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“Third-Party Posts”
Why Retirement Gets Better With Annuities
Everyone aspires to have a steady source of income after retirement that replaces as much as possible of their pre-retirement earning. But for many people, one big...
Results From the 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey Find Workers’ and Retirees’ Confidence Has Not Recovered From the Significant Drop Seen in 2023, but Majorities Remain Optimistic About Retirement Prospects
Summary - However, almost 8 in 10 workers and 7 in 10 retirees are concerned that the U. S. government could make significant changes to the American retirement system...
2024 Pulse of the American Retiree Survey: Midlife Retirement ‘Crisis’ or a 10-Year Opportunity?
Critically underprepared for retirement, 55-year-old Americans enter a crucial 10-year countdown to plan and prepare With just a decade until retirement, 55-year-old...
Why Retirees Are Carrying More and More Debt
Federal Reserve data shows sharp rise in amount Americans 65 and older owe Americans across generations are carrying more debt than they did three decades ago,...
3 Changes Coming To Retirement Required Minimum Distributions in 2025
Saving and investing early, often, and continuously throughout your entire working career is absolutely critical to securing your financial future in retirement. Making...
3 Changes Are Coming to 401(k) Plans in 2025
Three significant 401(k) plan changes coming in 2025 are worth paying attention to, regardless of when you plan to retire, whether you work full-time or part-time, or...
6 Retirement Savings Changes To Expect in 2025
Big changes are coming to retirement savings in 2025. The shifts in retirement planning come after Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement...
7 Things to Know About Working While Getting Social Security
If you claim benefits early, income from work can reduce your monthly payments “Retirement” used to be synonymous with “not working.” Not anymore. More than a quarter...
How Will the 2024 Election Impact Your Retirement?
Investors should expect volatility but also try not to overreact to news. To prepare, focus now on tax minimization, protecting your portfolio and more. In times of...
‘What Does Retirement Even Look Like?’
For older parents of adult children with disabilities, focus stays on caring for kids Jeanne Piorkowski looks forward to having more time in retirement to navigate the...
Rethinking Your “Bucket List” In Retirement
As folks approach retirement, they often start mentioning their “bucket list” more frequently. The bucket list is generally an itemized agenda of experiences or...
6 Steps to Tune Up Your Retirement Finances
Navigating retirement can be overwhelming given uncertainties like market volatility, inflation, life expectancy and the state of Social Security. Like having a...
As Social Security’s funds face insolvency, experts say these are key factors to watch
KEY POINTS An improving economy has helped modestly improve the outlook for Social Security’s funds. But experts say the outlook for the program still points to the...
Women, part of the wave of baby boomers reaching ‘peak 65,’ are more likely to struggle in retirement, research finds
KEY POINTS From now until 2030, 30.4 million Americans are expected to turn 65. Women who are entering retirement now face more financial risks than their male...
7 Key Factors That Could Affect How Long You’re Retired
Planning for retirement is hard for many reasons, including the challenge of answering one key question: Just how long will I be retired? Knowing how much time you’ll...
Why millennials’ retirement outlook may be worse than those of older generations
KEY POINTS By some measures, millennials lag on retirement preparedness and net worth relative to older generations such as Gen X and baby boomers. There are many...
3 Ways Retirement Planning is Changing in 2024
The calendar page has turned and 2024 is here. Before we get too far down the road, be sure to check out these changes around retirement savings. Every so often the...
‘What Does Retirement Even Look Like?’
For older parents of adult children with disabilities, focus stays on caring for kids Jeanne Piorkowski looks forward to having more time in retirement to navigate the...
2024’s Big Savings and Retirement Rule Changes
At the end of 2022, the SECURE Act 2.0, short for Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement, became law. It expands earlier legislation, changing many...
6 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Retired
A recent retiree shares lessons learned late about saving money and spending time Everyone nearing retirement has a vision of what their road will be like once they...
5 Things You Need to Know Before Retiring at 62
A new study shows more Americans mulling early exit from workforce. Here’s what to look at before you leap The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a surge in early...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average forged another set of all-time highs despite facing several macro headwinds. Chinese markets...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 closed higher for a fourth consecutive quarter, the first time it has done so since 2011. Investors continued to face a challenging...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA US equity markets posted a third week of gains as global central banks continued to cut monetary policy rates. China, Switzerland, Mexico, Hungry,...
Weekly Market Commentary
The S&P 500 notched its 39th record high in 2024 on the back of a fifty-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Global central banks took center stage this...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Markets bounced back nicely in the second week of September. It was an intriguing week of trade with several undercurrents to consider. The first...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Global equity markets tumbled due to economic growth concerns as the US Treasuries extended their gains from August. The holiday-shortened week...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The final week of August was all about NVidia's second-quarter earnings results and the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the PCE. Expectations...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA US financial markets inked another week of gains as investors cheered what they heard from global central bankers at the Jackson Hole Economic...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Markets reversed course last week as investors reassessed the economic narrative of a recession. Better-than-expected inflation data, alongside a...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Wow, what a week for global financial markets. A rollercoaster ride for investors continued throughout the week as multiple narratives ricocheted...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Last week, markets took a significant step back on weaker-than-expected labor data that challenged the idea of an economic soft landing. Mega Cap...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Financial markets traded mixed last week. News on Sunday that President Biden had decided not to pursue reelection and endorse his Vice President...
Weekly Market Commentary
It was a very busy week on Wall Street as investors seemed inclined to rotate out of Mega-cap tech and into this year’s laggards. A failed assassination attempt on...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA US financial markets were able to log another set of all-time highs as investors cheered a weaker-than-anticipated Consumer Price Index report that...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The holiday-shortened week saw the S&P 500 hit its 34th record high this year. The NASDAQ 100 also eclipsed the 20k mark for the first time....
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA Financial markets finished the 2nd quarter with a lack of conviction. Mega-caps led the market over the quarter with a 9.65% gain, while the...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The holiday-shortened week saw the S&P 500 eclipse 5500 and hit its 31st all-time high of the year. Volumes were relatively light until...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA US Markets finished the second week of June with mixed results. It was an extremely busy week for investors as key Central Bank policy decisions...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 inked its twenty-fifth all-time high for the year, with outperformance coming from the mega-cap technology names. The Vanguard...
Weekly Market Commentary
-Darren Leavitt, CFA The holiday-shortened week on Wall Street was volatile. The last of first-quarter earnings continued to influence the markets. Earning results from...
Weekly Market Commentary
Weekly Market Commentary - 5/24/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA Financial markets ended the week with mixed results. All eyes this week were on AI darling NVidia, which...
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Nuances of NUA
We have written about the net unrealized appreciation (NUA) tax strategy many times. Generally, after a lump sum distribution from the plan, the NUA tactic enables an...
The 10-Year Rule and Required Minimum Distributions: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag
By Andy Ives, CFP®, AIF® IRA Analyst QUESTION: Good afternoon, If a client passed this year with four adult children inheriting equally, and each beneficiary is...
Tax Filing Relief and Retirement Account Withdrawal Options for Hurricane Victims
By Ian Berger, JD IRA Analyst Victims of Hurricane Helene have at least a glimmer of good news when it comes to their tax filings and ability to withdraw from their...
Final Regulations Allow Separate Accounting for Trusts
Sarah Brenner, JD Director of Retirement Education The recent final required minimum distribution (RMD) regulations include a new rule change that may be beneficial for...
Recharacterization Still Exists
By Andy Ives, CFP®, AIF® IRA Analyst When a traditional IRA owner wants to convert all or a portion of his account to a Roth IRA, he needs to think long and hard...
Surprising News About the New Statute of Limitations for Missed RMDs and Excess IRA Contributions
By Ian Berger, JD IRA Analyst A big change made by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 was adding a new statute of limitations (SOL) for the IRS to assess penalties for...
Eligible Designated Beneficiaries and Disclaimers: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag
Sarah Brenner, JD Director of Retirement Education Question: When an IRA owner dies after their required beginning date, can an eligible designated beneficiary choose...
Recharacterization Deadline Approaches
By Sarah Brenner, JD Director of Retirement Education It happens. You have made a 2023 contribution to the wrong type of IRA. All is not lost. That contribution...
IRA Acronyms
By Andy Ives, CFP®, AIF® IRA Analyst When presenting a particular section of our training manual, I usually make the joke that, “if we were playing an acronym...
Correcting the Record: The Facts on Medicare Advantage Payment and Accountability
The Wall Street Journal recently published a story regarding diagnoses and plan payments in Medicare Advantage. The story was fundamentally flawed and overlooked the value of Medicare Advantage for millions of American seniors. Here are the facts: More than 33 million...
New bipartisan survey reveals a supermajority of seniors oppose reducing funding to Medicare Advantage — and will factor that into their vote in November
Today, more Americans than ever are choosing Medicare Advantage for affordable, quality health care — with over 33 million seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in the program. BMA wanted to learn more about seniors’ views on Medicare Advantage and how...
How Medicare Advantage In-Home Health Assessments Keep Seniors Healthier
How Medicare Advantage In-Home Health Assessments Keep Seniors Healthier Today, Medicare Advantage delivers affordable, high-quality care to more than 33 million seniors and people with disabilities, with better health outcomes than Fee-for-Service Medicare (FFS). One...
Will My Specialist’s Services be Covered under My Medicare Plan?
Whether you’re switching from one type of Medicare coverage to another, or you’re new to Medicare, you might be concerned about being able to continue seeing your health-care specialist. Will your specialist’s services be covered by Medicare? That may depend upon:...
7 Medicare Changes You’ll See in 2025
Expensive medications? You’ll save thousands. Dementia or mental health care? More options Key takeaways Changes from Inflation Reduction Act will take effect next year. Lower out-of-pocket limit in Part D drug plans erases old “donut hole.” You may find weight loss...
How Medicare Advantage In-Home Health Assessments Keep Seniors Healthier
Today, Medicare Advantage delivers affordable, high-quality care to more than 33 million seniors and people with disabilities, with better health outcomes than Fee-for-Service Medicare (FFS). One of the most effective ways to ensure seniors receive comprehensive care...
Does your Medicare plan cover gym memberships and other fitness benefits?
There’s no age limit on exercise – physical activity is for everyone! In fact, as you get older, physical activity becomes an even more important part of your overall health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular exercise can help...
Your annual physical checklist
Annual physical check-ups are essential in maintaining your health. These check-ups can identify health issues in their early stages, so you can take care of them as early as possible. If you have Medicare and have had Medicare Part B for more than 12 months, you...
LEARN DENTAL INSURANCE BASICS AND SAVE YOUR TEETH
Monitoring your oral health isn’t just about good teeth: it can give insight into your overall health. There are many reasons why it’s important that you visit your dentist regularly. Dental health should be a major concern for seniors. Monitoring your oral health...
MEDICARE AND DEPRESSION TREATMENTS — WHAT MEDICARE COVERS
Mental health is a critical part of overall health. Conversations on the topic of mental health were rare when the baby boomer generation was young. Today, the topic is far more accepted. Mental health is a critical part of overall health. Conversations on the topic...
WHY CHOOSE A MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT PLAN?
Whether you need medical care while traveling, in the comfort of home, or you want the flexibility to see any medical doctor or specialist that accepts Medicare, a Medicare Supplement plan may be just what you need. As you prepare for the next chapter of your journey,...