You may have read that there has been a drop in new home sales—down 13% in September compared to the previous September—and that, combined with the drop in stock market values, might have you worried about the state of the U.S. economy.
Generational Financial Divide If some random person off the street handed you $10,000 in cash, no strings attached, and would pay the taxes on this windfall, what would you do with it? Researchers asked this question of people who they categorized in the Millennial generation (age 18-34), Generation Xers (age 35-54) and Baby Boomers (over […]
Last Call for HARP One of the most beneficial consumer rescue programs from the Great Recession era is about to expire. The Home Affordability Refinance Program—known as HARP—was passed by a bipartisan Congress in 2009, to enable borrowers who were under water on their homes, or close to under water, to refinance into more affordable […]
Common Estate Planning Mistakes The most common way to transfer assets to your heirs is also the messiest: to have a will that is so out of date that it doesn’t relate to your property or estate, to have your records scattered all over the place, to have social media, banking and email accounts whose […]
Tax Rules When Selling Your Home – How the gains from the sale of a primary residence are taxed has changed in recent years. If you have recently sold your home, or are considering doing so, you may want to be aware of these new rules. HOME SALE If you owned and lived in your home […]
Determining the value of an estate is a fundamental first step in estate management and a critical requirement for settling a decedent’s estate.¹ HOW TO ASSESS THE VALUE OF AN ESTATE Select the date of calculation. Because values move up and down, you need to set a specific date for a valuation. For a living […]
Everybody should have a power of attorney—that is, a legal document that gives a designated individual the right to act on their behalf when making financial decisions. The power of attorney is most often used by adult children to make decisions on behalf of aging parents when they are no longer capable of making sound […]
