Sometimes Uncle Sam gets a bad rap. As a metaphor for the federal government, he’s frequently the target of wry jokes, complaints, and criticism. Maybe the worst of it comes when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is involved, what with the rules, regulations and all those taxes. It’s a tough… Read More »

Who knows why tax law is so complicated? Most of us blame the IRS, but those who understand the history behind the whole thing point to Congress. Regardless of who’s responsible, most everyone who’s ever filed a return will agree that the U.S. tax code is an annoying web of… Read More »

As parents, we spend a lot of time thinking about grades and manners. We spend Saturday mornings at the soccer fields or the ball park. We worry about friend groups; we plan birthday parties, and we attend parent-teacher conferences. There’s a lot that goes into teaching our kids the fundamentals… Read More »

Passing assets on to those we love can be a wonderful thing and a great accomplishment, knowing the financial resources we leave behind could have a positive or even a transformative impact on those we care about most. But the process of wealth transfer should begin long before we pass… Read More »

When most people think about sailing on the open seas, they rarely get past the image of big sails and the ship’s captain at the helm, barking orders to crew members laboring on the deck, but the fact is, sailing has changed a lot in recent decades. While sails are… Read More »

Amid continued uncertainty over the future of Social Security, Congress is taking proactive steps to encourage retirement savings. Lawmakers passed the SECURE Act in 2019 to further incentivize retirement planning, and they followed with the SECURE 2.0 Act in December. In a recent analysis, Bloomberg Law called SECURE 2.0 one… Read More »

If asked to write a script to describe a really terrible year in the investment markets, I’m not sure many could have written one that was worse than 2022. After beginning January at an all-time high, the S&P 500 rode a roller coaster through war in Europe and fears of… Read More »