The financial news that actually matters
Covers retirement planning, Social Security benefits, pension systems, and long-term financial security. It helps readers understand how to prepare financially for retirement.
Retirees are getting an early read on next year’s Social Security raise, and it looks bigger than the one they got this January. Two of the most-watched independent trackers now put the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment somewhere between 3.6% and 3.8% — but neither number is final, and the Social Security Administration will not lock in…
A retiree who sells a rental property, converts part of a traditional IRA to a Roth, or simply books one unusually large income year can end up paying a noticeably higher Medicare Part B premium — not that year, but the next one. The surcharge is called the income-related monthly adjustment amount, or IRMAA, and…
Most people who want to buy a Medigap policy after their first year on Medicare have to answer health questions, and an insurer can turn them down or charge more for a history of diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. There’s one major exception: someone whose Medicare Advantage plan is cancelled out from under them gets…
When a Medicare Advantage plan disappears for the coming year, the insurer’s timeline and Medicare’s enrollment calendar don’t automatically line up, and mixing up the two is how retirees miss their window. If a current plan is being cut for 2027, the main chance to pick a replacement is Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period, October 15…
At least four Medicare Advantage insurers have now confirmed they are pulling back from parts of the market for the 2027 plan year, and industry trackers expect that list to keep growing before enrollment season arrives. The retreats take different shapes — a full state-by-state withdrawal here, a single discontinued product line there — but…
Humana told investors on July 29 that it will exit Medicare Advantage plans covering roughly 600,000 members heading into the 2027 plan year, and the company says the cuts fall disproportionately on its own lowest-rated coverage. Nobody enrolled in one of the affected plans is getting a phone call about it. The notice arrives as…
President Trump campaigned on eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, and he has continued describing the tax-and-spending law he signed in July 2025 as delivering exactly that. The text of the law tells a narrower story. Instead of exempting Social Security income from federal tax, the law added a new deduction for people 65 and…
President Trump has spent more than a year pushing pharmaceutical companies to sell Americans drugs at the same price they charge in other wealthy countries, using an approach the administration calls “most-favored-nation,” or MFN, pricing. The effort is aimed squarely at what Medicare and out-of-pocket patients pay at the pharmacy counter, and it has already…
A marriage that ended decades ago can still be worth real money in retirement. Under longstanding Social Security rules, a divorced person can draw a benefit based on an ex-spouse’s earnings record — worth up to half that ex’s full benefit — even if the ex has moved on and remarried since. The rule surprises…
Medicaid covers the nursing-home and long-term-care bills that Medicare and most private insurance will not, and for many older Americans it is the only thing standing between them and catastrophic care costs. What far fewer people realize is that the program is legally entitled to get some of that money back after the recipient dies….
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