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The launch of a new decade is a great time to assess your financial status, and just as important, to focus on your financial future with a total makeover. This is especially true today when so many of us are still reeling from the battered economy and record unemployment. But regardless of your current financial circumstances, there is always room for improvement and step one is to create a list of goals.
To help you, take a look at the key priorities that are the backbone of any financial plan.  You have to know where you are starting from in order to know where you are going.

•    Establish your net worth: Add up the value of your assets- your home, investments, retirement accounts, savings, etc. Then add up your liabilities- mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, etc. When you  

There has been a lot of press lately about the high cost of divorce. Not the legal fees (although those alone can be staggering enough to be deterrents) but the unanticipated expenses. Apparently there can be many surprises along the way.

According to Ron Lieber, who writes the YOUR MONEY column for “The New York Times”, the obvious first decision is whether to use traditional legal channels to resolve the major financial and custodial issues  

Before our economic woes got our undivided attention, one of the greatest fantasies for employees and business owners was the idea of being able to take early retirement. But with the staggering unemployment numbers, it means that for far too many, early retirement has become a forced retirement.

If you are one of the millions of Americans trying to get back into the job market or back into businesses,  

As recently as last week, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit Europe. It has been four years since I was last there and a lot has changed. One of the greatest surprises was being welcomed as an American. On my previous visit, my family and I were spit at in Italy. Now they yell, “We Love Obama.”

Now that I am a little older, I became aware of something that was hardly on my radar during my earlier trip but was very evident this time around. In Europe the culture is all about living within your means. Americans, in particular, pride themselves on over indulgence. We even praise the Paris Hilton  types who are able to achieve the American dream without having to ever lift a finger. The  

Very soon, Joe, the plumber, will say good-bye to his twenty minutes of fame and return to his real calling, unclogging drains and fixing leaky pipes. Joe’s absurd rise to notoriety made me think of the real unsung heroes in our communities who earn their living working with their hands and their hearts. Their voices are rarely heard, but their observations about life could provide some of our greatest wisdom.

If an IRA owner dies and leaves his IRA to a nonspouse beneficiary, that is considered to be an “inherited IRA”.

Example:
 

Sam wants to work but he is worried that he would lose his Social Security Disability Income Benefits (SSDI) which provide him with money each month to live on as well as allowing him to receive Medicare benefits for his health care.

Like many others, when Sam applied for SSDI he was denied benefits but was successful in the appeal process to obtain benefits retroactively.  Sam has been doing pretty good and would love to get back into  

Many of my widowed and divorced clients have gone on to remarry later in life (maybe even for a third time). It’s wonderful that they’ve found happiness, but from an estate planning point of view, it can be a real challenge to make sure that love does conquer all. Given their later stages, re-marrieds come to the altar with an array of entanglements- children, grandchildren, property, businesses, assets, health  

Many individuals establish trusts as part of their overall estate plan.  There are many valid reasons for establishing a trust such as asset protection, estate tax savings, and providing for incapacity.  

However there are many reasons for avoiding a trust, if possible, if the assets involved are not significant.

There are significant compliance costs for administering and maintaining a long-term trust which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more after the creator of the trust passes away.

In addition, many trustees are exposed to significant liability if the trustees do not keep up-to-date with  

After the Bernie Madoff scandal broke, the real million dollar question was, how could anyone be so gullible to turn over their entire life savings to a man who they knew so little about? Naturally hindsight is 20/20, but the more important question is, in these tough times, how many of us are letting our guard down and setting ourselves up to be victimized, too?

According to the North American Securities Administrations Association, in just the first five months of 2009 alone, there has been a twenty percent jump in the number of investment scams offering outsized  

In the midst of all of the economic turmoil, everyone is scrambling to get advice. How can I protect my assets from further loss in a declining market? Can I still plan on retiring when I thought? Are there year-end tax strategies I should be considering?

Guaranteed income for life sounds like one of those grand prize for a contest that one person wins and everyone else dreams about. But there is an investment that offers such a thing, and under the right circumstances, it can be a winning strategy. It’s called an immediate fixed annuity, or income annuity, and it works like this: buy a one-time premium from an insurance company, and in return, get a guaranteed  

This year, it will be extremely important for everyone to review their estate plan. The substantial drop in both the financial market and the housing market as well as the increase in certain federal estate tax credits and exemptions may significantly impact your current estate plan.

FEDERAL ESTATE AND GIFT TAX AMOUNTS.

      A. Federal Estate Tax Applicable Exclusion Amount\Tax Rate

      The Federal estate tax applicable exclusion amount for 2009 is $3,500,000 which is substantially in excess of last year’s $2,000,000 amount. For individuals dying in 2009, the top estate tax rate is forty-five  

In this volatile economic climate, the decision to invest in stocks vs. bonds feels like a good cop/bad cop routine. Which one do you trust? At the moment, bonds and bond funds do represent a good alternative to stocks, offering income, stability and less volatility, although they do have their own market fluctuations. Bonds and bond funds, known as fixed income investments, also have their own risk ratings and rates of return.

Here is a quick look at the major fixed income categories:

Multisector bond fund: This is a mutual fund that invests in a variety of bonds in one allocation, allowing the  

Most people understand the importance of writing a will and buying enough life insurance to protect family from serious financial hardship upon their death. But one of the most overlooked aspects of financial planning is naming the beneficiaries for ones overall assets and investments, and keeping that list current.

Recently we worked with a client who had named her husband as primary beneficiary on her IRA many years ago, but failed to update the account, even after he was admitted to a nursing home. Had we not recommended that she change the beneficiary to list her children, this would not have been on her radar