I know for many of my clients that about this time each year they are waiting to hear what the cost of living increase will be in their social security check as well as what their deduction will be for the Medicare Part B premium. As for the social security increase we have learned that it will be zero, no additional benefit. That’s not a happy thought, but it is a straightforward matter and no further thought required.
Now for those Medicare Part B… Continue reading | 1 Comment
I am a great believer in living life. Live, love, laugh: that’s my motto. I am also a great believer in being responsible for myself and my actions- not that I’m proud of them all! Nonetheless, they are my actions, and I take responsibility for them all, good or bad. In financial planning, money in or out falls under the category of cash flow. We are responsible for all the money- the inflows that come into our lives either… Continue reading
More and more we are hearing on the news channel or reading in the paper about security breaches with the mega companies ending with the news that our personal information i.e.: social security numbers, date of birth, address and phone number, etc. have been disseminated illegally. This leads us to stress and fear that we may be the future victim of identity theft, a nasty and sometimes… Continue reading
Within the estate planning community the common tease among clients has been for several years that in order to maximize your estate to beneficiaries the year to pass away was going to be 2010. Why? Because current tax law reflected the fact that there would be no estate tax for anyone who died in 2010! Then for 2011 it would revert back to where the law was in 2001 which is unacceptable to all of us.
Well I for one could not conceive… Continue reading
Estate Planning can be messy. As parents, we always would like to believe that our children will always be the darlings of the world, perfect in every way, guiltless and void of fault (“Not my Amy…she could NOT have done such thing!) We raise them, teach them, tutor them, coach them, teach them manners, etiquette and every moral standard that we as fine parental human beings adhere to- and then they grow up.
Recently, in the Westchester New York area that has been a flurry of news about the estate of the now deceased Socialite Brook Astor and her… Continue reading
If there is ever a time of the year that strikes the highest level of anxiety among investors it is the period of September and October. Well we made it through September and now have three quarters of the year behind us and what an explosive time this has been since the market low on March 9. No time to relax though, as we now have October which is historically the most volatile month of the entire calendar for the stock market.
Whether or not a reaction to the various stimulus measures and monetary policy actions, the markets have… Continue reading
Thanks to the Pension Protection Act of 2010, many IRA owners with incomes over $100,000 will be able to convert their Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Unfortunately, most investors are not aware of this upcoming delight.
In a Traditional IRA, the contribution of current year is tax deductible, and grows tax-deferred, meaning you pay taxes as ordinary income when you take the IRA money out, after you achieve the age of 59 ½. While a Roth is not current year tax deductible, the growth and withdrawals are federaly tax free. Further, there are fewer limits on withdrawals from… Continue reading
I recently had a meeting with clients who have been with us for over 20 years regarding the issues surrounding the aging of one of their parents; now well into their 90’s. Dad was in rehab from a nasty fall, and was soon ready to come back to his home, of which he resided in for over 50 years. The only problem was that Dad was experiencing some signs of dementia, mixing up his days and nights, and having problems recognizing family members and those things that should be so familiar. The meeting revolved around the issues surrounding where Dad… Continue reading
