Friday, March 28. 2008
Is your excess insurance capacity for sale? Should it be?
The pitch goes something like this: "You are eligible for more insurance than you currently have, giving you "excess capacity" for insurance on your life. Why don't you sell that capacity, since you're not using it anyway, and put the extra money in your pocket to meet your own goals?" And if it wasn't against public policy, the strategy might even work!
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Tuesday, March 25. 2008
New guidance on fixing a botched IRA stretch after it's "too late"
To preserve the ability to stretch IRA distributions for a beneficiary, that individual must start taking withdrawals based on his/her life expectancy in the year after death. If those required withdrawals don't start on time, can you still rectify the situation to preserve the tax deferral? A recent private letter ruling indicates the answer is "yes."
Continue reading "New guidance on fixing a ... »Friday, March 14. 2008
Is it time to buy muni bonds in an IRA?
As financial planners, we've all heard the old saw "never put a tax shelter inside of a tax shelter" - in other words, don't buy tax-exempt municipal bonds inside of a tax deferred retirement account. Well, it seems that "never" may have just arrived.
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Thursday, March 13. 2008
The dollar has its woes, and now the penny does too!
The rising price of various commodities, linked in part to the falling dollar, have begun to impact the cost of a broad array of goods in the U.S., from the cost of building construction to gasoline at the pump to food at the grocery store. Now, the decline of the dollar is being felt directly by the U.S. government, with a painful rise in the cost of the penny!
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Friday, March 7. 2008
It just got a little easier to borrow money...
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) has just released the new maximum conforming loan limits, established pursuant to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which will allow homebuyers in several metropolitan areas to obtain conforming loans as large as $729,750, instead of the former limit of only $417,000.
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