#TBT Tackling College Costs at the Eleventh Hour
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The best way to climb the mountain of college costs is gradually, but if you need to make some last minute leaps, our government has a few tax-related strategies.

ABLE Accounts: Tax-Advantaged Savings for People with Disabilities
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ABLE accounts offer people with disabilities a new opportunity to save and invest for the future.

#TBT Best Practices for Trusts, Foundations, and Endowments
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“If you have been asked to serve as a board member or trustee for a non-profit organization, feeling honored is a natural response but a terrible reason for saying yes to the job. Your role as committee member, board member, or trustee will likely designate you as a fiduciary, a role with specific legal responsibilities.”

#TBT Common Endowment Mistakes
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When endowment funds fall victim to poor management, the results are as bad as they are far reaching. This 2016 article reviews the six most common pitfalls of endowments and how to avoid them.

#TBT How to Pay Off Student Loans While Building Wealth
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With many of us saddled in student loan debt well into our late thirties, our retirement cannot wait for us to be debt free. This 2016 rewrite of a 2007 article teaches you how to get started with savings while repaying your loans.

Are You Paying For Your Fund’s Advertising?
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If you own some mutual funds, chances are you are paying a hefty marketing price.

Common Endowment Mistakes
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Prudent investment practice is as much about knowing what not to do as it is about knowing what to do.

Selecting an Endowment’s Asset Allocation
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Two rules of endowment investing: 1) Keep an equity bias and 2) diversify.

How to Set Endowment Spending Rates
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Endowment spending rates can prove a catalyst for fulfilling or killing the life of the organization itself.

Best Practices for Trusts, Foundations, and Endowments
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Even if a committee has contracted with “prudent experts,” the Committee never delegates its fiduciary responsibility.

Fulfilling Your Fiduciary Duty as a Trustee or Board Member
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Despite the fact that millions serve in a fiduciary role, many are wholly unaware of their legal responsibilities.

How to Pay Off Student Loans While Building Wealth
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While your student loans may be a daunting sum, it is still possible to build wealth even while paying off student debt.

What is a Roth Conversion?
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If you don’t have retirement savings in Roth IRAs, it’s time you considered their benefits. Assets in traditional IRAs can be rolled into Roth IRAs without a withdrawal penalty.

Myth: A Will Determines How Your Assets Are Distributed When You Die
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It is a common assumption that your last will and testament determines who gets your stuff when you die. What you may not know is the vast majority of your assets may be transferred to others regardless of the instructions in your will.

Estate Planning is More Than Just a Will: 3 Essential Documents You Should Have
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A good estate plan is every bit as useful during your lifetime as it is at your death. No matter your age or how much (or how little) money you have, there are three essential estate planning documents you should have.

Who Gets Your Stuff When You Die Without a Will?
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It can be tricky to figure out who your “next of kin” is, so here’s a handy flowchart to help you figure out who gets everything you leave behind if you don’t have a will.

Looking Ahead: Are Bonds the Next Big Bubble?
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Long-term government bonds outperformed stocks over the past 20 years ending 2011, but the next 20 years may be a very different story.

Success and Significance in Retirement
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Most Americans fail to plan adequately for retirement. As a result, they often miss out on opportunities to enjoy the second half of life.

Giving Gifts to the Wrong Beneficiaries–Mistake #5
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Knowing which assets to give away to your beneficiaries can save your estate and your beneficiaries big tax bills, even if you have a small net worth. If you plan on making a gift to charity from your estate, you can be even more tax savvy with your giving.

Failing to Implement the Estate Plan–Mistake #6
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One of the most common estate planning mistakes is a plan that is implemented incorrectly. Your estate plan is only worth the paper it is printed on unless you follow through on titling your assets correctly and updating your beneficiary designations.

Creating Multiple Probate Estates–Mistake #4
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If you own real estate in different states, you may be leaving a mess of nightmarish proportions for your executor (the person who oversees and distributes your assets when you die). Here’s how to reduce the headache.

Failing to Name Beneficiaries on Retirement Accounts and Insurance Policies–Mistake #3
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It may surprise you that proceeds from retirement accounts and insurance policies are not divided according to the terms in your will. Instead, these assets pass directly to the beneficiaries you named on the account.

Assuming a Will is All You Need–Mistake #2
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No matter your age, in addition to a will, you need two additional documents.

Not Having an Estate Plan — Mistake #1
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The worst thing you can do is to do nothing at all and assume everything will pan out in the end. No matter how much (or how little) money you have, you need at least a simple will.

Are All ETFs Created Equal?
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Much of the recent conversation about ETFs has to do with the hidden risks of “synthetic ETFs,” risks which are not present in their mundane relatives known as “physical ETFs.”

This Time is (Not) Different
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Growing investor despair that somehow we have entered into a new era in which individual investors can no longer make money in the markets is an overreaction to the headlines.

A New Opportunity: Donating to Charity from Your IRA
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The law allows taxpayers age 70 1/2 or older to donate up to $100,000 from their IRA directly to a charity. The amount of the charitable contribution is excluded from taxable income.

When Donating a Dollar Only Costs Five Cents
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More than 200 charities have been designated Neighborhood Assistance Programs (NAPs).

How Medicare Works
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In some cases you will have to pay the $135 deductible plus 20 percent of the remaining costs.

Kiddie Tax Loophole Soon To Disappear
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Use a 529 college savings account to save for college.

IRAs Offer Big Tax Savings for Charitable Gifts
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Only contributions made to charity before January 1, 2008 can be characterized as qualified charitable distributions.

Consider Delaying Social Security Benefits
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Waiting for the higher payout is like buying longevity insurance.

Start Your Own Dynasty Trust
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Unlike the trusts which helped John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan keep their wealth in the family, this new breed of dynasty trust is not just for the mega-wealthy.

Be Choosey When Giving to Charity
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When you give to charity, you make an investment. By doing a little homework, you can be sure your gift makes the best possible return on investment. While giving is its own reward, giving wisely seems to double that reward.

Donor Advised Funds
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Donor Advised Funds offer the charitably inclined new flexibility for managing gifts to charity. By funding an account, donors receive an immediate tax deduction for their contribution and gain the flexibility to direct payouts to charity on their own timetable.

IPS: Build Your Financial Dream Home with a Good Blueprint
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Without a financial plan, your investments are controlling your dreams, not the other way around. You need a blueprint for your financial dreams to come true. That blueprint in sound financial planning is called an Investment Policy Statement (IPS).

Tax Planning Tips for 2006
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In order to make full use of these tax-saving tips, be sure to visit your tax professional before year’s end. Once January 1st rolls around, there’s little else you can do but pay up.

Tax Planning for Small Business Owners
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Solo 401(k)s permit you to contribute to the plan both as the “employer” and as the “employee.”

Roth IRA vs. the Traditional IRA
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Historically income taxes have not been this low since 1931.

Virginia Is For Business Lovers
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More businesses migrate across state borders than national borders.

Qualified 529 Spending
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Virginians can take a $2,000 state tax deduction simply by flowing their money through a 529 account for a day.

Reverse Mortgages Are A Last Resort
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Although the lender almost always wins, a reverse mortgage does offer a Band-Aid solution to pending cash flow problems.

Avoid Capital Gains Tax on the Sale of Your Home
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Consider moving your official place of residence to your vacation house, live in it 760 days out of five years, and then take the exclusion.

O Canada, The True North Strong and Free!
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Canada is the one major country that is not included in the EAFE (Europe, Australia, and Far East) foreign index. Not only are they good neighbors but a good investment.

Health Savings Accounts
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One out of every ten patients consume 69 percent of health care costs. The other nine would benefit from an HSA.

Community College Can Provide the Best Education
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Community college for the first two years is the best deal to avoid the mountains of student debt and still graduate from a top-rate school.

Creating A Ladder for Retirement Income
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Like the iron rods in sailing ships, bonds keep your portfolio upright in stormy weather.

Learn What Credit Stalkers Know About You
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Beware of bogus credit companies claiming to offer free credit reports in order to gather your personal information.

Seniors Face Six Month Deadline For Drug Coverage
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Even if you don’t need coverage you can avoid future penalties for as little as $1.87 per month.

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