How do you find a good wealth advisor? That is a very important question. It is amazing how casually many couples and families approach the search. Consider the observations of MarketWatch senior columnist Chuck Jaffe, who has given many presentations on this very topic. Jaffe commonly polls his audience, asking people to raise their hand if they have worked with a financial advisor. Next,

Do you see yourself retiring in the near future? In planning for that transition, you might want to consider the state of your mortgage, the state of your property taxes, and the state of your living quarters. Could you pay off your mortgage in the next few years? If your home is paid off, great. If you are close to paying it off, think about putting whatever extra cash

When your income stream is uneven, you must deal with some distinct financial issues. Besides cash flow, what do you do about your tax strategy? How should you try to save? If you are self-employed, what about health coverage?

Here’s a trivia question for you: when was the last time the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark U.S. interest rate? The answer: June 29, 2006. On that day, the federal funds rate hit 5.25%

Most retirement planning literature portrays a retirement transition in the context of a couple or a family – but what about those who retire alone? What particular challenges do they face, and how must their preparation for retirement differ? Retiring alone presents unique challenges. Singles who retire may lack a spousal and familial support network other

With 2013 approaching, many families and their financial, tax and legal consultants are weighing major estate planning decisions. A short-term window of opportunity may be closing. The relatively low estate tax rates we have now may soon disappear, along with one of the largest federal tax breaks available in decades. Estate taxes are at 80-year lows. At the end of 2010, Congress reset the estate, gift and generation-skipping tax (GST) rates at 35% and raised[…]

How much salary should you defer into a retirement plan? Ultimately, the answer is “however much your budget allows you to contribute”. The big-picture question, however, is whether you need to contribute more to your retirement savings in order to maintain your lifestyle after your career is done. An Aon Hewitt analysis (The Real Deal: 2012 Retirement Income Adequacy

Recently, you may have heard about the “looming fiscal cliff”, the “coming fiscal cliff” and so forth. What exactly is it? Briefly stated, the “fiscal cliff” is a potential $7 trillion dilemma facing Congress this fall – a Congress not known for ready cooperation. If America goes over it, our economy could stumble.1 Will Congress act before 2013?

President Obama’s health care law has held up in the Supreme Court. So what impact might this have on the stock market, businesses, and investors in the coming months? How will Wall Street take this? After the June 28 ruling, stocks of key managed care companies fell while hospital stocks and Medicaid-related stocks rallied. Was this a reaction confined to a market day, or an indicator? Opinions differ.

The mandate stands. By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court has upheld the core of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The law’s most controversial provision will stand – the mandate requiring every American citizen to buy individual health insurance coverage.1 The court made a key distinction, interpreting that mandate not as a directive but as a tax.