Should you make a minor child the primary beneficiary of your IRA? Are there any caveats to that choice? IRA owners frequently name young children as contingent beneficiaries of their accounts, but designating someone younger than 18 as the primary beneficiary of IRA assets invites a number of questions. Will you exploit the stretch IRA…

DESPITE ANXIETIES, DOW STAYS ABOVE 14,000 The DJIA settled at 14,089.66 Friday, gaining 0.64% on the week. The S&P 500 (+0.17% to 1,518.20) and NASDAQ (+0.25% to 3,169.74) also logged five-day advances. All this happened in the face of significant instability, as Wall Street fretted over the deadlock in Italy’s national elections and the sequester…

Social Security benefits have increased 1.7% this year. This doesn’t come close to the 3.6% boost retirees got for 2012, but it does mark the second straight annual cost-of-living adjustment. (After a hefty 5.8% COLA for 2009, there were no COLAs for 2010 or 2011). So for 2013, the average monthly Social Security payment going…

Do your employees have a company retirement plan? If they do, then you have a fiduciary responsibility to them. Ignoring it to any degree could really cost you. Maybe you’ve heard about some of the settlements linked to charges of negligence or mismanagement. They can be painful for businesses big and small. In 2010, a…

Here’s a simple financial question: who is the beneficiary of your IRA? How about your 401(k), life insurance policy, or annuity? You may be able to answer such a question quickly and easily. Or you may be saying, “You know … I’m not totally sure.” Whatever your answer, it is smart to periodically review your…

In March, Social Security will stop mailing checks to all but a small percentage of retirees. About 5 million seniors still get their benefits in the form of a check – and if you are one of them, what alternatives do you have for the future? The new options: direct deposit or a Direct Express…

The IRA that changed the whole retirement savings perspective. Since the Roth IRA was introduced in 1998, its popularity has soared. It has become a fixture in many retirement planning strategies, because it offers savers so many potential advantages. The key argument for going Roth can be summed up in a sentence: Paying taxes on…

If your loved ones have invested, saved or insured themselves to any degree, you may be named as a beneficiary to one or more of their accounts, policies or assets in the event of their deaths. While we all hope “that day” never comes, we do need to know what to do financially if and…

HOME SALES RISE, HOUSING STARTS FALL January brought a 0.4% improvement in existing home sales, even as the inventory of properties for sale hit a 93-month low. The National Association of Realtors reported a 25% year-over-year decline in existing home inventory, which hasn’t been seen since December 1999. The median sales price was $173,600 last…

On March 1, $85 billion in federal budget cuts are supposed to take place – and it doesn’t look like they will be delayed any longer. Congress went on recess last week, so there was no concerted legislative effort to stave them off (in the manner of the fiscal cliff deal). At this point, the…