After 10 consecutive interest rate hikes meant to squeeze down inflation, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday held steady at a benchmark rate of between 5 and 5.25%, indicating that the aggressive intervention has yielded results and the central bank is easing off. Let's hope this pattern holds, because the consequences of too much harsh medicine could be more…
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The Long Island“ Lottery Lawyer” who fleeced his multi-million-dollar jackpot winners drew an unlucky 13 years in prison Thursday, when a Brooklyn judge ordered him locked up in his fraud case. Jason Kurland, 49, was convicted at trial last year of steering winners’ money into his own merchant cash advance business— and of losing millions of their funds in a Ponzi…
This week, the Federal Reserve Board has a scheduled meeting to decide what to do about interest rates. The average family is still paying about $340 more for goods per month than last year. Unexpected events like the past weekend's bridge collapse in Philadelphia can cause prices to increase.
Home buyers looking for mortgage rates to stabilize or even drop got good news Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve announced a pause in its monthslong campaign of interest rate hikes. The Fed controls the federal funds rate, a metric that directly affects short-term lending. After determining rising inflation wasn't just a temporary feature of the…
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said in a two-page order that Guo Wengui's lawyers had failed to convince a three-judge panel that Judge Analisa Torres made a clear error in refusing to accept a $25 million bail package proposal in April. Prosecutors said he fleeced thousands of investors in too-good-to-be-true offerings that promised…

SECURE incentivized retirement saving but added tax implications
The passage of the SECURE Act in 2019 and SECURE 2.0 in 2022 incentivized people to save for retirement but added some tax implications that advisors and clients must consider when planning for the post-employment years.
Most people know that they may be eligible to receive Social Security benefits in retirement, based on their work earnings record. Social Security is normally available as early as age 62, but the longer you delay, your benefit increases— until age 70. Note, this strategy is only available if the higher-earning spouse is already taking his or her Social Security…
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that 90 percent of younger workers are saving too little for a comfortable retirement. That comes as no surprise given the cost-of-living crisis and the decade-long stagnation in real wages. But younger workers have a significant advantage over their older colleagues in terms of retirement saving– yes, it's…
The opportunity for RIA acquisitions is $3.7 trillion, according to Cerulli.

Retirement confidence of American workers dropping, study says
The retirement confidence of American workers dropped significantly last year, the largest, one-year drop recorded since 2008, according to a recent study.

Working with the LGBTQ+ market: 8 tips for success
When targeting the LGBTQ+ market, advisors can highlight several key selling points to attract and serve this community effectively.
With lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, the Securities and Exchange Commission has targeted some of the largest remaining players in the crypto space, accusing the former of outright fraud and misuse of funds and the latter of failing to register as a securities broker. If you're swayed by the argument that crypto assets are currency alternatives and not…

Experts share networking tips for financial advisors
Three industry experts share their networking tips for advisors.

What will make long-term bonds attractive again? Recession, say some
Investors yearning for the day when long-term bonds again become attractive investment vehicles will have to wait a while longer. And it may hinge on whether the economy dips into recession.
Members of Generation X are confronted with a new set of financial challenges that are redefining their plans for retirement, just as they enter their final working years.
U.S. public sector pension plans are planning ahead for the potential impact of further economic and market shocks, a new…

Advisor trends and challenges for 2023: What’s the next big thing?
These trends represent a general overview of the industry and should continue to evolve as the financial landscape changes.
Now, as USA Today recently pointed out, more and more older Americans living on fixed incomes are realizing they may need to "unretire" to make ends meet. The Consumer Price Index rose by nearly 5% between April 2022 and April 2023. The large money management firms to whom they have entrusted their savings may not be generating the maximum possible return on their…
If you save and invest for decades, you'd like to know you can retire without fi-nancial worries. Nonetheless, you still have to be aware of some threats to a comfortable retirement- and how to respond to them. Your withdrawal rate should be based on several factors, including your age at retirement, the size of your portfolio and the amount of income you receive from…

Follow-through: 10 expert tips on how to accomplish your goals
While most advisors have tools and experience to help them stay organized, the follow-through on goals tends to be the real challenge.