Category: Your Money

For most households, a life insurance policy is the single largest sum of money that will ever change hands at one time, and the tax treatment of that money surprises people on both sides of it. As a general rule, the death benefit paid to a named beneficiary is free of federal income tax, which…

Probate is the court process that settles an estate, and for the assets that pass through it, the wait can stretch for months while a judge confirms a will, an executor is appointed, and creditors are notified. That delay can leave heirs unable to touch money or sell property they will eventually inherit. One quiet…

Energy bills are one of the most unforgiving expenses a retiree faces, because heat in January and cooling in July are not optional. For millions of older households living on a fixed Social Security check, a cold snap or a heat wave can force a painful choice between the thermostat and groceries or medicine. A…

Billions of dollars in forgotten money sit in government custody right now, waiting to be claimed by the people whose names are attached to it. A closed savings account with a stray balance, an uncashed insurance check, a final paycheck, a utility deposit, or a dividend that never reached a mailbox does not vanish. After…

When a saver dies without leaving any map to their accounts, the money does not vanish, but reaching it can turn into a months-long ordeal for the family left behind. Banks, brokerages, insurers, and pension administrators each guard their own records, and a grieving spouse or adult child often has to prove, one institution at…

A nursing-home stay that runs several thousand dollars a month can burn through a couple’s lifetime savings faster than almost any other expense in retirement. Left unchecked, that math would leave the husband or wife still living at home with next to nothing. Federal Medicaid rules exist to prevent exactly that outcome, shielding a portion…

Handing cash, a car, or the family home to a child can feel like a generous, sensible move late in life. But for anyone who may need Medicaid to pay for a nursing home, a gift made at the wrong time carries a hidden cost: it can push the start of coverage back by months….

Nursing-home Medicaid usually requires an applicant to spend down countable assets to a few thousand dollars before coverage begins, a threshold that can wipe out a modest lifetime of savings. Yet one common expense is treated differently: money set aside in advance to pay for a funeral and burial. In most states, an irrevocable prepaid…

Guardianship court can strip an older adult of control over their own bank accounts, drain thousands of dollars in legal fees, and drag on for months, all because no one signed a single document first. A durable power of attorney is the paperwork that heads that off, naming a trusted person to handle money if…

Millions of people took the prescription stop-smoking drug Chantix before its maker pulled every lot from pharmacy shelves over a possible cancer-causing contaminant. Now a $44 million settlement gives those buyers a way to recover some of what they paid, and the window to file a claim closes in the middle of September. The case…