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The last time I wrote a blog post was July 30, 2018. We were a little busy the last half of 2018. After realizing the need to have Debbie's parents closer and then not being able to find a suitable house, we decided to add on to the house we've lived in for 20 years. They moved in between Christmas and New Year's. While we learned much more than what I can write here, I thought sharing some lessons might be helpful for others in similar circumstances.

A lot of people have aging life insurance policies of various kinds that are no longer needed and/or about to lapse. The normal course is to just let them lapse… end of story. With some planning, this old policy could be used to shield future taxable income.

I recently read of summary of poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke's book, Thinking in Bets. Duke describes one of the more common mistakes amateurs make is the tendency to equate the quality of a decision with the quality of its outcome. Poker players call this trait “resulting.”

I always encourage everyone who has yet to claim social security benefits to check their SSA statement at least annually to make sure earnings have been properly credited. Now, there's another very important reason to check this information. Crooks are filing bogus claims for benefits.

One comment I’ve received over the years when working with a new client is, “I want to spend all of my money before I die.” Or said another way by the character Saul Bloom in the movie Ocean’s Twelve, “I want the last check I write to bounce.” This idea sounds very simple and elegant, but the reality is more like the unpredictable, all-over-the-place capers of the Ocean’s gang.

Last week, the Social Security Administration released another audit report explaining how some widows have been underpaid benefits. This is in addition to the errors disclosed last year affecting widows that we wrote about in Social Security Short-Changes 100,000+ Widows. The latest report concerns widows that are dually entitled to a retirement benefit and a survivor benefit.

One day, your kids or grandkids will inherit what you leave behind. Or, you may be the one set to inherit from the older generation. In either case, understanding the different tax ramifications between various asset/account types will go a long way toward avoiding mistakes at the time of inheritance and hopefully set the stage for

Not exactly an easy task… summarizing the largest tax change in 30 years. Instead of an exhaustive list of changes, here are the items we feel are most applicable to our clients, in order of relevance. Where possible, we offer planning considerations.