The financial news that actually matters
Most tax-advantaged health accounts come with a catch: spend the money before the calendar year ends or forfeit whatever is left. The health savings account is the rare exception to that rule. Dollars set aside in an HSA carry over indefinitely, grow untouched by tax, and once the owner reaches 65 they can be drawn…
Most of an estate can be tied up for months after a death, frozen while a probate court validates a will, notifies creditors, and signs off on who gets what. A checking or savings account does not have to sit in that line. A single form on file at the bank, naming who inherits the…
Heating a home in winter and cooling it in a heat wave are two of the costs that hit older Americans hardest, because they cannot be skipped without real risk to health. A long-standing federal program exists to help cover those bills for low-income households, and seniors are among the groups it is designed to…
A homeowners policy can look the same year after year while a single change buried in the renewal quietly rewrites how a claim gets paid. One of the most consequential is the shift on an older roof from replacement-cost coverage to actual cash value, a swap that can turn a full roof payout into a…
The most-watched number in the housing market ticked lower this week, its first retreat after a month and a half of steady increases. The move is small, but for older homeowners weighing a swap from a large family house to something smaller and cheaper to run, even a fraction of a point reshapes the monthly…
Federal agents have added a former real-estate executive to the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list, accusing him of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that drained roughly $650 million from about 2,000 investors before he disappeared. Rey E. Grabato II, who ran National Realty Investment Advisors, is now the subject of an international manhunt, with authorities offering…
Comcast is paying out on a $117.5 million settlement tied to a 2023 breach that exposed the personal data of tens of millions of Xfinity internet customers. Eligible customers can claim a flat $50 cash payment without submitting a single receipt, or seek up to $10,000 if they can document losses traced to the breach….
Bank failures are rare enough that each one lands as a reminder rather than a routine. In mid-July, a small commercial lender in the Kansas City suburbs became the fourth federally insured bank to collapse in 2026, and regulators moved a familiar way: they closed it on a Friday and had another bank running its…
Most retirees treat a Social Security check as money that no one can touch. When the debt is unpaid federal taxes, that assumption falls apart. Through a collection program that runs largely on autopilot, the IRS can skim up to 15 percent off a monthly benefit to chip away at a delinquent tax bill. It…
When a Medicare Advantage plan is terminated or pulls out of a member’s county, the disruption comes with a rarely advertised silver lining. Federal law treats a plan’s involuntary loss as one of a short list of situations that unlock a guaranteed-issue right — the ability to buy a Medigap supplement policy without answering a…