Each type of retirement benefit has a different eligibility age. Your age plays a big role in how much you can expect to receive from Social Security and what you need to do to avoid retirement account penalties. Just as there are many types of retirement benefits, there are many dates to keep in...
Learn about two common senior living types—assisting living and memory care—and how to determine the best care for your elderly parent or spouse. Forbes' recent article entitled “Assisted Living vs. Memory Care: Which Is Right for You?” explains that assisted living is a long-term care facility t...
Vacation property can become a family legacy. Keeping your cabin, fishing lodge, hunting property or other special assets separate for future generations is often a special goal for a family. There are several ways to protect a vacation home so it remains in the family and is not overly burdensom...
Older adults have been hit hard. 95% of all coronavirus deaths in the U.S. involved a patient who was at least 50 years old, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Older adults are also more likely to suffer from the virus's lasting effects, commonly known as long ...
Americans are getting older. (I feel it — don't you?) In fact, the Population Reference Bureau estimates that the number of Americans aged 65 and older will nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060. With our aging population, we need more solutions to help seniors live well and...
My great-grandfather was a farmer and had about 23 acres when he died. My grandfather passed away before my great-grandfather. The land was put in a trust for my mother and uncles. My mother passed away two years ago. From the description above, it's clear the family had a plan for their land. Ho...
In a lawsuit filed by Stacy Alley in a Tom Green County District Court, the woman alleges that her brother, Michael Gene Mowrey, ‘threatened her, by stating he was going to cut her throat and kill her.' A lawsuit in Texas alleges that Michael Mowrey hit his sister Stacy Alley, shoved her and chok...
The coronavirus pandemic changed nearly every aspect of our lives, including our plans for retirement. Baby boomers, who are either in retirement or very close to it, have had COVID-19 make an especially significant effect on post-work plans. That's according to a recent survey from the Center fo...
Increasingly, financial advisors are working with clients from nontraditional families, which can sometimes require different or additional strategies to protect their assets and achieve their financial goals. Nontraditional families including seniors who are married to younger spouses have a spe...
Researchers are trying to unravel why some COVID-19 survivors suffer “brain fog” and other problems that can last for months, and new findings suggest some worrisome overlaps with Alzheimer's disease. Research with a group of older adults in Argentina found a significant amount of dementia-like c...
Creating a trust as part of an estate plan can help protect assets and ensure your financial legacy is preserved. If you're married, you may consider establishing a QTIP trust, which is short for qualified terminable interest property trust. A QTIP trust (qualified terminable interest property tr...
Estate planning is the process by which you determine how your assets should be handled when you're no longer capable of making financial decisions. Tickertape's recent article “5 Estate Planning Tips That Aren't Just for the Wealthy” explains that a common misconception is that estate planning i...
Nearly 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with melanoma each year, making it one of the most common types of cancer in the U.S., especially among older adults who have endured decades of sun exposure and whose immune systems aren't as robust as they once were. And while melanoma can be deadly, it is...
Social Security checks may see a huge raise next year. Will it be enough? The ongoing rise in inflation that has Americans paying more for essentials, may result in the largest Social Security increase in almost four decades. Officials are set to announce the cost of living adjustment, or COLA, f...
Should I terminate these trusts and just have my children as beneficiaries of my investment accounts and life insurance? Nj.com's recent article entitled “Should I terminate this trust and do I need a will?” looks at the situation where a person created a revocable and an irrevocable life insuran...
If you don't have a spouse or children, you might think you don't need to do much estate planning. However, if you have any assets, any familial connections, any interest in supporting charitable groups – not to mention a desire to control your own future – you do need to establish an estate plan...
Workers who are nearing age 65 and have health insurance through their job may want to consider how Medicare could factor into their medical coverage. Although not everyone is required to enroll in Medicare at the age of eligibility, many people must do so or risk lifelong late-enrollment penalti...
There may be potential benefits to life insurance beyond its traditional uses, especially when it comes to taxes, estate planning and long-term care. It's possible that life insurance proceeds may play a much bigger role in your estate planning than you might have thought, says a recent article i...
Withdrawing from your retirement accounts in the wrong order could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement income. Smart Asset's article entitled “The Worst Way to Withdraw From Your Retirement Accounts” reminds us that investing comes with risk, and no situation is the same. Let's lo...
The death of a spouse is one of the most difficult things imaginable. Besides the emotional toll, surviving spouses typically confront financial issues, which often trigger tax-related questions and consequences. The financial issues that arise following the death of a spouse range from the simpl...
Whether you've recently moved to Florida or are a ‘snowbird' with Florida residency, there are important reasons to consider updating your estate plan. Estate planning laws vary greatly from state to state and understanding the difference could have a significant impact on whether your estate pla...
Trust funds are not just for the ultra-rich. These sophisticated estate-planning tools can make just as much sense for middle-class Americans who own a home and have a net worth of at least $100,000. There are important differences between revocable and irrevocable trusts. One of the biggest diff...
Britney Spears scored a major victory this week in the fight to end her conservatorship when a judge approved her bid to hire her own legal counsel for the first time since 2008. The 39-year-old pop star has called the legal arrangement abusive and now faces the tough task of convincing the judge...
Do you suspect, or know, that somebody has been stealing from you? Maybe it's items from your home? Or maybe it's your money? Or perhaps you're being pressured by someone to keep giving them cash. If so, you are not alone. It's called elder abuse. The Courier Tribune's recent article entitled “Ar...
One of the biggest concerns a trust creator might have is that the beneficiary would squander their inheritance or that the beneficiary's creditor would attach the inheritance to cover the beneficiary's debt. This is a problem solved by a trust—a “spendthrift” trust. With a spendthrift provision ...