Financial Planning

All beneficiary designations are the same, right?  Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The language adopted by the financial institution that holds your IRA or other retirement account might cause you to unintentionally disinherit your grandkids. Most financial institutions treat multiple beneficiaries “per capita” rather than “per stirpes”…

Topics: Financial Planning

You know the saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes?  I have to confess to being a bit of a cobbler.  Okay, my children have shoes – real ones and the financial planning version: ROTH IRAs.  But I was recently going through the mail,…

Topics: Financial Planning

There has been no negotiation reached on how to deal with the nation’s borrowing limit and the deadline for mandatory spending cuts has been extended for two months. However, a significant amount of what relates to individual taxpayers has been addressed in the American Taxpayer…

Topics: Financial Planning

We recently posted an analysis of the tradeoffs involved with realizing embedded capital gains in 2012 before presumed higher rates kick in starting January 1 (Cliffhanger: The Fiscal Cliff and Year-End Planning), in which we focused largely on the tradeoff between keeping more capital invested and eventually having gains…

Topics: Financial Planning