Blog Posts

By: Jessica Kmetty

The World Health Organization notes that an estimated 47.5 million people currently live with dementia, a syndrome that affects memory, thinking, behavior and ability to perform everyday activities.* It can severely impact the ability to make financial decisions, and finding ways to help those with dementia manage their finances is critical to their health and well-being. These 5 tips can help families protect and preserve assets:

Few things strike fear into a taxpayer’s heart like a letter from the IRS. Fortunately, the odds of you ever being audited by the IRS are lower than ever. Recent budget cuts have reduced the number of IRS auditors, and in 2014 the IRS audited less than one percent of the individual tax returns it received, the lowest level since 2004.

Making a mistake with life insurance can hurt the ones you love most. Fortunately, with some advance preparation and careful thought, these costly errors may be avoided. Here are some of the most common life insurance pitfalls we see:

Tax season is underway and that means an uptick in tax-related scams. One particularly pernicious form of fraud is tax identity theft. Tax-related identity theft happens when someone uses sensitive personal information (like your Social Security number) and files a fraudulent tax return in your name to collect a refund. According to recent statistics, scammers filed over 5 million returns in 2013 using stolen information, costing the IRS $5.8 billion in fraudulent refunds.

After 18 years in the National Football League, the Denver Broncos’ star quarterback, Peyton Manning, is calling it quits after a very successful career. We wish him well and hope that he’s made the preparations needed to enjoy a long, comfortable retirement. If he has, he’ll be in the minority. Research shows that an estimated 60% of retired NFL players go broke within five years of retirement; nearly 16% declare bankruptcy.