With the holiday season looming, it's not too soon to do your year-end tax planning. One of the consequences of achieving financial success is that, what was once a relatively straightforward tax return increasingly becomes more involved as more tax issues come into the picture.
Over the past few years, municipal bonds may have fallen out of favor due to the fact that, until recently, the returns in the stock and bond markets were generating steady returns.
Throughout its recent history, life insurance has been a paradox for many people. It’s greatly appreciated when it is needed most, at the death of a breadwinner, and it’s dreaded when it is being contemplated to fill a need.
Watching the roller coaster ride of the stock market can make many investors queasy. Even though the stock market has, historically, always trended up, investors can’t help but feel uneasy as they watch the values of their portfolios rise and fall with the market.
The year 2020 was unprecedented for so many reasons—all because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many suffered from job losses, had to juggle childcare while working from home, and tried to keep their small businesses open with few resources. Thankfully, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security...
For generations a debate has raged on over whether it’s best to buy whole life insurance or to buy term life insurance and “invest the difference”. Proponents of each method are adamant in their positions and both offer sound reasoning in their answers. But, for anyone to tell you which is the best for you without knowing anything about you is tantamount to someone telling you which road to take without knowing where you are going.
Until recently, many retirees have been able to rely upon the three-legged stool of retirement income sources: A defined benefit pension plan that guarantees a lifetime income, their own savings, and Social Security.
When universal life insurance debuted in 1982, it quickly became a popular alternative to whole life insurance policies which had been losing favor due to its low yields, high premiums and nontransparent structure. In the high interest rate environment of the 80’s, consumers were looking for competitive rates on their money and more flexibility in the way they could structure their life insurance policies.
At its core, diversification is deliberate uncertainty recognizing that it is difficult to know with particular subset of an asset class, or sector is likely to outperform another. Broad diversification, done effectively, seeks to capture the returns of different types of investments over time but with less volatility at any one time. Diversification done right should produce long term returns that outperform portfolios that are too heavily weighted in any one security, sector, or asset class.
You’ve spent hours figuring out your life insurance needs, researching products and speaking with agents. You’ve been provided with several premium quotes, and now, you’re scratching your head wondering why they’re so different from one another. Your thoughts then turn to the more penetrating issue of how premiums are calculated and life insurance costs in general, a question few people really want to contemplate but would love to have answered.
Many people deal with credit card debt all of their lives with most of them giving little or no thought to what happens with their debt after they die. The fact that nearly 60% die without a will is a strong indication that they’ve given absolutely no thought to it. As a consequence, those that survive the debt holder are often left to deal with a myriad of issues that can be time-consuming and unpleasant.
