Showing posts with label pension shortage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pension shortage. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2019

Don’t give your money to the wrong beneficiary!


Don’t give your money to the wrong beneficiary
This is the time to make sure the beneficiaries of your life insurance, annuity, IRAs, 401k, 403b, bank and brokerage accounts are correct. Many companies fail to pay the money you intended for your loved ones because they have tricks to keep it for profit. If your ‘bene’ does not know about the money or make a claim for it, the firm keeps it. You must make sure the insurer and your beneficiary has the correct information. You must make sure the person you want to get your money, gets it. For instance, MetLife and other insurance firms were caught keeping the funds due ‘bene’s because they claimed they did not know the payer had died or they failed to try to find or pay the benefits. Beneficiaries often do not know their benefactor had set up an account for them. In another case, MetLife used the excuse that they made the bene’s money ‘available’ but only in checks of $250 at a time. Since MetLife held $ millions of benefits in their general account, they made $ millions from the earnings with the bene’s money. Each state had to negotiate with MetLife for 3 years to get their citizens’ funds released. Prudential and John Hancock were among hundreds of insurers which had no interest in paying death benefits to their rightful owners. They did not use databases like the SS death record. The courts found that this was an elaborate game that has been going on for a long time and not just with life policy death benefits. Give your executor a list in your ‘final wishes’ letter saying who gets what from whom specifically.
Make sure your money goes where you want it to go: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Retirement-Spending-Plan-enough/dp/1461084016

More employers overcharge their workers on pension plans
Mutual of Omaha and Transamerica have been caught taking excessive fees from employees in their 401k mutual fund plans. A participant in the 401(k) plan of Mutual of Omaha sued the company and plan executives alleging violations of ERISA due to excessive fees and to the plan's use of proprietary funds. The company picks the funds that are available so the workers can have a successful retirement. Excessive fees means workers may not be successful. Other ‘service’ firm employees are in litigation with their pension plans: Prudential, Transamerica, Allianz, Jackson National, JP Morgan, Edward Jones, T. Rowe Price, WellsFargo, Franklin Templeton. An employee can lose up to 63% of their potential retirement nest egg by paying more than the costs of their pension plan. Employers can use plan providers that offer funds ‘at cost’ like Vanguard, TIAA, Schwab, etc. Instead they make employees-saving-for-retirement a ‘profit center’ for their own enhancement. They control the pension options, fees, wages, matching dollars.

Do you lose with Trump’s new tax law?
Some old deductions are gone. You may have to adjust your spending and saving to maintain your tax refund. Families with kids will double the credit. Perhaps your business will benefit from the new deduction of 20%. Here are examples for different income levels. States with high property taxes will cause many to change their tax filings.
Jared and The Don have already benefited from the new real estate credits. His new Opportunity Zone deal is even better for him and his friends/family. Some deductions are still possible.

Advisors’ fees are NOT coming down
Advisors charging over 1.2% in fees per year have decided not to try to compete with lower-fee upstarts. Instead, they are re-naming the services offered. Advisors think we will pay more to them than the new kids in town because services are defined in terms of our individual needs. However automation of some services requires they all be the same. Automation makes a firm more efficiency and profitable. For example, some firms are lowering their minimum asset levels for more business on the assumption that new clients will be happy to pay 1.2% for the chance to see a real person on staff compared with the robo advisors. Model portfolios can easily be established for less cost than an actual hand-crafted one. Other firms are using targeted discounts to tempt clients from other firms. Claiming greater transparency in pricing services, some are trying the ‘flat’ fee approach to lure traditional firm clients away from the brokers with ‘hidden’ charges. In a sense the industry is trying to maintain high fees by creating ‘differentiation’—if I think I am getting more services with greater efficiency, I will stick with my broker/advisor. Don’t be fooled.

Health care fees are NOT coming down either
Americans spend more than twice as much on health care per person as their peers in developed nations, according to a new analysis from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It's not because people in the US use more medical services. Instead, it's because drugs cost more, drug firms kill generics, doctors and nurses are paid better, hospital administration is more expensive and many medical services have higher price tags, the study found. (Today drug-maker admits to national BRIBE DOCTOR scheme creating the opioid crisis.) And paying more does not result in better outcomes unless you are wealthy. The new analysis found that the US remains an outlier when it comes to spending, which was $9,892 per person in 2016. That compares to a median of $4,033 for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2016 and to the $4,559 the US spent per person in 2000, adjusted for inflation.


**************

Make America, “The Don”, Great Again
Truth isn’t truth, his lawyer says


Two Americas: A Banana Republic? Do we really want an infant king? Daddy Putin!


***********************

How Govt wastes our money: Congress spends $1.3 Trillion we don’t have! 
BEWARE: Flood area reclamation by Army Corp at risk--WALL may come from ACE.

SCAMS/SPINS:
One Dem has guts: new rep promises to stop The Don—Congress blushes at candor!
Dictators close down gov for years and install their own puppets: The Don solution?
Citizens who live near the WALL have a much different set of facts than the Con Man.

The Don has cut funds to CA fire fighters to punish CA for not fighting fires his way!

Annuity exchanging made easy but encourages ‘churning’ to make another commission.
Daniel Todd Levine caught hiding involvement in another business

‘No Collusion’ but what about your 101 contacts with Putin’s agents: Cohen statement.
‘I never said Mexico would pay for the WALL’ OK—we don’t need the WALL!

The Mob Boss can never go to jail: Trump has Kava as Supreme so no indictment.
‘No man is above the law’ … well up till now. Dictators nullify courts first, then votes.
----------------------------------

Jobs:
Trump claims workers without paychecks are behind his scheme to close … for years?
Coast Guard workers told to use garage sales for income instead of paychecks.
Need an affordable city to start your life or start it anew? Low rents; higher salaries.

Who owns your account now?
Our for-profit health system is failing us: One family’s nightmare shows reasons.
Avoid premium increase in homeowner’s insurance by going thru dog training.

Miracle:
Pre-K prep programs working FOR equality of opportunity

Young Muslims are cleaning up our national parks: no pay--“It’s just what we do.”

IAN
41 Watchung Plaza, B242
Montclair, NJ   07042
973.746.2014
Alerts 

Friday, August 10, 2018

Where is your old pension and 401k?


Do you know where your former company pension or 401k landed?
I found mine; no thanks to those who were making money from my money. Many people forget they have a pension or life insurance from an old firm. The company may have been purchased or merged or gone bankrupt. If your old firm does not have your current address you will not know where your money lands. Deborah kept looking despite the bad information she was given. Whatever circumstances, there are no standard practices or central registry for your money’s location. Some companies are just not interested in helping you. Pension rights advocates claim employers have an incentive NOT to find missing participants like Deborah. Like MetLife, they may be caught holding the money for life insurance beneficiaries because they make millions from holding our money. I had to fight to obtain my pension from Thomson McKinnon which did a chapter 11 in 1990. Since there is no national registry yet (and may never be), I started at the https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa and the https://www.pbgc.gov/ and went to the bankruptcy filings and lawyers. Finally, online records turned up the fact that John Hancock had it all this time without telling me. And I had not moved. They just didn’t let me know they held my money. You know why.


When should you NOT convert a regular IRA to Roth IRA?
Ed Slott is the expert on IRA and Roth IRA. He is a fan of Roths because distributions are tax-FREE from fed and state income taxes and there are no mandatory withdrawals like regular IRAs. You can convert an IRA to a Roth, pay the tax and then smile in retirement when there is NO tax to pay. Slott says there times when this conversion makes little sense. For instance, if you can’t pay the tax from other funds or your rate is lower later. His full advice is here https://www.fa-mag.com/news/when-roths-may-not-be-right-39880.html. If you can’t convert, build your Roth IRA while you are working.
Know your IRA required minimum distributions in advance: https://www.amazon.com/What-your-RMD-much-spend/dp/1718946716


Is your advisor/broker working for you or for the perks?
Under current rules, your advisor can sell you products that are NOT the ‘best’ for you—your money would be taken and you won’t even know it until later. There is no ethical pledge like lawyers or doctors take to do no harm. Trump’s regulator at the SEC makes the rules. He doesn’t ban sales quotas, fee hidding or lavish trips for sales of poor in-house products. Formal disclosures protect the seller and industry; not educate the buyer. When you get taken, you don’t have the right to sue. Unfortunately, you must ask the industry-run arbitrator to decide your case and if you win your odds of collecting are lower than with a court order. Sellers who cheat people are not barred—they just move to a new firm. After the industry killed the Labor Department’s Fiduciary Rule last year, advisors have the green light to take you since they hold all the cards. Even the ‘top broker’ at well-known firms have cheated clients and just moved on to a new firm.

New ways the wealthy avoid taxes that we have to pay for them
The Trump tax breaks did not reduce the amount the well off can deduct from their taxes. The rich get richer. We have to pay for the courts, police, military, roads, airports, etc. the rich use but don’t pay for. We taxpayers help pay for the vacation and rental properties of the rich. Instead of paying their gains tax on the sale of these non-principal residences, Trump and the GOP have made the gains tax-FREE. Any properties they don’t use themselves can even offset any taxable regular income so they may pay less than we would with the same income. So you probably could rent their homes at high rent but they may avoid taxes on that income and the sale of that home when they sell it. Nice!



Are actively-managed funds right for you?
Mutual fund manager costs usually sink their long-term investment returns. Studies of performance over time show that out of the thousands of funds, there will always be some that beat the index fund in the short term. However, over time it is clear that costs kill the returns because of fee compounding. In fact, with expenses of 2% over our working lives of 40-50 years, we will give up 63% of our total potential nest egg. That is a big price to pay for a quick thrill of beating the index in one year. However, for the advertising department of an actively-managed fund group, one year of good returns is worth $ millions of new money for profits over the next 10 years. For those looking for the best-performing actively managed mutual funds, here is the list. But by next year, they will be dogs according to studies on longevity. Low cost beat high cost over time.

Is America a wealthy-person socialist state already?
Trump’s socialist gift of $12 billion to the lucky few was done without consulting Congress or taxpayers. Farmers are not poor. Most are very wealthy—farmland costs a bundle and many have become tax-FREE corporations. Farmers already have a socialist’s bonanza from us taxpayers. Do you receive a Price Loss Coverage payment when you can’t sell your business products profitably? Farm corps do. Trump shows another way socialism works for the rich. Trump voters don’t mind a short-term tariff war as long as they have their government socialist state payments. Same with his friends in oil, gas, sugar etc who have multiple war chests of subsidies, loans and grants to tide them over from tariffs. Just ask the Congress people who double dip—salary, expenses plus grants, subsidies and kickbacks. It is us poor taxpayers that need the subsidy for tariffs since we are the ones that pay for them. When we shop at Walmart etc we usually buy Chinese. Most of Trump’s new tax breaks go to the already rich. I have documented some of them in this blog. Our lower payroll tax was offset by higher health care costs with the end of ObamaCare. Ranchers no longer pay public land rental fees. Did you receive government money in the 2007-8 recession Your bank got your future money. Your car company got government help when you lost your house. You didn’t. Trump decided to give his friends a cut in their capital-gains tax.

Is a dependable vehicle right for you?
Most people say they need a reliable mode of transport—the average family spends over $9,000 a year. I’m guessing it is so high because they are paying off a new vehicle—popular trucks and SUVs begin at $35,000. Buying a low mileage version of your favorite may just save you $ thousands for other things. If you drive a lot, maybe a Prius at $16,000 is a good bargain. Oil is not going down. A 2015 Highlander can be had for $23,000 or a Sante Fe for $17,000. My favorite is the 2015 Accord for $17,000.

Opioid epidemic was created by drug companies and Washington lets it go on
Doctors are rewarded with trips for getting people hooked. Particularly grotesque is the enthusiasm with which Purdue Pharma peddled its pills, a 10 year veteran reporter writes. “In the first five years OxyContin was on the market, total bonuses for the company’s sales staff grew from $1 million to $40 million. Zealous reps could earn quarterly bonuses as high as $100,000, one former salesperson told reporter Macy, adding, ‘It behooved them to have the pill mills writing high doses.’” To fight withdrawal pain, Oxy users switched to heroin and later fentanyl. Parents of the victims gain support with national networks like this one. 16 states have filed suit against the pharma industry. Drug makers spend more than any lobby so Congress does nothing. Money talks.



****************

Make America, “The Don”, Great Again


Two Americas: A Banana Republic? Do we really want an infant king? Daddy Putin!

***********************

‘Space Force’ $ Trillions gimmick replaces American ‘infrastructure’ rebuild: bridges?

SCAMS/SPINS:
Karl Rove: ‘Tone Down the Rhetoric’: Stalin Used ‘Enemy of the People’ for media too.
1 Global Capital and 1 West Capital caught selling fraudulent loans to investors

Westminster Financial Securities refused to pay arbitrator’s settlement $275K to client
IRS says 20% tax break only for the chosen few: Trump’s gift that keeps on giving.

               police shoot owner who already shot intruder. All kids have plastic killer guns?

Jobs:
Our wage buying power is the same as we had in 1974: Milk was 55 cents; now $3.50.

Who owns your account now?
GM health cover switched to GM HMO cuts costs; limits choice.
Health insurance and drug firms spend $ millions to end single payer health care for all.

Beware: When you sign up for Uber they hit your account for $250 or more ‘temporarily’

                                                  
Miracle:


IAN
41 Watchung Plaza, B242
Montclair ,  NJ   07042
973.746.2014
Alerts

Friday, March 16, 2018

You can increase refund or cut tax


It is not too late to increase your refund or cut IRS tax
Tax filing is half over. If you find you owe tax instead of hitting the refund button this year, you may still be able to claim your refund. You can reduce your 2017 income and receive a tax credit. Credits reduce your taxes dollar for dollar. In effect, IRS code can help you reduce taxes like The Don AND save for retirement at the same time. On line 32, Form 1040 or line 17, Form 1040a, you can enter up to $5,500 ($6,500 over age 50) as IRA contribution to reduce your income. If you meet the qualification, a credit will show up on Line 51, Form 1040 or Line 34, 1040a. You subtract this credit from your tax. EG: Income $66,000: tax refund is $3,335, without IRA contribution. With the contribution, the refund is $4,392 or $5,553 if you both make the contribution. Credit against tax is $400. IRS checks your IRA. Use: irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp
For help with complicated returns: https://irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf

All the things that our Wall Street advisor tells us to do is wrong
Set up your asset account and let it grow by itself.
Fidelity analyzed its most successful accounts. Results:
Either the client was dead or forgot about their account.
Warren Buffett has confirmed the same success factor. He says:
“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the                            impatient to the patient.”
“We continue to make more money when snoring than when active.”
The DALBAR study:
The average investor earned just 3.79% a year while the stock market earned 11.06% over the last 30 years.     DALBAR’s QAIB
Morningstar the rating firm found:
“In every single time period and data point tested,
low-cost funds beat high-cost funds.”
What are these 'Assets that grow by themselves'? : https://www.amazon.com/Assets-that-grow-themselves-snoring/dp/1986381226


Is your advisor living up to the promises?
How do you judge your advisor as an advisor about money management and meeting your goals? Do you just ask that they not lose your money? Over what period to you judge their results? Are you fair with YOURSELF? Sales people always have a good story. Just listen to any TV commentator or your own advisor. “Market went down because ….” Do you check the benchmarks? A stock market index fund has provided 11.11 since 1976, 21.67% in 1 year; 11.26% in 3 years; 15.62% in 5; 8.37% in 10. If your advisor is providing a 40% stock 60% bond portfolio for ‘safety’, are they exceeding the classic balanced fund after fees: 9.85% since 1970; 10.20% in 1 year; 6.45% in 3; 7.31% in 5; 7.11% in 10. If not, why not? Fees are the largest drag on returns. Maybe it is time to go your own way since success in stock picking is very hard.  


Warren Buffett provides FREE advice on how to beat the Wall Street pros
He bet a market guru on Jan 1 2008 that his SIMPLE advice would beat the professional money managers. He took a bow in his annual letter to his fund owners: “A virtually cost-free investment in an unmanaged S&P 500 index fund would, over time, deliver better results than those achieved by most investment professionals …” And his choice did after inflation—8.5% a year vs 2.9%. “American investors pay staggering sums annually to advisors, often incurring several layers of consequential costs,” and with little to show. Buffett’s final message: “As an investor’s investment horizon lengthens, however, a diversified portfolio of U.S. equities becomes progressively less risky than bonds.” Read how a really successful investor earns over 19% a year. Read why PI is important to us:

Did you leave a pension at a past employer?
We change jobs or employers fold and leave our money with the PBGC. Sometimes the bankruptcy takes a long time and you are never notified how much is yours. You may be able to claim your portion of the $ millions left behind. First, search the PBGC: https://www.pbgc.gov/search/unclaimed-pensions. Second, try the Dept of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/ask-a-question/ask-ebsa. The best option, according to Bloomberg: Call one of six regional pension counseling projects affiliated with the Washington-based nonprofit Pension Rights Center (pensionrights.org). The regional offices handle a range of retirement-benefits issues for consumers and act as a liaison with the plans. Elizabeth Warren’s law would create an Office of Retirement Savings Lost and Found to serve as a clearinghouse for retirement plan information and require employers to provide data for a national searchable database that could be used by all retirement plan participants. GOP may cancel funding for Warren’s law in their panic over lost revenue this year.


Would you rather earn 8.5% a year or 2.4%?
Buffett won his bet with 5 Wall Street ‘professionals’ that the Vanguard 500 Index fund would provide a better return than the pros. The Index fund returned 94% vs 24% over 10years. Why don’t most investors use index funds? Most think the expensive Wall Street ‘professional’ managers are smarter than the market itself. Managers take a lot of fees from investors but 95% of them fail to match the market. No manager knows the future. No manager can know all the conditions affecting the companies. Luck has role.
Bet on Buffett’s strategy not on Wall Street’s ‘experts’: https://www.amazon.com/You-Beat-Wall-Street-professionals/dp/1986031373/

20% of us aren’t saving any money; 78% living paycheck to paycheck
Most say expenses are the biggest obstacle, with 39% of the respondents citing this as the main reason they’re not saving. 16% said their job isn’t good enough, while an equal amount said the main reason they aren’t saving more is because they haven’t gotten around to it. Living with debt and no emergency is the American way. Perhaps in this culture of immediacy we don’t worry about tomorrow like older generations HAD to. No jobs and starvation was a prime motivator after the 1930s wiped out their way of life. (NOTE to climate deniers.) Without preparation, some could find housing in L.A. for the homeless. Others may find food illegally from volunteers. Others may try making it on $9 per hour if they can find work. Even if we work all our lives the average SS benefit is $1,341 a month. That may be cut 25% in 16 years if GOP holds Congress majority. There are more retirees and fewer workers so we either stop making wars, bombs and missiles or we live shorter lives.  


IRS free filing sites avoid $300+ cost of filing taxes
Commercial tax prep sites offer expensive loans as advances on your refund but you can keep your whole refund using the IRS free filing partners. Refunds can be in your account within 2-3 weeks. Remember: IRS does NOT call you. The average refund is over $3,000. Check if you have a refund for a previous year—there is over $1 billion from 2014 alone. https://www.efile.com/unclaimed-irs-tax-refund-checks-and-bank-deposits/. Check your refund: https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp
You can create a tax-free retirement fund of $500,000 with that amount each year. If you need free tax preparer service for your 1040, use AARP Tax Aides near you. Bring last year’s return and ID: https://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide/. If you have a simple return: FreeTaxUSA or FreeFile: https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp.
Use your refund to fund your tax-FREE IRS approved account: https://www.amazon.com/Tax-FREE-Retirement-code-lifetime-income/dp/1475206976

One advisor claims investors are turned off by advisor’s bling
Nick Richtsmeier says his industry must stop trying to impress the wealthy to become clients. “It’s an empathy gap that is the effect of decades of culture in the financial services that creates a barrier between people who give advice and those who need advice,” he says. Brokers/advisors created the image of a financial professional as one wrapped in luxury cars, exclusive neighborhoods, expensive clothes and jewelry. Somehow this proved they were successful at making money but investors are now realizing that THEY, the investor, had to pay for all that bling. “Clients today are more interested in facilitating high-quality decision-making,” Nick says. The average financial advisor makes approximately $140,000 a year, says Richtsmeier, but the average American household reports an income of less than $100,000 a year. Most of the advisors I have worked with make less than $90,000. Most Americans who reach $1 million in assets have already been investing effectively on their own. Advisor fees can hurt more than help you. Try paying less and earning more.

Avoid these cars according to JD Power
In 2016, Kia leapt to the No. 1 spot, ending the nearly 30-year reign of premium brands. It held on to that top spot for 2017, with Genesis, Porsche, Ford, and Ram rounding out the rest of the top five. But while a rising tide lifts all boats, there are still winners and losers. 10 with the most problems you should not buy: Infiniti, Jeep, Subaru, Audi, Mazda, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Volvo, Jaguar, Fiat. Consumer Reports shared similar views. After ownership, Power likes this list of most dependable: http://www.jdpower.com/ratings/study/Vehicle-Dependability-Study-%28VDS%29-by-Make/846ENG



****************
Make America, “The Don” Great Again

Palace intrigue: Trump’s movie will star himself and family in 2022. Putin does cameo.
(Putin has videos of the star in compromising XXX sex acts we can’t describe here)
Trump’s stage name is ‘David Dennison’ when others pay $130,000 for his sex.

A movie is the only way to understand how Putin got Trump elected. Will Putin poison him?

Jr didn’t. ‘collusion;’ … or treason!

Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking our FBI: McCain
Mueller indicts 14 more conspirators for illegally helping Trump win election
How many other people can Trump blame for Putin’s meddling?
Putin has hacked control of our utilities

GOP House will never impeach their ‘Savior’

“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,”

Bannon and I wish to “destroy the state”–our government: “I want to destroy regs”
FBI doing its job following Kremlin ‘advisor’, Page, a suspected Putin spy

Tillerson told the truth so the MORON fired him.

“Why are we having all these people from ‘shithole’ countries come here?
The Don admits he “makes up things”—lies

‘I’m the only one that matters’ Mob Boss, Nov 3, 2017
The Don’s enforcers lie re: contacts to Putin and list longer: Why all the lies if innocent?

GOP suppresses vote: can voters make America normal again?

Trump rated worst president we ever had; Obama #8 Reagan #9
‘I was elected President.’ (to destroy ‘the state’)
Dictator’s greatest weapon is fear: Dems are evil (TV ad)
Military moves into another cabinet seat so Iran restarts nuclear reactors

Anyone who did NOT clap for my speech is “traitorous, Yeah”



How Govt wastes our money: Naked politics at work
Why deport law-abiding entrepreneurs—dishwasher to diner owner gone: America lost.
Trump withheld or censored more records last year than at any point in the past decade. 

SCAMS:
What happens when two lying B.S. artists get together to talk?
            NRA made offer he can’t refuse. Mob money to mobster. ‘Let them kill kids!’
            Will killing the killer bring back 17, deter next sick killer or parents feel good?
            Student #1 injured from IN-SCHOOL gun-packing teacher—police state is bad.

"I’ve never been in a situation when I’ve been asked to ignore the facts because it was   more convenient,” ICE James Schwab.

Jobs:
Some Trump steelworkers will lose jobs not gain from tariffs. Overall net loss to America


Who owns your account now?

Big banks are again free to bring down the economy and financial infrastructure. It costs             US $29 TRILLION in the 2007-8 bailout. We gave $ millions to foreign banks.
Miracle:
Meet your soul-mate as avatar in internet game. Play the game for the rest of their lives.

Porn star ‘search for the truth ’shames President: money back guarantee for services.

Dems beat Trump’s candidate again—in deep coal PA—overcame 20 pt GOP win and            Pelosi image and abortion and gun ban and ‘left hates Trump and God.’

IAN
41 Watchung Plaza, B242
Montclair, NJ 07042
973.746.2014
Alerts