The financial news that actually matters
The annual reshuffling of Medicare Advantage is shaping up to be unusually disruptive for 2027. Analysts tracking the market estimate that roughly three million older Americans could be pushed out of their current plans as insurers keep pulling out of counties and product lines they say the government does not pay enough to cover. For…
A tax-season formality could soon carry real legal weight for millions of families that claim the government’s largest refundable credits. Under a rule proposed by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, anyone seeking the refundable portion of the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, the adoption credit or the American Opportunity…
When a scammer talks an older adult into wiring money or emptying an account, the transaction itself is usually the last chance to stop the loss. Two simple, free account settings can create a pause at exactly that moment: naming a trusted contact and turning on alerts for large transactions. Neither hands anyone control over…
For years, anyone weighing a bank, credit card, mortgage servicer, or debt collector could read what other customers had said about it, free of charge, on a public federal website. That window is closing. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced it will stop publishing the consumer complaint narratives and data visualizations that had let…
Prescription costs are one of the sharpest pressures on a retiree’s budget, and for lower-income households the strain can force hard choices between medicine and other necessities. Medicare runs a program built precisely for that situation, and it is one of the most valuable benefits many eligible people have never heard of. Called Extra Help,…
For a retiree living on a tight fixed income, the standard Medicare Part B premium of about $202.90 a month is a meaningful chunk of a Social Security check. What many do not realize is that the government runs programs designed to pay that premium for people who qualify, and a large share of those…
Somewhere in a state government database may sit a forgotten paycheck, an old security deposit, a dormant bank balance, or an insurance refund that was never delivered. Across the country, states are holding billions of dollars in what is formally called unclaimed property, money that belongs to ordinary people but lost its way when someone…
Utility bills have quietly become one of the fastest-growing costs for American households, and the reach of the current wave of increases is striking. A running tally of electric and natural gas rate changes shows that the great majority of the country is now facing higher bills, with a large share of customers already paying…
Among the tools available to guard a retiree’s finances, one of the most effective costs nothing and takes only a few phone calls or online forms. A credit freeze locks down access to a person’s credit file so that no new loan or credit card can be opened in their name, which is the exact…
Americans change jobs often, and a retirement account left behind at a former employer is easy to lose track of. A 401(k) started at a job held two decades ago, a small pension from a company that was later bought or shut down, a rollover that never got completed: any of these can sit unclaimed…
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