The financial news that actually matters
Retirees who accept a one-time pension buyout walk away with a check and full responsibility for making that money last. The lifetime annuity they give up, by contrast, pays until death. That tradeoff has sharpened as higher interest rates shrink the size of lump-sum offers, leaving workers with less cash to cover the same decades…
Consumers affected by the FMC data breach face an August 31 deadline to file claims for roughly $75 in cash or two years of credit monitoring. The settlement forces a fast decision between a small payout and longer-term identity protection, and the clock is running out for anyone who has not yet acted. Why the…
Millions of seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans face a tighter market in 2027 after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed raising payments to insurers by just 0.09%, a net increase of about $700 million. CMS released the Advance Notice on January 26, 2026, setting off alarm among insurance brokers who say the…
Tens of millions of American retirees and near-retirees face an automatic benefit reduction of roughly $10,600 a year per two-earner couple if Congress fails to act before the Social Security retirement trust fund runs out of reserves in the fourth quarter of 2032. The depletion date, confirmed by the program’s own trustees, would not end…
Higher-income Medicare beneficiaries face a top-tier monthly surcharge of about $487 on top of their standard Part B premium in 2026, bringing their total monthly cost to roughly $690. The Social Security Administration sets this income-related monthly adjustment amount, known as IRMAA, using tax return data from two years earlier. For retirees whose income has…
Eight senators from both parties want to force Congress into a binding vote on Social Security before the retirement trust fund runs dry in roughly six years. The group introduced the Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone Act, known as the PROMISE Act, designated S. 4979 in the 119th Congress. The bill…
Surviving spouses who lose their qualifying filing status face a sharp tax increase even when their income stays exactly the same. Under federal law, a widow or widower can file jointly in the year of death and may keep a favorable status for two additional years, but after that window closes, the survivor is reclassified…
Traditional IRA owners face a sharper set of timing decisions after the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury finalized new required minimum distribution regulations effective Sept. 17, 2024, with general applicability in 2025. The updated rules, published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-33, clarify how the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0 changes…
Warren Buffett’s warning that finding value is difficult “when everybody is preferring gambling” has taken on fresh weight as a widely tracked market gauge, built from Federal Reserve data on the total market value of corporate equities relative to GDP, hovers near levels last seen during the dot-com bubble. The ratio, sometimes called the Buffett…
Medicare beneficiaries in six states now face a new requirement before receiving certain medical services: prior authorization from the federal government. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation launched the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model, known as WISeR, covering Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. The program runs from January 1, 2026,…