The financial news that actually matters
Millions of retirees give faithfully to their church, a food bank, or a favorite cause every year and get nothing back from the tax code for it. The reason is not stinginess by the government but arithmetic: the standard deduction has grown so large that most households no longer itemize, and a charitable gift only…
A traditional pension can feel like the most solid piece of a retirement plan. The check arrives every month, it is guaranteed for life, and it does not rise and fall with the stock market. But that stability hides a slow leak. Most private pensions pay a fixed dollar amount that never changes, no matter…
Once a year, Medicare hands its enrollees a genuine chance to lower next year’s costs, and most of them let it pass. From October 15 to December 7, anyone with a Medicare Advantage or Part D drug plan can compare every option in their area and switch, with the new plan taking effect January 1….
Every year, banks, brokerages, and other financial companies pay penalties to settle government findings that they charged customers illegal or hidden fees. What many consumers do not realize is that a large share of that money is meant to flow back to the people who were overcharged, and it often arrives without anyone having to…
Two of the most effective defenses against a drained retirement account cost nothing and take only a phone call to set up: naming a trusted contact on financial accounts and switching on alerts for large transfers. Together they put a second set of eyes on the money, so a sudden, out-of-character withdrawal gets flagged before…
Annuities are marketed to older Americans as a source of steady, guaranteed income, and for some retirees they deliver exactly that. What the sales pitch often glosses over is how hard it can be to get the money back out once it goes in. Many annuities carry a surrender charge, a fee that penalizes the…
Gig workers who cleaned homes and handled small jobs through the app Handy are getting money back after federal regulators found the company misled them about how much they could earn. The Federal Trade Commission is mailing checks totaling more than $2.7 million to tens of thousands of workers who were charged fees and fines…
When a person dies owning a house, bank accounts, and investments in their own name, most of that property does not pass straight to the family. It first has to travel through probate, the court-supervised process that validates a will, settles debts, and retitles what is left to the heirs. Probate is public, can stretch…
For a retiree who keeps a large cash cushion at a single bank, the number that matters most is the one stamped on the FDIC seal: $250,000. Above that line, the common assumption is that the extra money rides uninsured, exposed if the bank ever fails. That assumption is frequently wrong. The way an account…
When one spouse dies without using all of the federal estate-tax exemption, the unused portion does not have to disappear. A rule called portability lets a surviving spouse claim what the late partner left behind, stacking two exemptions into a combined shelter approaching $30 million in 2026. The catch is that the benefit is not…