Mutual Funds

Once upon a time, in the (somewhat mythical) past of traditional defined benefit pensions, your employer protected you from the risk of outliving your money in retirement, by acting, more or less, as an insurance company providing an annuity. With that benefit receding into the past, many experts have been hoping that Americans with 401(k)

Today’s column addresses questions about whether Social Security reps normally try to convince people to take their retirement benefit before they turn 70, whether to file for retirement benefits after taking survivor benefits and when spousal benefits could be paid along with public pensions. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and

Millions of Americans have switched jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond that, some 12,000 baby boomers have been entering retirement every day, which has led to a flood of 401(k) rollovers. Along the way, many workers will make one or more of the following seven 401(k) rollover mistakes. ADVERTISEMENT The result of a 401(k)-rollover mistake can

For almost two years now, those who help Medicare beneficiaries find plans have been using an updated Medicare Plan Finder, a tool that does not do all the things its predecessor, the Legacy Plan Finder, did. It appears the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decided it was time to work that same magic on Physician Compare. 

A handful of the largest U.S. public pensions, such as CalPERS and STRS Ohio, facing increased public scrutiny claim that their compliance with voluntary standards developed for the money management industry—the Global Investment Performance Standards—enhances their integrity and transparency. Pension stakeholders should not be fooled. In 2018, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest

Every conversation I have with operators of senior living facilities and home care agencies quickly pivots to one issue: A desperate shortage of care workers. The problem isn’t new. Low pay, low status, and physically and emotionally demanding work has plagued the long-term care industry’s ability to hire for years. Highly restrictive Trump-era immigration policies

As you transition into retirement, it’s a good idea to adopt strategies that help protect you from significant financial losses in your later years due to mistakes, financial exploitation from unethical friends and relatives, and fraud.  The recently released “Thinking Ahead Roadmap” helps you select a financial advocate who can assist you in managing your money

Today’s column addresses questions about filing first on a spouse’s benefits and then for retirement benefits, filing for retroactive retirement benefits after first taking spousal benefits and whether it’s worth taking the option at 70 to file six months retroactively. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president

Now that we’ve celebrated our national Independence Day, it’s a good time to contemplate being able to celebrate your own Financial Independence Day. Financial independence is a state of being in which you don’t have to work to pay your living expenses. You may decide to retire or you may choose to work because you

Today’s column addresses questions about the rate of reduction for filing less than 12 months before full retirement age (FRA), eligibility for benefits based on an ex’s record and how and when delayed retirement credits (DRCs) are applied when filing after FRA. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder

Nice problem to have: a fat retirement account along with potentially taxable gains. This calculator tells you which asset to liquidate. You’re retired, and living off two piles of assets—a taxable brokerage account and a tax-deferred IRA. Which should be cashed in first? For a lot of people, the answer is simple: Use up the

Perfection in financial planning is impossible and its pursuit may actually be counterproductive. It may be better said that financial planning is fundamentally an exercise in mistake management and minimization. Much like major league batters in baseball, three-point shooters in basketball, and football quarterbacks in pursuit of completing passes, you may well fall short more

In case you hadn’t noticed, here in the U.S. we have a lot of diversity among the governing bodies we call states. Some of this diversity is pretty obvious, like climate, population, terrain, and size. We also have tremendous diversity in political philosophy and governance policies.  So, it shouldn’t be surprising that our united states don’t

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor When most of us (and retirement experts) think about how prepared we’ll be for a financially comfortable retirement, it’s typically about how much money has been saved for it. But University of Massachusetts Boston professor Jan Mutchler says there’s another way to look at it: Will you have enough income

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor As we’ve all noticed, inflation has been on the rise lately — the Consumer Price Index rose from 1.6% at the end of the first quarter of 2021 to about 3.4% for the second quarter. And that has major implications for how you should be managing your money: your savings,

New Jersey, the only state to have a pension funded status worse than Illinois’s (according to Pew’s 2020 compilation based on 2018 data), is quite pleased with itself because, as the state announced in a recent press release, “State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio announced that the Treasury Department today kicked off the start of the

By Barbara Field, Next Avenue The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported last summer that female-owned small businesses were “disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and corresponding economic crisis.” The prediction for growth and revenue looked depressing. But these three women, all over 50, bucked the statistics by embracing digital technology and pivoting their businesses. During the

People worry about money in good times and in bad. Surveys, pre-COVID, typically found that about seven-in-ten people were stressed about money at any given time. The impact of the pandemic on this stress? It exacerbated an issue that many of us already lived with. Between the worry over health and general well-being of the

Rep Tom Suozzi (D-NY) has introduced a bill to create a public, catastrophic, long-term care insurance program. The monthly cash benefit, initially about $3,600 and indexed for inflation, would be funded with a modest increase in the payroll tax of 0.3 percent for workers and 0.3 percent for employers, or roughly $300-a-year for a median

Goal-based financial planning isn’t a new concept. Neither is diversification.  We know that we’ve historically used life insurance as a risk management tool that helps with income replacement during your working years. But life insurance also plays an important role in a diversified and comprehensive financial plan. It’s important to first establish your goals, then

If you have a 401(k) at work, you’re probably familiar with the standard advice about such plans: make sure to contribute enough to receive any employer match and make the maximum contribution if you’re able. But some employers offer both a traditional 401(k) and a Roth 401(k), and it can be difficult to determine if

Here are strategies for people aged 60 to 72 who have left the workforce. 1. Postpone Social Security. Social Security is a lifetime, inflation-adjusted, low-risk annuity. It’s valuable. When you collect before turning 70, you are in effect selling off a piece of that asset and probably getting a poor price for it. Do people

From my perspective as investment counsel focusing on retirees, I want to see everyone paying themselves first by automating the savings process. And, the further retirement is away from today, the more impact those saved dollars have when invested properly. Of course, things can intervene, like losing a job, or being hit with the unexpected

Today’s column addresses questions about the timing of spousal benefits and how restricted application differ from filing and suspending, when divorced spousal benefits can be available and options when disability benefits are discontinued. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc, which markets

Earlier this month, the forensic investigation of the $90 billion-plus State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio commissioned by the Ohio Retired Teachers Association and performed by my firm, was completed. The damning preliminary findings have now been reported to Ohio legislators, regulators and law enforcement. The report concluded the state pension has long abandoned transparency;

This will not be an easy request, but can we, for a moment, put aside our furor and frustration with billionaires who used Roth IRAs as their personal tax-free piggybanks? It’s hard not to get riled up about a billionaire who managed to put a couple grand into a Roth IRA and have it now

Recent tales from the Crypto world remind casual investors of the risk of speculating All of a sudden, it’s raining cryptocurrency. In other words, they are coming down in price the way rain falls in the tropics. Bitcoin is the most well-known, sort of the Band-Aid brand of this new crew of digital monetary species.

If you’ve watched your parents or older relatives age into their final years, you might have witnessed a decline in their ability to manage their money. As they got older, they became more vulnerable to financial losses due to making mistakes, exploitation by unethical family or friends, or financial fraud. Substantial research confirms this risk.

Most estate planning lawyers are conscientious and do their jobs as expected. But some seem to forget that in the real world all family members don’t get along so well. A mistake we keep seeing at AgingParents.com, where we offer advice to families with elders is that lawyers put disconnected and even hostile adult children

Climate change is a huge challenge globally.  The Society of Actuaries (SOA) conducts research on a wide variety of risks and their impact on retirement planning for various stakeholders. Two recent SOA research projects that focused on households and on big societal issues include Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations and The 14th Annual Survey