Picking the right charity can be so complicated that it makes picking stocks look easy. When you give to charity, do you ever wonder if your donation is really going where it's intended? Or if your gift is doing the work you intended? If you are wrestling with these and…
Worried about your adult children blowing through their inheritance? Two strategies can help holders of individual retirement accounts curb an heir’s impulse to “cash out.” You may have many assets to leave behind for your heirs. However, an IRA is unique enough to be easily squandered in taxes, as MarketWatch…
“I don’t believe in inheriting money,” CNN host Anderson Cooper recently told Howard Stern on Stern’s radio show. Added Cooper, a son of designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt: “I think it’s an initiative sucker. I think it’s a curse.” American attitudes toward inheritance seem to be shifting, partly by fiscal…
Many of us want to get going but don't know where to start. So, here are eight documents that can help you get your affairs in order. If that sounds like a lot of paperwork, don't worry: You probably won't need every one of them. A properly planned and executed…
[Donor-advised funds] promise a number of advantages over foundations, such as lower annual costs, more privacy and no required minimum payout each year. A big difference between the two is control. Running a charitable foundation can be richly rewarding, yet exhausting. Now there is a popular alternative to a full…
A spouse who inherits an IRA has a choice. The surviving spouse can move the account into an inherited IRA to keep the tax shelter. Or she can choose to roll the account into her own IRA. There are some unique rules that go into effect when an IRA is…
If you wish to ensure that your estate does not fall prey to predators, creditors or taxes, keep reading to be sure you're not committing the five cardinal sins of estate planning. Just as it's important to know what to do, it's vital to know what NOT to do. Take…
What follows are issues to consider, and, in those rare cases where a transfer can make sense, how to do it the right way. Are you thinking about handing over the family home to your loved ones early? Proceed with caution. Although the hand-off can be a blessing to some,…
Generally the best way to value things is by looking at what similar things sell for. There is not a lot of buying and selling of facade easements. So what you do is value the property as it is and then value it as encumbered by the easement. If…
Reverse mortgages, which allow homeowners 62 and older to borrow money against the value of their homes that need not be paid back until they move out or die, have long posed pitfalls for older borrowers. Although a reverse mortgage has some advantages, such as offering a means of cash…