Yes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which last year identified senior financial abuse as a public health hazard. Defined as fraud, breach of personal trust, poor investment advice, or improper use of power of attorney, the CDC’s effort highlights the fact that an increasing portion of total American assets…
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As you probably have heard, nearly half of all Americans have had their most sensitive personal data stolen from Equifax, one of the country’s three credit reporting bureaus. This is the biggest single data breach in American history, and we should all be very concerned about this situation. Here are my immediate observations and suggestions,…
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Now that tax-time is just around the corner, the IRS offers several warning signs that you may be a victim of tax-related identity theft and what to do about them: Your attempt to file your tax return electronically is rejected. You get a message saying a return with a duplicate Social Security number has been…
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I recently attended a seminar about public pension reform led by Chuck Reed, formerly mayor of San Jose and currently board member of the Retirement Security Initiative. As you probably recall, Reed led the effort to pass a pension reform measure for San Jose in 2012. Here are some of the implications of the underfunded…
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Genworth, one of the larger long term care insurers, recently released their 2016 cost of healthcare data. It is based on surveys or interviews with over 3800 licensed home healthcare providers, 1400 adult day health facilities, 6200 assisted living facilities, and 3600 nursing homes across the U.S. What’s especially useful is the breakdown of costs…
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I know this is a rather grim topic. But the fact is there are numerous risks we all face living in our society, and many people are reluctant to think about, let alone take action on, what’s needed to protect oneself. Here are the top ten causes of death in the U.S. in 2013, as…
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As is probably well-understood, one of the most valuable benefits of life insurance is income replacement should the breadwinner(s) in a family unexpectedly pass away. For this reason alone, just about everyone supporting a family should have some amount and some type of life insurance during their working years. It’s less clear, however, whether or…
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At a speech in Washington a few weeks ago Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen declared that a large number of American families are “extraordinarily vulnerable” to financial setbacks because they have few assets to fall back on. To them, a financial crisis is a month or two without a paycheck. By contrast, she went on…
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Cognizant Wealth Advisors occasionally publishes guest blogs on our site. Today’s guest blog was written by Allen Hamm, president of Superior LTC, a company that helps people plan for long-term care. He can be reached at 800-400-0577 or at info@superiorltc.com. Note that any opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions or…
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Annuities have been getting some bad press in the financial planning community. Financial planners tend to denigrate them due to their cost – “They have way too many fees, many of them hidden” – or due to the fact that they are not hedged against inflation, effectively reducing their usefulness at exactly the time (later…
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