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Articles on Wealth Management Topics

The ABC's of QCD's: Qualified Charitable Distributions Explained

After having played political ping-pong with them for almost a decade, Congress finally made qualified charitable distributions (QCD's) a permanent feature of the tax code late in 2015. And that's a good thing: (a) for those who consider their IRA required minimum distributions to be an unneeded and tax-inefficient nuisance, (b) for charitably-minded retirees, and (c) for charities in general.

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The Current State of Social Security Claiming Strategies

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was a mixed blessing for investors and retirees. As in most bipartisan compromises, there was plenty to dislike in that budget agreement. It did away with a couple of coordinated Social Security claiming strategies, "file-and-suspend" and "filing a restricted application", that were deemed by the Administration to be unintended loopholes.

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Should You Withdraw from your Retirement Accounts or File for Social Security?

Almost half of retirees take Social Security at age 62, the earliest possible age you can sign up for these benefits. And the vast majority of retirees request benefits before their full retirement age. While the decision of when to file for Social Security benefits must be based on individual circumstances, I would argue that many retirees would be better served to wait longer to access this lifetime, inflation-adjusted stream of income.

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