The financial news that actually matters
A general consumer finance category covering everyday money decisions, budgeting, saving, debt management, credit behavior, and personal financial improvement strategies.
A carefully written will can lay out exactly who inherits what — and still be powerless over the largest accounts many retirees own. IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, life insurance, and annuities do not pass through a will at all. They go to whoever is listed on the beneficiary form on file with the plan or company,…
Naming a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA sounds like the careful, responsible choice — a way to control money for a spendthrift heir, a minor, or a loved one with special needs. Done well, it does exactly that. Done carelessly, it can accelerate taxes, strip away years of tax-deferred growth, and push an…
How a house is titled can matter as much as what a will says. When a home is held as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the property passes to the surviving co-owner the instant one owner dies — no probate court, no waiting on a judge, and no reading of the will required. For…
A retiree can spend years drafting a will, only to watch the largest asset she owns ignore it entirely. Retirement accounts — the IRA, the 401(k), the annuity — do not pass through a will at all. They pass by a single line on a beneficiary form filed with the custodian. When that line is…
An unfamiliar company calls an older homeowner about a debt she does not recognize, insists it is years overdue, and presses for a payment today. The instinct to pay just to make the pressure stop is exactly what some collectors count on. Federal law hands the person on the receiving end a powerful and underused…
It sounds like a tidy shortcut. An aging parent adds a trusted adult child to the deed of the family home, figuring the house will pass to that child instantly at death, with no lawyers and no probate. The move is common, well-intentioned, and frequently a mistake. The moment a child’s name joins the title,…
A nursing home can cost more in a single year than many retirees spent on their first house. When savings run out, Medicaid becomes the payer of last resort for long-term care — but that help is not always a gift. Under a federal program that most families never hear about until a parent has…
Millions of older Americans bought life insurance decades ago to protect a spouse or pay off a mortgage, then filed the policy away and rarely thought about it again. A newer generation of coverage asks that policy to do something term insurance never could: pay out while the insured is still living, to cover the…
Many older Americans hesitate to hand money to children or grandchildren because of a persistent fear: that a large gift will saddle someone with a tax bill. For the vast majority of families, that worry is misplaced. Federal law lets a person give a set amount to each recipient every single year — with no…
A retiree who has held the same stock or fund for decades often sits on a large paper gain — and a large tax bill waiting to be triggered the moment those shares are sold. There is a legal way to move that gain to someone who will owe far less on it, sometimes nothing…