Carl Richard is a believer in The KISS Principle. He spends his time providing financial education by explaining complex strategies and terms using simple, easy to understand diagrams. You can find examples in his weekly “Sketch Guy” column in The New York Times and his book “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb [...]
Beginning Oct 15th Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (“AEP”) will begin. It runs through Dec 7th for coverage effective Jan 1st. AEP allows Medicare recipients to reevaluate coverage for Part C (Advantage) and Part D (Prescription Drug). Studies show most people overpay. Why? They base purchase decisions on premium instead of individual health care needs. The [...]
Effective October 1st new per diem rates are in effect for use in substantiating expenses for lodging, meals and incidentals. Notice 2015-63 contains additional info.
It’s a common question from clients. “I live in _____ so why do you want me to set up a trust in Alaska?” Financial planners, estate attorneys, wealth managers, CPAs and insurance folks alike have long favored states like Alaska, Delaware, Nevada and South Dakota for trust situs due to their trust-friendly laws enforced by [...]
Much confusion exists in the minds of consumers about who in the financial services world is a fiduciary. Currently the product-pushers are lavishing ungodly sums of money upon Washington as their army of lobbyists seeks to water down or eliminate a uniform fiduciary standard. And these are the people who claim to be looking out [...]
As the end of the year approaches many people start thinking about Required Minimum Distributions (“RMDs”). While typically a straightforward process (aggregated prior year-end values divided by the appropriate factor from the IRS table) there are some stumbling blocks that often give people fits. AGGREGATED DISTRIBUTION: Distribution from one non-inherited traditional IRA may be used [...]
During a recent conversation with a client (who as CEO of her company often makes public comments - name, however, withheld for confidentiality reasons) she and I proverbially yelled at the kids to stay off our lawns. How?...by bemoaning how honesty has been killed off by political correctness and thinly-veiled attempts at sparing people’s feelings. [...]
“To them I say don’t believe the hype.” - Chuck D “Yo Chuck they must be on the pipe, right?” - Flavor Flav (Obscure references to Styx and Public Enemy in the same post? Time for a self-congratulatory pat on the back!) We’re not going to accuse the financial services industry of smoking crack but [...]
W. Scott Simon often serves in litigation and arbitrations as an expert witness on fiduciary issues. Similarly he frequently writes about the Uniform Prudent Investor Act. Consider the following from a recent article he authored about the problem with disclosing conflicts of interest: “Disclosures of conflicts made by many financial services providers tell you just [...]
Using 10 different data sets the folks at WalletHub have put together a summary of “housing market health” in 25 big cities. Useful? Nonsense? Good cocktail party conversation? Hmmm...