An extraordinary court case from Oklahoma shows the importance of having a will that is in writing and clearly written, preferably by an experienced estate planning professional. A man passed away, survived by his two adult children and a grandson. He left a one-sentence handwritten will (known as a holographic will) that left everything he
Retirement
In his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican convention, George H.W. Bush famously pledged, “read my lips: no new taxes,” only to concede tax hikes in 1990 budget negotiations, and be hammered with the broken pledge in his failed 1992 re-election bid. In his own election campaign, President Joe Biden promised repeatedly that he would
By Chris Farrell, Next Avenue Julie Steller, the 63-year-old founder of Steller Handcrafted Goods in Minneapolis, is getting used to making pivots. Steller first turned her passion for craft making into a small business in 2012. It was all about using upcycled wool sweaters, authentic Nordic braid and other quality materials to make mittens, shawls, hats,
By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor Until now, we’ve never published a Next Avenue article about cryptocurrency or Bitcoin or the blockchain and, as the editor of our Money channel, I’m the reason why. Frankly, I’ve felt that the Bitcoin digital currency and other cryptocurrencies were, at best, extremely volatile and risky investments (did I mention
Inflation is already at 5% and probably headed higher. Here’s a 39-year old survivalist portfolio poised for a return to its glory days. Is Michael J. Cuggino, vendor of a fund designed to withstand inflation and other disasters, hoping for bad times ahead? Perish the thought. Here’s his diplomatic take on the protestations from the
Sometimes normal human instincts don’t lead to the best actions. That’s a basic finding of behavioral finance research, and it’s true of a lot of retirement planning. People often believe that taking more actions is better than doing less, but doing more often doesn’t improve retirement plans and often can make them worse. For example,
To most of the sane world, charging clients lots of money for doing nothing—providing no meaningful product or service—sounds like the very definition of fraud. But much of what happens every day on Wall Street is far from rational or fair. Money managers have devised perfectly legal ways of getting paid millions for doing nothing and
Forensic investigations reveal that public pensions in states such as Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and, most recently, Ohio, have long abandoned transparency, choosing instead to collaborate with Wall Street firms to eviscerate state public records laws and avoid accountability to stakeholders. Predictably, billions that could have been used to pay government workers
One of the unanticipated effects of the pandemic is that it has induced millions of workers to retire early. John, for example, who is now 62, had previously expected to work until 65 or 68. He has $1 million of financial assets, which makes him better off than many of the involuntary retirees, and the
I’ve received a number of letters from readers of this forbes.com column asking for help with both tax refunds and stimulus payments. They want to know, what’s going on? I have some answers, but, unfortunately, no advice to each reader, as each delay could be situational, that is, unique to the person experiencing the delay. Readers