 2017, rising in value by 900% in the first 11 months.  More and more investors are taking notice.  On November 30, 2017 The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article, “Bitcoin Mania: Even Grandma Is In.”  On the advice of her grandson, Rita Scott invested […]

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2017 Review

Following is a snapshot of the total returns for various asset classes for the year 2017. Among widely followed commodities, gold, at $1,305.50 per ounce was up 13% for the year and West Texas intermediate crude oil was up 12% at $60.42 per barrel. The Weekly Update will not be published for the next two […]

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