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Because of recent tax law changes, income taxes — not estate taxes — are now a more significant focus in estate planning. And one key planning area is the step-up in basis, which affects the capital gains tax heirs owe when they sell inherited assets. Why Income Taxes Are a Focus The 2026 federal gift […]

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), enacted in the summer of 2025, includes a new temporary federal income tax deduction for auto loan interest. On January 2, 2026, the IRS published in the Federal Register proposed regulations addressing the write-off — which is available regardless of whether taxpayers itemize on their tax returns — […]

If you co-own a business and follow professional advice, you’ve likely established a buy-sell agreement in case you or one of your fellow owners voluntarily or involuntarily leaves the company. Assuming this is true, remember that it’s not enough to draft an agreement and put it in a safe place. You need to review and […]

Secure Act 2.0 requires employers to start automatically enrolling employees for tax-saving 401(k) elective deferral contributions (also called salary reduction contributions) for all new plans. Exceptions apply for plans established prior to December 29, 2022, new businesses in operation for less than 3 years,  and small businesses with10 or fewer employees. The end result of […]

Not all married couples earn dual incomes. For example, during the course of a marriage, one spouse may leave the workforce to care for a family member or tend to his or her own health issues. Regardless of why you left and whether it’s temporary or long-term, you might still want to save for retirement while […]

What Should We Do If Our 401(k) Plan Must Make a Distribution to Someone We Can’t Locate? Question: Each year, when our 401(k) plan makes required minimum distributions, we discover that the addresses on file for some distributees are no longer valid. We sometimes have similar problems locating beneficiaries when a participant dies. What procedures […]

Just as having an outside expert prepare your company’s tax return doesn’t get you off the hook if you have problems with your financial systems, using professional retirement plan administrators and investment advisors doesn’t absolve you of responsibility for complying with IRS regulations. Where problems typically crop up, according to Monika Templeman, IRS Director of […]

I just signed my wife up for Medicare and thought this was a good article spelling out the subject. At first, it was intimidating. However, when we went to the Social Security website, it was intuitive to use. Now it is off to an insurance broker to sign up for Part D and Medigap coverage. […]

Many companies choose not to combine real estate and other assets into a single entity. Perhaps the business fears liability for injuries suffered on the property. Or legal liabilities encountered by the company could affect property ownership. But there are valid and potentially beneficial tax reasons for holding real estate in a separate entity as […]

I’m just your average Gen X’er who still enjoys rocking a good flannel and bragging about how I survived the Y2K panic, the dot-com bubble, and the housing crash….but investing in cryptocurrency?  I thought if I ignored it long enough, it would just fade away like all the other “investing” fads (some of us had […]