Advisors

AJ_Watt | E+ | Getty Images Forget volatility. The thing that keeps certified financial planner Neil Waxman on edge is clients’ cybersecurity practices and the threat of identity fraud. “It’s not the markets that keep me up at night,” said Waxman, managing director of Capital Advisors in Shaker Heights, Ohio. “This is the thing that

SDI Productions | E+ | Getty Images Some taxpayers are just now receiving a scary letter from the IRS: a warning that the federal taxman will seize their state income tax refund. As recently as this fall, the IRS has issued a so-called “notice of intent to levy” to taxpayers with an outstanding balance. The

TommL | E+ | Getty Images With sustainable investing, you cannot only use your money to make the world a better place, you can also use your money’s voice. Such is the job of shareholder advocacy, a primary strategy under the umbrella of sustainable/socially responsible investing. A small, but dedicated number of financial advisors, along

shapecharge | E+ | Getty Images With the number of deaths from the coronavirus continuing to mount, your own mortality may be more on your mind than usual. In fact, The Covid-19 pandemic has produced a rise in estate planning, according to certified financial planner Stacy Francis, president and CEO of Francis Financial.  Pandemic or

Luis Alvarez | DigitalVision | Getty Images Whether 2021 will bring higher taxes for small-business owners may depend on the outcomes of the two Georgia Senate races that will be decided in January. Indeed, two contests in the Peach State are heading to runoff at the start of 2021. Those races are between GOP Sen.

VioletaStoimenova | E+ | Getty Images Occasionally, a financial advisor grabs national attention by swindling clients out of millions, evading arrest via a bizarre escape plan or, sometimes, both. Luckily, there are ways investors can guard against high-profile cons or more under-the-radar criminality, according to financial experts. “These guys are very convincing in a very

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Remote workers — especially those who have been hopping to different states — could be on the hook for additional taxes when they file their returns next spring. It’s been nine months since the coronavirus pandemic first gripped the U.S. and led to many workers punching in each day

AJ Watt | Getty Images Are you stocking up on cold and flu meds for the winter? Buying an at-home Covid-19 test kit? If so, you are running out of time to use this tax-advantaged account for those purchases. Health-care flexible spending accounts, which may be available at your job, allow you to stash pre-tax

Shapecharge It’s not uncommon to want to move money from a workplace savings plan to an individual retirement account when you leave the company. Yet if you’re not careful while doing that rollover, you can make costly errors or lock yourself into something that can’t be easily undone. The key is to avoid any tax

2021 marginal income tax rates Individual Income Tax Rates Single Married Filing Jointly Head of Household 10% 0 to $9 950 0 to $19 12% $9 951 to $40 525 22% $40 526 to $86 375 24% $86 376 to $164 925 32% $164 926 to $209 425 35% $209 426 to $523 600 37%

Choreograph | iStock | Getty Images For the nation’s older cohort, the stakes can’t be higher when it comes to choosing health-care coverage. That’s partly because under Medicare — you’re eligible at age 65 — changing plans can be challenging in some circumstances and costly if you get your choices wrong. So whether you’re giving

South_agency | E+ | Getty Images The value of Bitcoin is skyrocketing. If you’re planning on selling now and pocketing the gains, Uncle Sam is going to want his share. This week, the cryptocurrency hit price it hasn’t seen since 2017, climbing toward $18,000 for one unit of Bitcoin. Over the course of 2020, it’s

LeoPatrizi The IRS has signaled it will bless a workaround that allows small-business owners to skirt the $10,000 cap on state and local income tax deductions. Ever since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect in 2018, high-tax states have sought ways to help individual taxpayers who itemize on their returns deal with the

GYRO PHOTOGRAPHY | amana images | Getty Images Growing rapidly within the socially responsible investing landscape is the world of so-called impact investing, which deploys your money more directly toward solving societal problems. Largely executed through direct investing platforms, this approach addresses specific problems, such as alleviating poverty in certain communities or reducing pollution. These

Clerkenwell | Vetta | Getty Images Socially responsible, or sustainable, investing — investing in ways to make the world a better place — continues to surge, driven by increasing consumer demand and the recognition that sustainable funds provide returns comparable to traditional funds in addition to lower risk. The first half of 2020 saw a

Nitat Termmee | Moment | Getty Images The good news is that surging markets have boosted investor portfolios this year. Now for the bad news: Some of those people will be owing the taxman. That’s because mutual funds distribute capital gains to their shareholders near the end of the year. At this point, fund providers

Vladimir Vladimirov | E+ | Getty Images The role of a financial advisor can encompass areas that many people might not expect. The truth is a financial advisor is not just someone who helps with investments. Quite often, the job is to assist with every aspect of a client’s financial life. Advisors use their expertise

Jose Luis Pelaez Inc | DigitalVision | Getty Images Don’t let the holidays distract you from last-minute opportunities to reduce your 2020 tax bill. There are about five weeks left in the year, which means the clock is ticking on tax-planning strategies. Some tactics are only in play for 2020, thanks to the federal CARES

Finding the right advisor to help with your financial needs and goals can be complicated. There are so many factors to assess. Many advisors will use a high asset under management as a selling point metric when marketing themselves to potential investors. However, AUM isn’t the whole story when a potential client is determining which

Oliver Furrer | Cultura | Getty Images You don’t have to be a hedge fund guru to discuss alternative investments with your clients, yet it doesn’t hurt to get educated. It’s no secret that portfolio diversification protects investors from the whims of the stock market, blunting the volatility you get in equities by including an

Petri Oeschger | Moment | Getty Images One of the best ways financial advisors can bolster their credibility and reach potential clients is available for free. It’s called social media. However, merely joining Twitter and Facebook won’t cut it, according to Dasarte Yarnway, founder of Berknell Financial Group in San Francisco. He shared his views

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Chad Chubb, a certified financial planner, walked a 66-year-old client through four premium increases on her long-term-care insurance policy. In all, the retiree, who is single, has seen her annual premiums rise by more than 60% over the last six years. Her cost in 2018 was $2,721, up from

POJCHEEWIN YAPRASERT PHOTOGRAPHY | Moment | Getty Images Let’s face it, when it comes to storing important financial documents, a shoe box under your bed doesn’t really cut it. Estate-planning documents — such as wills, trusts, living wills, medical directives and powers of attorney —are very important to you. So where do you keep them

Ted Jenkin (left), CEO of oXYGen Financial, with children Lyla, Louden and Olivia and wife Genna Jenkin. Ted Jenkin It’s official: Apparently, you can go home again. A recent TD Ameritrade survey found that 50% of “young millennials” plan to move back home with their parents after college. The survey polled 1,027 members of Generation

sarahwolfephotography | Moment | Getty Images For many women, financial security is one of the biggest considerations that factor in when deciding whether to stay in an unhappy marriage or divorce. As a result, a significantly large number of women stay in marriages that are unhealthy and even border on dysfunctional. Various studies show that

Morgan Stanley signage on the door of their headquarters building in New York. Scott Mlyn | CNBC Morgan Stanley is offering a new tool to help financial advisors and their clients measure sustainable investing choices and how they perform in their portfolios. The analytics and reporting application, called Morgan Stanley Impact Quotient, was announced on

If some financial advisors seem to know clients’ needs before they do, there’s a good chance software is part of the reason. Financial technology — or fintech, for short — has increased competition in the advice business via automated online platforms. Yet at the same time, advisors have found that those digital advances have bolstered

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images It’s an email every financial advisor should expect to receive at least once. Financial advisor Charles Failla recalls receiving an email from a client asking for about $5,000. She was vacationing in the Caribbean and claimed the hotel where she was staying didn’t accept credit cards. “She needed cash,”

10’000 Hours | DigitalVision | Getty Images Doling out advice on money matters is the stock in trade of the financial advisor. After all, it’s in their job title. So financial advisors, financial planners, wealth managers and the like are used to offering up advice on a daily basis to paying customers. But what about

izusek | E+ | Getty Images Eat what you kill. It’s not the most subtle description of the career path for financial advisors, but it is accurate. Historically, the financial advice industry has been built around people who can come to the job and quickly build books of business to generate revenue. Young advisors have