It has been a busy week for financial planners who are trying to keep clients up to date with news affecting their wallets. Here are just four issues that are in the news:
1) A new US Supreme Court ruling calls into question the protections offered to IRAs and traditional planning for these assets. IRA owners should review and update their retirement account beneficiary designations.
2) Up to 2 million individuals who enrolled in Obamacare will be subject to income and/or eligibility audits this month. I suggest that before responding to one of these audits, talk to your accountant.
3) As middle-income people learn about the increased out-of-pocket costs for expenses not covered by Obamacare that exceed available resources, new strategies are necessary. Even for expenses covered by insurance, the policyholder’s out-of-pocket costs for 2014 could be as high as $5,350 for individuals and $12,700 for family. (“It’s covered” may not mean what you think it does!) Expenses for items not covered by insurance, like long-term home health care for an older family member or a child with a disability, can be tens of thousands per year so care must be exercised to preserve other family resources.
4) The end of June marks the half way mark for 2014 – a year when many people will be caught by surprise with higher federal income taxes. To help avoid this problem, I am offering a free tax planning screening that takes about 30 minutes via telephone, Skype, Google+, Facetime, etc. so I encourage you to take advantage of this ASAP. The service is limited to my available open appointments in June and July.
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