Ten years ago (September 15, 2008), Lehman Brothers, a prominent Wall Street investment bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The financial system had been deteriorating for months and the federal government had already stepped in on several occasions to provide support. But the government decided to allow to Lehman to fail. That decision helped to […]
Financial Planning – Springwater’s Role
For most of our clients, Springwater has developed a comprehensive financial plan. The plans address the core areas of financial planning: budgeting and cash flow management, risk management (i.e. insurance), tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning and investment management. Other important planning areas that may be addressed include education planning, debt management, Social Security planning, […]
How will the new tax laws impact divorce settlements?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December 2017 included new alimony tax rules that apply to divorce or separation agreements executed after Dec. 31, 2018. The changes can dramatically affect each spouse’s finances, and so are expected to increase the contentiousness of the divorce process. Beginning on January 1, 2019, the ex-spouse that […]
Social Security, Medicare and Inflation
Social Security benefits include automatic cost of living adjustments (“COLAs”), which are intended to ensure that payments keep pace with inflation. However, years of low inflation and rising Medicare premiums have meant that, for many seniors, the adequacy of Social Security for retirement income has declined. Over the past eight years, COLAs for Social Security […]
Do we really need to think about long-term care insurance?
The title of this blog probably induced an immediate reaction. If you’re like most of our clients, it was probably not positive. If you own long-term care insurance, you’re probably frustrated that the carrier has come back to you (perhaps more than once) and asked you to agree to higher premiums for the same coverage, […]
Projecting Your Health Care Costs in Retirement
A recent survey of retirees by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald & Associates found that half of them had not attempted to calculate their health care expenses in retirement before they retired, and more than 40% said their health care costs are higher than they originally had expected. Years ago, when we built […]
With Social Security, don’t confuse spousal and survivor benefits
Claiming Social Security can be quite confusing, and determining the strategy that will maximize your lifetime benefits can be complicated. If you are or have ever been married, it may seem even more so. Retirement benefits and survivor benefits (available to widows and widowers) can be thought of as two different buckets of money. If […]
Dear Graduate – Time is on Your Side
“Did I ever tell you the story about the magic of compounding?” That’s what you should ask your recent college graduate when you give her a Roth IRA contribution for graduation. It’s possible she won’t listen, but years from now she’ll be very grateful. The power of the Roth IRA A Roth IRA makes a […]
Be Careful with Your Company’s Stock
Imagine that someone has worked for forty years for a company, and is retiring with a pension and shares of stock in that company. If you are among the majority of Americans who do not have a company pension, you might find this scenario rather appealing. But, if that employer were 125-year old General Electric, […]
Investing using Individual Bonds or Bond Funds
Yesterday one of our clients asked us for the cost basis for a corporate bond that had been in her portfolio. It matured last year (2017) and the principal was returned to our client. Her CPA was working on her taxes and needed to know what our client originally paid for the bond – the […]