The financial news that actually matters
Adding a grown son or daughter to a checking or savings account can feel like tidy, loving estate planning: someone trusted can help pay bills, and the money will pass to that child without fuss. The trouble is what “joint owner” legally means. A co-owner is not a helper standing by, but a full owner…
One of the strongest defenses a retiree has against Social Security fraud costs nothing and takes only a few minutes: claiming a personal my Social Security account before someone else tries to. The online account is where benefit details live, and the account for any given number can only be created once. Whoever registers it…
Roughly 600,000 people enrolled in Humana Medicare Advantage plans are set to lose that coverage in 2027, after the insurer said it will pull out of its least profitable markets. The move is a business decision aimed at repairing thin margins, but the fallout lands on members who will have to shop for a new…
Social Security holds an unusual power over the checks it sends: if the agency concludes it overpaid a beneficiary, even through its own error, it can hold back up to half of each monthly retirement payment until the balance is repaid. Overpayments are common, often built up quietly over months before a notice ever arrives,…
Pension advance offers arrive by mail, by phone, and online with a simple pitch: hand over some or all of a monthly pension check and collect a lump sum of cash today. For retirees living on fixed incomes, that fast money can look like a lifeline when a roof needs replacing or a medical bill…
A federal court in Texas is weighing whether to approve a proposed $177 million settlement that would resolve claims from two AT&T data breaches, and until it rules, no payments will go out. The agreement, tied to incidents that exposed the personal information of tens of millions of current and former AT&T customers, would let…
A crypto operation that dressed itself up as a legitimate trading platform now owes more than $5.5 million after a federal court found it lured investors with fabricated profits and moved their money offshore. The case, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against a ring operating under the name NanoBit, is the agency’s first…
The call, letter, or email carries good news. A sweepstakes has been won, a lottery number has hit, or a prize is waiting to be claimed. Then comes the condition: before the winnings can be released, a payment is needed to cover taxes, fees, or shipping. That single request settles the matter regardless of how…
Advertisements offering “cash now” for structured-settlement or annuity payments make a simple-sounding proposition: hand over a stream of future checks and receive a single lump sum today. What the ads rarely make plain is the exchange rate. The lump sum is almost always worth far less than the payments being surrendered, and once the paperwork…
A Virginia widow has taken the federal government and several mortgage companies to court, arguing she was pushed out of her home over a reverse mortgage that was only ever in her late husband’s name. Her federal lawsuit contends that surviving spouses are entitled to remain in the home under the government’s own rules, even…