The financial news that actually matters
Every American with a bank account relies on a single promise: that the federal government will make them whole if their bank collapses. Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation began operations in 1934, no depositor has lost a single penny of insured funds due to bank failure. That record has held through the Great Depression,…
American workers saving for retirement through employer-sponsored plans will be able to set aside $24,500 in a 401(k) during 2026, a $1,000 increase over the $23,500 cap that applied in 2025. The IRS announced the adjustment through Notice 2025-67, published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2025-49, which recalculates contribution ceilings each year based on cost-of-living changes….
Pizza Hut will shutter roughly 250 U.S. restaurants during the first half of 2026, a move that preceded and likely shaped the chain’s $2.7 billion sale by parent company Yum Brands. The closures target underperforming locations at a time when U.S. same-store sales had already dropped 5 percent, and they land hardest on the franchisees…
Trust owners who name five or more eligible beneficiaries on a single account can protect up to $1,250,000 in deposits at one FDIC-insured bank, a coverage ceiling that took effect April 1, 2024. The rule, approved by the FDIC Board and published January 28, 2022, collapsed the old separate categories for revocable and irrevocable trust…
Investors who lost money in a scheme tied to Greg Martel now stand to recover a fraction of their losses through the forced sale of a Las Vegas mansion listed at $5.1 million. The property liquidation is part of a broader asset-recovery effort designed to return funds to victims of an alleged Ponzi operation. Court-ordered…
Millions of people avoid pulling their own credit reports each year because they believe the act itself will drag down their score. That fear is unfounded. A consumer requesting a personal credit report triggers only a soft inquiry, which carries zero scoring penalty, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The distinction between soft and…
Investors who trusted Russell Todd Burkhalter and his firm Drive Planning, LLC with their savings now face a federal enforcement action alleging the operation was a Ponzi scheme exceeding $300 million. The SEC filed an emergency complaint in the Northern District of Georgia accusing Burkhalter of funneling tens of millions into options trading losses and…
Savers holding deposits at FDIC-insured banks can verify their coverage in minutes using a free government calculator, yet many still do not know the tool exists. The FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator, known as EDIE, performs per-bank calculations for checking accounts, savings accounts, money-market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit. With its calculation basis date…
Investors who lost money on shares of China Liberal Education Holdings Ltd. now have a path to recover some of those losses after federal prosecutors in Chicago secured a court order permanently forfeiting approximately $214 million seized as alleged proceeds of a pump-and-dump scheme. The forfeiture, one of the largest tied to a single stock-manipulation…
Nearly 150 workers at Ubisoft offices in San Francisco and Barcelona learned this month that their positions are being eliminated, according to state labor filings and local reporting. The French video game publisher filed formal notices on both sides of the Atlantic within days of each other, cutting 93 permanent jobs in California and launching…