Even in times of interest rate uncertainty, a certificate of deposit (CD) can still be part of your cash strategy.
Regarding your editorial "What Doesn't Stay in Vegas" (June 12): In December 2012 the state of Nevada sued Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) for fraudulently executing more than 100,000 mortgage documents. LPS, a Florida corporation, ...
It’s been a good year so far—the stock market is surging, real estate is rebounding and interest rates remain low. But some luxury homeowners are still falling behind on their jumbo-mortgage payments.
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The 74-year-old man struggled with degenerative memory loss and was forgetting to complete financial tasks.He needed help, and turned to financial planner Audrey Wehr Jones, of Casselberry Fla.-based Financial Life Designs. Ms. Jones ...
We’d all like to land lower-interest mortgages, higher-paying jobs and nicer apartments. And we know that getting and maintaining a good credit score is essential to attaining those goals.
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In an era when more and more pay stubs, airline tickets and sports and theater tickets are being delivered electronically, breaking up with paper financial statements is hard to do.
What's the biggest mistake people make when financing their kids' college education? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online ...
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People draft estate plans so they can pass their money and property on to their heirs after they become incapacitated or die.But what happens to their other assets--so called "digital assets" such as an iTunes account containing thousands ...
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BB&T has trailed a broad bank-stock rally over the past year, but it looks likely to regain favor with investors in coming quarters. Shares could return more than 30% over the next two years.
Don’t miss these top stories:The best countries for new moms.The $30,000 necktie.Census: More deaths than births among whites in 2012Expectant parents all over the world considered moving to Finland last week after the BBC reported that ...
Are personal budgets a good idea? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online discussions of topics from the print Report. This ...
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The deadline to file a Foreign Bank Account Report for 2012 is fast approaching.The normal June 30 filing deadline falls on a Sunday this year, so people who submit an FBAR—as the form is usually called—for 2012 on paper need to make sure ...
Financial education needs to take place all the way from grade school through high school.Grade schools are doing it right already. They teach kids about money and how to shop and make change, which is age appropriate. After fifth grade, ...
Michael Spalding, a 50-year-old dentist, and his wife, a 56-year-old preschool teacher, have three teenage sons either in or preparing for college.
It's the stuff of daydreams. You're rummaging through the dusty attic of a deceased relative when you find a collection of old stock and bond certificates.
Regulators appear to be losing the battle against rising overdraft fees. Bank customers who sign up for overdraft protection services have significantly higher annual fees, a new industry report finds, and more involuntary account closures ...
What percentage of portfolios should consist of non-U.S. investments? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online discussions of ...
Sometimes, the worst thing that can happen to an entrepreneur is being successful.So say many financial advisers who tell tales of entrepreneurs who hit it big—only to let success go their heads. It's then up to the advisers to somehow keep ...
Q: What is the best account to hold REITs and master limited partnerships? Is there a prohibition against holding these shares in a rollover IRA? Is there a penalty or tax when these equities are sold?
A boot camp—or a daily ritual?Those choices are at the heart of a debate among financial planners about setting up budgets. Should people make an ongoing habit of tracking everything they spend and save? Or should they do shorter, focused ...
How much can a share of nothing be worth?Old bond and stock certificates can bring anywhere from $10 to upward of $10,000, though mostly the market is in the $150-to-$200 range, experts say.
Many college graduates dream of the day they’ll be debt-free. But new findings show that for some, that day may not arrive until they’re about to become grandparents.
Financial advisers have a simple question for some of their clients who own businesses: Are you an active or passive owner?For clients whose businesses are set up as S corporations, the answer is crucial if they want their income from those ...
Everyone carries in their heads favorite images from picture books, comics, magazine covers, cartoons and advertisements. Now much of the original artwork on which these mass-produced images were based has become a hot corner of the art ...
For financial advisers, Twitter can be an indispensable communications tool to help them promote their practices and win new clients.But there are smart ways to tweet—and some not-so-smart ways. Here's a look at some of the guidelines ...
Investors and advisers typically think of risk as one thing: volatility. When you look at modern portfolio theory, it asks what return am I going to get per unit of risk? Increasingly, however, we believe that short-term risk and volatility ...
Should people think of their houses as investments? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online discussions of topics from the ...
Many people rely on 529 plans to save for college tuition, but they aren't always a one-stop solution.I tell my clients it's best to start contributing to a 529 plan when children are very young in order to maximize the benefit of tax-free, ...
Are 529 plans the right choice for all families saving to send their kids to college? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online ...
If you haven't checked out your 401(k) plan's website lately, it's time to take a closer look.Retirement-plan providers, along with a few financial-planning services, are adding new online tools to help people saving for retirement better ...
In his search for an internship for this summer, Dan Judd, a 21-year-old soon-to-be-senior at the University of Pennsylvania, juggled multiple interviews, two resumes and a number of wardrobe changes as he weighed Wall Street against ...
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Supported by growing demand and low inventory, home prices continued to run ahead in April, with year-over-year growth hit the fastest pace in more than seven years, according to data released Tuesday.
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It's becoming a busy time for financial advisers with same-sex clients.As more states recognize gay marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court gets ready to weigh in next month in a case that involves the federal tax rules for gay spouses, many ...
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Voices is an occasional column that allows wealth managers to address issues of interest to the advisory community. Chris Bertelsen is the chief investment officer of Global Financial Private Capital based in Sarasota, Fla.
Don’t miss these top stories:10 things movie critics won’t tell you.Gas prices shouldn’t hurt summer travel.How to snag a last-minute vacation deal.
Batteries, flashlights, bottled water. Now more jumbo-mortgage borrowers will be required to add another item to their storm-preparedness checklist: flood insurance.
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The woman had most of her assets in a family business, which was run by one of her two sons. She was a widow in her 60s, and wanted to sell the company to fund her retirement.
What is the No. 1 thing investors shouldn't be worried about over the next few years—but are? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in ...
Don’t miss these top stories:Why Twitter users won’t ‘follow’ new security rule.Fixed-rate jumbo mortgages make a comeback.Japan’s longevity secret: Social ties.
What are the biggest changes likely to hit the ETF market in the next five years? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry, academic and other thought leaders who engage in in-depth online ...
Aside from rising home prices and reports of bidding wars, here’s one sure sign the housing market is improving: banks seem to be loosening standards for down payments.
Don’t miss these top stories:Hotels copy airlines’ no-frills approach.5 fast-food meals that redefine breakfast.Behind Medicare’s hospital bill ‘discount’
For mutual-fund share classes, the landscape has changed dramatically over the past 10 years.One of the biggest shifts: More dollars are going into low-cost Class I, or institutional, shares, while the market for B shares, with their ...
'Tis the season for graduation gift giving. Whether you have a child finishing kindergarten or high school, the best gift could be one your graduate can't unwrap: a contribution to a 529 college-savings plan.
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New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued units of HSBC Holdings PLC on Tuesday, alleging the bank put mortgage borrowers at greater risk of losing their homes by repeatedly delaying the filing of paperwork that could have helped ...
The Motley Fool family of funds is holding an annual "shareholder party" this month. But a significant number of its fund investors—those who hold the shares through Fidelity Investments—didn't get the recent postcard invitation.
Regarding Burton Malkiel's "You're Paying Too Much for Investment Help" (op-ed, May 29): The data promulgated by John Bogle and others incontrovertibly demonstrate that essentially all actively managed stock mutual funds, over the long ...
Investors who still have nightmares about the 2008 financial crisis might want to consider Janus Balanced. The fund doesn't deliver shoot-the-lights-out performance, but it's a steady performer that offers remarkable downside protection.
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ZURICH—Swiss private bank Julius Baer Group AG Tuesday said it has received a request from U.S. authorities for information about American clients, a development that comes as the two countries wrangle over alleged tax evasion involving ...
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Is the invasion of the "offbeat bond funds" about to reach your 401(k)?Over the past three years, bond funds that invest outside the mainstream of U.S. Treasurys and investment-grade corporate debt—in high-yield bonds, foreign and ...
Ben is a 60-something investor who approached me recently for investing advice: “If your mother came to you and asked where she could get the very best risk-free return right now, what would you tell her to buy, or would you tell her to ...
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A small group of investors helped James Dimon win a surprisingly large victory in a shareholder vote over his roles as chairman and chief executive of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Credit unions are offering more private student loans, creating new choices for borrowers grappling with high college costs.Nearly 590 of the nation's 6,955 credit unions offered student loans as of December, according to the Credit Union ...
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New York's top financial regulator subpoenaed a handful of Wall Street investment firms about their entries into a corner of the insurance industry that guarantees steady payments to hundreds of thousands of retirees and other consumers.
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Financial advisers are telling some clients it could be better to spend or give away dividends, interest and IRA distributions, instead of plowing the money back into the market where it will be taxed again.
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The client was in his mid-50s and hoping to retire within the year. He had planned well for retirement, and his wife wanted to continue working for several more years.
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How can wealth managers help keep an estate from winding up tangled in legal battles between the heirs? For one thing, encourage clients not to be too "fair" in the division of assets, say estate lawyers E. Patricia Chantler and Wonsun ...
I was recently at the annual Tiburon CEO Summit in New York, a sort of United Nations gathering of finance executives. Given how often these CEOs seemed to be checking their smartphones, I began to wonder what tools and apps they favored.
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Healthy living paid off for Sean Naughton in 2012.Mr. Naughton, an analyst with Piper Jaffray Cos. in Minneapolis, fed off vitamin retailers and grocers peddling organic food to become the top food and drug analyst in the Best on the Street ...
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Stocks of companies involved in cloud computing, or data storage on the Web, and IT outsourcing have been on a tear in recent years, which caused some analysts to bet against continued gains in 2012.
LIKE ANY POPULAR food writer, Gary Taubes gets more than his share of e-mails about his work. So he didn't give it much thought one day two years ago when he got a five-line comment about a podcast he'd given the week before. It was plainly ...
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As most U.S. businesses keep shifting the bulk of retirement funding and planning to their employees, some advisers are embracing an alternative approach that puts investment decisions squarely on the back of employers.
DENVER (MarketWatch) — America’s mortgage foreclosure crisis is at least five years old, and two of the nation’s largest banks apparently still can’t handle all the paperwork.
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NEW YORK--An arbitration panel has ordered Minneapolis-based broker-dealer NDX Trading Inc. and now-inactive TradeRight Securities Inc. to pay roughly $5.5 million to a group of 55 elderly investors who claimed their mutual funds were used ...
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ING U.S. Inc., reporting its first results since its partial public offering earlier this month, said its first-quarter loss narrowed as the performance of its retirement and annuities segments improved.
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The pessimists no longer rule Wall Street, though they lurk nearby.In 2011, with markets in turmoil, sell orders helped analysts ascend to the top three spots in the 44 industry sectors covered by The Wall Street Journal's annual Best on ...
The Internal Revenue Service hasn't been under such intense public scrutiny since the hearings in the 1990s that led to the Tax Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (also known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 3). Last time, the targets were ...
The little-known ING U.S. is a life insurer and retirement-services specialist that was cobbled together through acquisitions by ING Groep, the big Dutch financial-services company.
Q. Our credit was once good, but was wrecked when our house was foreclosed on years ago. Since then, we have been renting and paying our bills on time. We expect that our good payment habits will put us into a position to buy a home soon. ...
Besides keeping some in an emergency fund, should the average investor have an allocation to cash and cash equivalents in an investment portfolio? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry and ...
Do-it-yourself investing is gaining newfound popularity—but with a twist.Instead of going it entirely on their own, more investors are pursuing a kind of modified DIY approach, tapping an array of increasingly sophisticated online tools and ...
Opening the mail to find a “preapproved” offer on a credit card can feel like being welcomed into an exclusive club with lots of benefits. In reality, you may not even make the membership list.
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Nearly 100,000 home loan borrowers whose mortgages were handled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley got checks for incorrect amounts to compensate them for potential foreclosure errors, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.
When you hear finance people talking about doves and hawks, they usually aren't referring to our feathered friends. Most often they are describing the attitude of Federal Reserve policy makers toward inflation.
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Some of the hedge funds that made fortunes in the housing-market crash are now betting on the recovery of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage giants.
Don’t miss these top stories:10 things the sleep-aid industry won’t tell you.Why iPhone repair costs have soared.15 new mental illnesses in the DSM-5.
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The federal government won't tax an individual's estate if it's worth less than $5.25 million.But many states will tax estates worth far less. For example, New Jersey's estate tax kicks in at $675,000--the lowest threshold in the nation.
What advice do prospective do-it-yourself investors need to hear before they start managing their own money? The Wall Street Journal put this question to The Experts, an exclusive group of industry and thought leaders who engage in in-depth ...
Is cash in a stock fund's portfolio trash or treasure?How an investor answers can depend on whether stocks are rising or falling. So far this year, with stocks surging and the Dow Jones Industrial Average blowing past its ...
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J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is looking for more directors who can serve on the board's risk committee, said people close to the company, amid calls from some investors for corporate-governance changes at the largest U.S. bank.
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Some of the nation's largest banks, including Wells Fargo & Co., suspended foreclosure sales in a number of states following guidance issued last month by federal banking regulators.
Competition in the $466 million consumer money-transfer business is growing, and industry giant Western Union is feeling the heat.The company cut prices by at least 5% last fall for customers sending money abroad, and the move appears to be ...
Sometimes private-equity firms do little more than suck up money like a vacuum cleaner and leave someone else holding a big, ol' dusty bag full of debt.
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Analysts following the refining sector spent 2012 focusing on the central U.S., where a surge in domestic oil production was creating low prices for those refiners. But Craig Weiland's gaze was fixed on the West Coast.
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Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. halted foreclosure proceedings against home-loan borrowers in 23 states at the request of four state attorneys general, but then resumed the procedures after an internal review of its practices, according ...
Credit unions are offering more private student loans, creating new choices for borrowers grappling with high college costs.Nearly 590 of the nation's 6,955 credit unions—member-owned nonprofit financial institutions—offered student loans ...
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When it comes to choosing the best state in which to retire, some people look beyond traditional needs like nice weather and recreational opportunities.
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You don't have to be a Rockefeller to join a family office.Family offices are private firms that manage just about everything for the wealthiest families: tax planning, investment management, estate planning, philanthropy, art and wine ...
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The 60-something client came into adviser Ross Gerber's office to help address a rift that was opening in his family.He had remarried and had young children, but both he and his new wife had adult children from their previous marriages. And ...
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WASHINGTON—Lawmakers and federal bank regulators are stepping up scrutiny of a consulting firm that twice bungled payments to consumers in a foreclosure-abuse settlement.
A new vulture appears to have found his wings at Third Avenue Value, but regaining investors' trust is taking time.When legendary "vulture" investor Martin Whitman left the fund a little more than a year ago, Ian Lapey, his co-manager and ...
It isn't often a business says, "Thanks, but no thanks," when you try to invest more money with it.But that is what a growing number of life insurers are saying to people who, years back, bought the retirement-income product known as a ...
Take some money off the table. That's the recommendation of Kent Kramer, an adviser in Des Moines, Iowa, who says that with stock indexes at record levels, pre-retirees should consider selling some shares and setting aside the proceeds.
Want to be a smarter investor? Get in touch with your feelings.The usual advice tells us that we have to use reason, not emotion, when we make investment decisions. But even if we think we're being cold and analytical when we make a move, ...
Many financial advisers don't go out of their way to work with young investors. Young people typically don't have $250,000, much less a million dollars, lying around waiting to be invested, so some advisers don't think it's worth their ...
The vast majority of borrowers being compensated for mortgage-related abuses will get $1,000 or less apiece.About four million borrowers will share $3.6 billion in cash as part of a settlement between federal regulators and banks accused of ...
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WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats blasted federal banking regulators for not revealing more details about what consulting firms found during a review of mortgage-foreclosure abuses and how those firms performed.
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Voices is an occasional column that allows wealth managers to address issues of interest to the advisory community. Robert Richter is the Jacksonville, Fla.-based vice president of SunGard's wealth & retirement administration business, ...
Fund Scope | ScoreboardThe Securities and Exchange Commission on March 13 granted UBS Financial an exemption that generated little attention. The firm's application for this forbearance had been duly published in the Federal Register in ...
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Investing's "new normal" is spurring more portfolio managers to say they're willing to try alternative ways to tap into low-cost index funds.
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The 66-year-old widow had been a client of adviser Jay Wertz since her husband died in 2007, leaving her with had an estate worth $30 million.

To get a clearer picture of your money, consolidating old workplace accounts to an IRA or your next employer plan makes a lot of sense.