Dear Trust Officer: Should I buy long-term care insurance? Is it a good deal? — Retiring Soon DEAR RETIRING SOON: These are excellent questions for which there are no simple, easy answers. You are wise to be addressing your potential need for long-term care now, while you still have choices. According to the AARP (formerly […]
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Planning for Efficient Distributions
Planning for accumulation is the initial stage of all but a few financial plans. This beginning phase in the decades-long process of accumulating wealth to provide for educational needs, housing, retirement and family support is a decades-long process. Accumulation strategies are also the basis for most personal finance writing. The distribution phase of a financial […]
Read MorePhilanthropy and your IRA
Making a direct transfer from an IRA to a charity, a long-time valuable planning strategy has become even more valuable following the enactment of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This is because the higher standard deduction coupled with the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes effectively means there will […]
Read MoreDiversification of Focus and Assets
Stocks rebounded from their summer correction which, to date bottomed in mid-August after a decline of around 6% (fall officially begins on September 23rd). The S&P 500 was up nearly one percent for the week, finishing about one-half percent under its all-time high of 3,025.86. The real action lately has been in the normally sleepy […]
Read MoreEveryone Needs a Will
As important as estate planning is, it often gets neglected. A 2017 survey by Caring.com revealed that only 42% of U.S. adults have a will or a living trust in place. In part, it is an age thing, as the table here shows. Source: www.caring.com/articles/wills-survey-2017 When asked why they have not completed their estate planning, […]
Read MoreRetirement Account Tax Planning
Angela Malley returns this week with more tax-focused thoughts in, How to Avoid Early Withdrawal Penalties, available on our web site. The tax code includes some well-intended tax penalties for certain withdrawals from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The penalty is meant to encourage workers to postpone tapping into such balances until retirement or at […]
Read MoreHow to Avoid Early Withdrawal Penalties
To increase the likelihood that tax-preferred savings actually will be used for retirement, Congress included a 10% penalty tax on IRA and 401(k) distributions before the account owner reaches age 59½. The penalty applies in addition to the regular income tax on the distribution. For example, someone in the 15% tax bracket who takes a […]
Read MoreInterested in Interest Rates?
In the United States, there is not a single Treasury bond which currently pays more than 1.96%. The dividend yield on the S&P 500 currently exceeds the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond and those dividends will increase over time. The recent decline in interest rates means an increase in bond prices. In the month […]
Read MoreAsk a Trust Officer: Falling Interest Rates
Dear Trust Officer: When the Fed cut interest rates at the end of July, the stock indices fell. I thought lower interest rates were good for stock prices? What’s going on? Should I be worried about my portfolio? — WORRIED INVESTOR DEAR WORRIED INVESTOR: Two factors seem to have been at work to produce this […]
Read MoreCorporate Earnings and the Economic Outlook
Four-hundred fifty of the S&P 500 companies have reported second quarter earnings. To date, earnings were reported at a rate of 5.7% above estimates while aggregate revenue was 0.8% above expectations. Results relative to expectations will generally have an immediate impact on market prices and in the cases of individual companies may have long-term implications. […]
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