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News & Notables
Estate Planning—Don’t Delay
We’ve all read or heard the stories. Someone passes away without a will, and potential heirs sharpen their knives in a free-for-all that can take years to play out in court. The emotional toll is immeasurable, with relationships incurring irreparable harm that can...
7 Disciplines That Lead to Happy Retirement
Much has been written about saving for retirement, and we adhere to the principle that financial security is a key component to a successful retirement. Many of you are on that road right now, while others are accessing the savings accumulated over a lifetime. Knowing...
Maximizing Your Social Security
Social Security provides retirees with a basic income. It was never intended to fully cover the cost of living in retirement. But it acts as a supplement to your resources. Social Security includes disability, dependent benefits, and survivor benefits for minor or...
Best Practices to Minimize an Audit
Taxpayers invest about 13 hours preparing their tax returns, according to the IRS’s instructions for Form 1040. More specifically, the IRS says that the average nonbusiness taxpayer spends nine hours preparing a tax return, which includes three hours of record...
A SECURE Act Refresher
The SECURE Act, or Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, and its successor SECURE 2.0 are significant pieces of retirement legislation impacting millions of Americans. The Acts introduce several key provisions aimed at improving retirement...
What is Financial Fitness?
It is not just about having a pile of money in a bank account or a fat portfolio of stocks and bonds. Lottery winners often stumble into wealth without having much in the way of financial knowledge. A beneficiary of a large estate may know very little about financial...
Key Numbers as You Plan for 2024
Are you familiar with how our federal tax code originated? In 1909, progressives in Congress attached a provision for an income tax to a tariff bill. Hoping to kill the idea for good, conservatives proposed enacting such a tax as they believed 75% of states would...
Tackling Long-Term Care Needs
It’s hard to think about, but long-term care is an important need for which you should prepare. How much care might you need? On average, women will need 3.7 years of care, and men will need an average of 2.2 years. Approximately half of people turning age 65 will...
7 Key Strategies for Year-End Tax Planning
Conversation with: Sean Bailey, Editor-in-Chief of Horsesmouth & Debra Taylor, CPA/PFS, JD, CDFA (WATCH VIDEO) Sean Bailey: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Savvy Tax Planning Monthly Video blog. I’m Sean Bailey, editor in chief and Horsesmouth. I’m here...
The Dark Side of Home Improvement
The National Council on Aging recently shared a story about a scammer who targeted a homeowner in Massachusetts. The victim alleged that a contractor damaged his home’s foundation and didn’t return to finish the work—even after taking thousands of dollars in payments....