Surveys conducted in 2024 by Caring.com and Ameriprise Financial revealed a troubling trend: Americans are falling behind on estate planning. The Caring.com survey revealed that only 32% of Americans have a will - a 6% decline from 2023. The Ameriprise survey found that 52% of couples lack estate plans. These statistics highlight a dangerous disconnect between understanding the importance of estate planning and taking action. Let's examine these misconceptions and their potentially devastating consequences.
Myth 1: "I don't have enough assets to need an estate plan."
This dangerously narrow thinking ignores that estate planning isn't just about financial wealth. It's about doing the right thing for the people you love so you don’t leave a mess, and about ensuring your wishes for your own care are considered if you cannot make decisions for yourself due to accident or illness.
If you haven’t created a Life & Legacy plan (the type of comprehensive planning...
If you or your family members hold crypto assets, there's a critical change coming up that you may want to act on by December 31, 2024. Let's break down what's changing and what you need to do, if you want to qualify for safe harbor protections related to the basis of your crypto assets. Basis is relevant because when you sell your crypto assets, you will pay capital gains tax on the difference between your “basis” or the cost at which you purchased, and the sale price, or the price at which you sell your assets.
In the past, tracking basis for purposes of reporting gain on the sale of crypto assets was able to be combined across all tokens and all wallets. As a result, whether you bought or sold crypto in any one wallet or exchange, you could use first-in/first-out (FIFO), last-in/first-out (LIFO), Highest Cost First Out (HCFO) or other capital gains reporting methods across all of your crypto assets. Starting in the 2025 tax year, that will no longer be the...
This week, before the year ends, consider these 5 financial, retirement and tax actions you may need to take before it’s either too late or very costly for your family. And if you have living parents in their 70s, make sure you cover these considerations with them this week.
If you have investments in a taxable account (including cryptocurrency investments), you may want to consider selling off any losers to offset any gains you have made. Selling losses can help reduce your tax liability for the year, if you have any capital gains, and then you can carry forward investment losses to offset capital gains in the future.
If you are sitting with cryptocurrency losses that you haven’t recognized yet because you haven’t sold your cryptocurrency due to wanting to stay in the market for when crypto goes back up, you can have the best of both worlds. Sell your cryptocurrency now before...
NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens,” are the latest sensation in the cryptocurrency universe, or as we like to call it the “Cryptoverse.” And if you haven’t heard about NFTs yet, now is a great time to learn because they are likely to be a big part of our collective future.
So what is an NFT?
In the most basic terms, an NFT is a cryptographic token that exists on a blockchain and is used to establish proof of ownership of digital artwork, videos, GIFs, collectibles, and other digital assets. While NFTs use the same blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency, NFTs themselves are not a traditional currency, though they can operate similarly to currency. Some people call them JPGs because they are literally graphic images, but they represent much more than just a simple JPG file.
NFTs have been generating a major buzz in the tech and art sectors for years now, but after Christie’s auction house sold a single NFT...
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