The financial news that actually matters
Every autumn, the federal government announces how much Social Security checks will rise the following year, and tens of millions of retirees plan their budgets around the number. For 2027, one of the most closely followed independent estimates has just moved sharply in the wrong direction for beneficiaries, falling a full percentage point in the…
Nearly half a million people whose medical and personal information ran through Catholic Health, the large hospital system based in Buffalo, New York, are now eligible for a payment from a class-action settlement over a data breach in the fall of 2024. The deal offers two paths: a flat cash payment of roughly $50 that…
A call-center operation that federal prosecutors say cheated more than 400 older Americans out of roughly $5 million has begun to face consequences, with its operators pleading guilty and the first of them sentenced to four years in federal prison. The scheme ran on a script familiar to anyone who has answered a frantic late-night…
Medicare is often described as the coverage that finally makes health care affordable in retirement, and for tens of millions of older Americans it does. But the program does not start paying the moment a beneficiary walks into a doctor’s office in January. Part B, the piece that covers outpatient and physician care, carries an…
A reverse mortgage is often pitched as a way for older homeowners to turn built-up equity into cash without a monthly mortgage bill. That much is true, but it leaves out a condition that catches some borrowers off guard. A reverse mortgage does not end a homeowner’s ongoing obligations to the property, and missing them…
A credit freeze is one of the few fraud defenses that is both free and genuinely effective, yet many older adults have never turned it on. By federal law, anyone can lock access to their credit reports at no charge, which stops a thief from opening new loans or cards in their name, and unlocking…
The federal estate tax has a fearsome reputation, but it reaches almost no one. Its exemption sits so high that the overwhelming majority of estates owe the federal government nothing when someone dies. What far fewer families expect is a second, state-level death tax that can apply even when no federal tax is due, and…
Settling an estate can tie up a bank account for months while a court oversees who gets what, even when the family already knows the answer. There is a simple tool that sidesteps that delay for money held in a bank. By adding a payable-on-death instruction to an account, an owner can direct the balance…
Older homeowners who bought decades ago often sit on a large paper gain, and many hesitate to sell because they assume the profit will be taxed in full. For a main home, that assumption usually overstates the bill. A long-standing provision of the tax code lets a homeowner shield a substantial share of the gain…
Workers fortunate enough to retire with a traditional pension usually face one consequential decision at the moment they start collecting: whether to take the largest possible monthly check or a smaller one that keeps paying a surviving spouse after the retiree dies. The choice is permanent, it is easy to get wrong in the rush…