Why Work With a Financial Professional?

If you’re like most people, you probably bring your automobile to a professional mechanic for routine maintenance. You see a doctor when you have concerns about your health, and for regular exams. When the need for legal counsel arises, you consult an attorney. All of us rely on the expertise of others. It’s no different [...]

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Providing for Children of a Previous Marriage

For many married couples, when one spouse dies, all marital property passes to the surviving spouse. This means that the surviving spouse has sole responsibility for deciding what happens to that property when he or she dies. In the traditional family, this is rarely a concern. But, more and more often, the so-called traditional family [...]

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How Do I Dispute an Unsatisfactory Credit Card Purchase?

If you used a credit card to make what turns out to be an unsatisfactory purchase, you should first seek a refund or a replacement from the merchant that sold you the item. But if you have no luck there, you may have some recourse through the credit card company.
There are some requirements. First, you [...]

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What’s a Credit Score and Why Should I Care?

Your credit score is the result of a mathematical formula that’s applied to all the information in your credit report (both positive and negative) and then compared to millions of other credit reports. The most common credit score is a FICO score, developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. A variation of the basic FICO model [...]

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Where to Stash Your Emergency Cash

A financial cushion can improve your ability to survive bad times, but right now that cash may be earning a relatively low interest rate. However, try to think of it as you might insurance: your emergency fund is designed to be there when you need it. Here are some possibilities that balance safety with liquidity:
Interest-bearing [...]

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Top Ten Money Moves for Today’s College Freshmen

With average college tuition up 6.3 percent at private schools and up 6.6 percent at public schools this past school year, money management is a bigger issue than ever on college campuses. That’s why it’s good to send your freshman off to school with a 10-point plan on how to best manage their money:

Take baby [...]

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How to Buy Life Insurance

Life insurance is primarily a product for families. If you have a spouse and children who depend on your income and you don’t have extensive resources, then life insurance is a useful tool to help them pay expenses. Single people without dependents typically don’t need the same amount of life insurance because they don’t have [...]

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Should a Destination Club be Your Home Away from Home?

If you’ve thought about buying or building a vacation home, but have hesitated because you aren’t sure that you want to limit yourself to a single location, there’s an alternative you may want to consider: purchasing a membership in a destination club.
What are destination clubs?
Destination clubs are becoming increasingly popular. In return for a one-time [...]

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Long Term Care Partnership Policies

As the number of older Americans has grown, so has the need for long-term care. To encourage more people to buy long-term care insurance, states have teamed up with private insurers to develop special long-term care (LTC) policies. These “Partnership” policies combine the features and benefits of traditional LTC insurance with Medicaid asset protection.
Individuals who [...]

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What is a Parent PLUS Loan?

A Parent PLUS Loan is a federal student loan available to parents with good credit histories who want to help pay for their dependent child’s undergraduate education. (A similar Graduate PLUS Loan is available to graduate students.) Under the program, parents can borrow up to the full cost of their child’s college education each year, [...]

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