Remember, the account holds the investment- it is not the investment!

Many times people will conflate the type of account with the underlying investment. It is key to remember that an account is simply the container that you put investments (i.e. stocks and bonds) inside of.

What is an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)?

An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is a legal entity created to own and control a life insurance policy for the benefit of designated beneficiaries.

5 Reasons to Have and Not Have a Revocable (Living) Trust?

What types of investments are known as "alternative investments"?

The term "alternative investments" encompasses a diverse range of assets that fall outside traditional investment categories like stocks, bonds, and cash. Here are the primary types of assets considered alternative investments:

A Roth conversion is a financial strategy where you transfer funds from a traditional retirement account, such as a traditional IRA or a 401(k), into a Roth IRA. This conversion requires you to pay taxes on the amount converted in the year of the conversion, but once the funds are in the Roth IRA, they grow tax-free and qualified withdrawals in retirement are also tax-free.

What is an ILIT Trust and how can it help with estate planning?

An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) can offer several significant benefits for individuals and families seeking to protect their assets and provide for their loved ones.

Are you planning on saving for your child's education? Here are the pros and cons of using 3 different types of accounts.

If you are looking to speed up your Microsoft Excel operations for both work and personal use, here are some helpful keyboard shortcuts to get you quicker in excel!

Remember Warren Buffet's 2 rules for investing: Rule #1 is Don't lose money and Rule #2 is Don't forget the first rule. Why is this so important? Because as you lose money, the return you require to get back to "even" gets larger and larger.

Compound interest, by definition, is interest computed on the sum of an original principal and accrued interest. It is "interest on interest" and it has a snowball effect on returns. Let's look at this example from ramseysolutions.com to understand why time in the market is more important than timing the market, or even capital invested to a large degree:

When does a POA power abate? At death. Once the principal has died, the power of attorney powers are no longer granted to the agent, and estate law will take precedent.

Most people know that in order to withdraw money from an IRA or Roth IRA penalty free, the IRS makes you wait until age 59.5. Once you hit that number, you no longer fall victim to the 10% early withdrawal penalty (although taxes may still apply). The same goes for your employer sponsored plan, like a 401(k) or 403(b) account, where withdrawals are penalty free and clear after age 59.5. There is a caveat for the 401(k) and 403(b), and that is the rule of 55.

When choosing funds to invest in in your 401(k), 403(b), or any investment account for that matter, be sure to not be snake bitten by the expense ratio. Without you even realizing it, you could potentially be paying a mutual fund manager 20% or more of yearly returns. Here's an explainer:

As the new year commences, we get busy trying to keep up with our newly minted resolutions, catch up on work after the holidays, and set our sights on a clean slate of opportunities. Remember to keep your personal finances in good standing, as well. Here are a few reminders:

We hear a lot about how bad credit cards can be for the average consumer, and that is absolutely true if used with reckless abandon. Credit card interest rates can be north of 20% and if you choose to pay a fraction of the balance month to month, you can find yourself in a hole that is hard to dig out of.

Check out all the big updates for next year!

First of all, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The more return you seek as an investor, the more risk you are willing to accept. If the investment was easy, obvious, and a sure thing, everyone would then pile into it, thereby oversaturating itself and losing its advantage relative to other opportunities in the market. The expected return would plummet.

We have been hanging on the Fed's every word for a couple of years now, as interest rates have risen precipitously over that time frame. What is the Fed and what do they control?

Life insurance is one of the most important financial decisions you make when you have others depending on your income production. Typically, the first big impetus to purchase a life insurance policy is marriage or your first child, but it really just comes down to if someone is depending on you or not.

What is a 529 account? Well, a 529 account is a tax efficient wrapper for your designated education funds for yourself or a beneficiary. Funds that are deposited into a 529 account grow tax free, so long as the deployment of capital from the account properly qualifies for eligible education expense.