The financial news that actually matters
Millions of retirees walk away from a benefit they earned simply because they assume a divorce erased it. Social Security does not work that way. A marriage that lasted a decade can still produce a monthly check years after the papers were signed, and claiming it costs a former spouse nothing at all. The rules…
Nursing-home care is among the largest expenses a retiree can face, often running past six figures a year, and Medicaid is the program that ultimately pays for most long-term care in the United States. Families sometimes try to qualify by giving money and property to their children before applying, on the theory that an applicant…
A person can spend real money on a carefully drafted will and still hand a fortune to exactly the wrong heir. The reason is a piece of paper most people signed once, years ago, and never looked at again: the beneficiary designation. On a large share of the assets a retiree leaves behind, that form,…
A data-breach settlement now open for claims could put as much as roughly $4,480 in the hands of people whose personal information was exposed, and the window to file is closing in September. The case involves HCF Management, an operator of nursing and health-care facilities, and stems from a breach that hit its systems in…
A house that is fully paid off feels like the safest asset a retiree owns. To a certain kind of criminal, it is the opposite: a valuable, unmortgaged property sitting in public records with no lender watching over it. Title fraud, also called deed theft, exploits exactly that gap, forging ownership paperwork to strip equity…
A behind-the-scenes program that has quietly held down Medicare drug-plan premiums is being switched off a year ahead of schedule, and the effect could show up in what some retirees pay in 2027. Federal officials are ending the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration on December 31, 2026, rather than letting it run through 2027 as…
An investment manager who told clients a homemade algorithm could mint steady double-digit returns from futures trading has been sentenced to federal prison, and the government is taking back the money he never actually invested. Prosecutors say the trading system at the center of his pitch did not work the way he claimed, and the…
The most quoted number in American banking, $250,000, is also one of the most misunderstood. Many savers read it as a hard ceiling on how much money can be protected at any one bank and assume that anything more requires spreading cash across a string of institutions. The rule is more generous than that. Because…
Paying someone with a credit card carries a safety net most people take for granted: if a charge is wrong or a purchase goes sideways, the card issuer can claw the money back. Zelle and bank wires do not work that way. They move money the way handing over cash does, and once it lands…
For retirees who give to charity and also face a required withdrawal from an individual retirement account, there is a quiet maneuver that can turn a taxable event into a tax-free one. Instead of pulling the money out, paying tax on it, and then donating what is left, an IRA owner can send the funds…