Keeping more of your money, because you didn't work all those years just to tip the IRS. A little January planning can help avoid those 'Wait, I owe how much?' moments.
Losing a spouse in your fifties comes with a rulebook most people never open until they need it. Survivor benefits that cannot start until 60. A remarriage rule with a hard birthday attached. A ten-year wait for Medicare. This week we walk the ages of widowhood, and we start with the hardest decade.
Tom and Mary both planned their estates, but only one family avoided probate court and family disputes. Here's what made all the difference.
Give the kids the house now, or leave it to them later? The tax code treats those two acts completely differently, and the difference can be worth six figures. The finale of The Fourth Color: step-up in basis, the gifting rules that surprise most families, and the estate tax fear most families can r
Many sellers still believe there is a special capital gains break once you turn 65. There is not, and the rule that replaced it has not grown in almost thirty years while home values have. Part two of The Fourth Color: what the sale really costs, and the Medicare surprise that follows it.
Green, yellow, red. For years those three colors of money covered nearly everything. But for more retirees than ever, the biggest asset on the balance sheet is a house or a rental, and it plays by its own rules. Part one of a new three-part series.
“My full trust is in you folks and always has been since the beginning.”
— Dana B., ARA client since 2019
“Best decision we made years ago in AZ was finding American Retirement Advisors!”
— Ellen K., Scottsdale
“I told my friends I was in the same position and talked to American Retirement Advisors and got my questions answered.”
— Rod H., ARA client
“I was talking to a family friend yesterday and told him what a wonderful job Marc did.”
— Susan S., Mesa
“He comes highly recommended by close friends. I only want to talk to David Edge.”
— Gene M., referred client
“This is my first year in Medicare and your input was extremely helpful.”
— Randy B., new client
We start by learning what you want to accomplish and what you have to work with. We can't help if we don't know the full picture.
We keep the best of what you already have, replace what can be better, and make sure nothing is falling through the cracks.
As life changes, so should your plan. We lock in an annual review to make sure everything is still working for you.
The Annual Enrollment Period opens today, and three claims are making the rounds that are wrong or out of date: a new escape hatch when your doctor leaves, a $2,000 drug cap, and a rule that you must re-enroll every year. What the official sources actually say.
As people compare 2027 Medicare plans, the biggest late-life cost is not on any plan summary. Medicare and Medigap do not pay for long-term care. What Medicare does cover runs out fast, what care costs today, and the questions a couple can settle calmly, before either of them needs it.
Plan shopping starts Thursday, and plenty of plans show a $0 premium. For about 1 in 12 people with Medicare, that is not the whole bill. The income-based Part D surcharge follows you to any plan, so here is how to shop around it instead of into it.
Dental, vision, and hearing are the extras people notice first, and the plan letter rarely shows their limits. On Medicare.gov, the dental flag read 'not specified' for every plan we pulled. Where the real limits live, and why the extras belong last on your list, not first.
Eight true-or-false questions from a busy week: charitable giving, the income surcharge on $0 plans, long-term care, three Medicare rumors, and Social Security's 2027 raise. Every answer links back to the article it came from.
Social Security's 2027 cost-of-living adjustment is 3.6%, about $75 more a month for the average retiree. What lands in your January deposit depends on a few numbers that are not out yet, plus some that are. A short household check before the year ends.
Starting in 2026, the first slice of every itemizer's charitable giving is no longer deductible, and top-bracket households see their deductions trimmed. If you are 70½ or older, there is a cleaner route straight from your IRA, and it has to happen by December 31.
You would not skip your annual physical, and you should not skip your money's either. To close out our week on financial interactions, here is what actually happens in a real annual review, piece by piece, and the moment from one of ours that I would put up against any product pitch in the country.
Four real situations, thirty seconds each: a widow who found four accounts she never knew about, a man who sold his company and felt nothing, a couple whose plan is twenty-two years old, and three kids who will not agree. Plus Greg Frantz on thirty years of Medicare. Hayes's thirty-two-minute cut is
The thing that actually splits families isn't the money. It's a ring, a chair, a photo, and the feeling of being left out. Here is how you hand it all down without anyone stopping speaking.
Asking your parents about their estate feels like reaching for the inheritance. It isn't. It's making sure the plan they built still does what they wanted. Here are the words that open it gently.
The money you give while you are alive to watch it land is worth more than the same money left behind. Here is how to do it without stepping on the parents or spoiling the kids.
