The financial news that actually matters
A divorce decree can split a house, divide a pension, and end a marriage, yet leave one thing untouched: the beneficiary form naming a former spouse on a retirement account or life insurance policy. Those forms do not update themselves when a marriage begins or ends. Until someone changes them, a stale designation can hand…
A “free trial” is rarely as free as it looks. The offer hands over a card number for a week or a month of no-cost access, and unless the customer cancels in time, the trial quietly rolls into a paid subscription that renews on its own — month after month, often at a price the…
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…
A Medicare Advantage plan is only as good as the doctors and hospitals it lets a member use, and that list is not permanent. Every plan year, the private insurers that run Advantage plans renegotiate contracts, add and drop providers, and reshape the network. A cardiologist or hospital that is in-network one year can be…
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…
The call sounds official and frightening. A voice claiming to be from Social Security, the IRS, or a local sheriff’s office warns of a suspended benefit, an unpaid tax, or a warrant — and says the only way to fix it right now is to buy gift cards, wire money, or send cryptocurrency. Every version…
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…
A retiree living on a fixed income who falls behind on a tax bill often pictures the worst: a frozen bank account, a garnished Social Security check, a lien on the house. What far fewer people know is that the Internal Revenue Service has a formal way to hit pause. When paying a tax debt…