Last week, we delved into seven strategies to express care for your finances and family through intelligent, tax-efficient financial advice for the upcoming year. Discover additional insights by reading Part 2 of our series now. Continue reading.

February is celebrated as the month of love, yet there's another form of affection that warrants our focus: the care and consideration we extend to ourselves, our families, and our finances through diligent financial planning. Discover more.

Last week we looked at four different ways to lower your tax liability for 2023. In this week’s blog, we discuss four more tax-saving methods you can use right now to owe fewer taxes come April 2024. Read more…

Unless you’ve created an estate plan that works to keep your family out of court when you die (or become incapacitated) many of your assets must go through probate before those assets can be distributed to your heirs. Like most court proceedings, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and open to the public, and because of this, avoiding probate—and keeping your family out of court—is often a central goal of estate planning.

To spare your loved one’s the time, cost, and stress inherent to probate, last week in part one of this series, we explained how the probate process works and what it would entail for your loved ones. Here in part two, we’ll discuss the major drawbacks of probate for your family, and outline the different ways you can help them avoid probate with wise planning.

You are likely well aware of the tax benefits that come from donating to charity during your lifetime—donations to charity are tax-deductible. But you may be surprised to learn about the numerous benefits that are available when you incorporate charitable giving into your estate plan.

As with donating to charity during your lifetime, dedicating a portion of your estate to a charitable cause can reduce the taxable value of your estate. You can also receive significant tax savings by naming your favorite charity as the beneficiary of your IRA, 401(k), or other retirement accounts.

And if you have highly appreciated assets like stock and real estate that you want to sell, you can even set up a special type of charitable trust that can not only help you avoid both income and estate taxes but also create a lifetime income stream for yourself and your family, all while supporting your most beloved charitable cause.

2020 was a nightmarish year for many families. But thanks to recent legislation, you could see a silver lining in the form of major tax breaks when filing your income taxes this spring. First up, although it’s technically not a tax break, the IRS announced this week that the deadline for filing your 2020 federal income taxes has been pushed back from April 15 to May 17, 2021, which gives you an extra month to get your tax return handled.

The postponement applies to individual taxpayers, including those who pay self-employment taxes. But the extension does not apply to first-quarter 2021 estimated tax payments that many small business owners file. So if you file quarterly taxes, contact your tax advisor now if you haven’t already done so.