Dear Garden State Trust Company: Wow, the DJIA crossed 24000! No one told me to expect that when the year started. How much higher can the stock market go? —Nervous Investor Dear Nervous: Monty Python famously said, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” In much the same way, no one will ever predict a 20% rise…
Year: 2017
End of Year Review
As we are nearing year-end it makes a lot of sense to review your current Will, especially if any of the following occurred during 2017 – A named beneficiary died A possible beneficiary was born A named beneficiary divorced A named beneficiary is very sick or has a drug dependency You are moving or moved…
Federal Estate Taxes
Dear Garden State Trust Company: What is going to happen with federal estate taxes in 2018? —Interested Observer Dear Interested: The IRS has announced that, under current law, the inflation-adjusted exemption from federal estate and gift tax will grow to $5.6 million in 2018. For a married couple, that means a total estate of $11.2…
Vacation Homes
The last recession took a toll on the value of vacation homes. The National Association of Realtors reports that, from the end of 2007 through 2012, when primary homes were dropping in value by 14.8%, the value of vacation properties fell by 23%. The good news is that prices have come back strongly. The median…
IRAs for Charity
Charitable giving in the U.S. rose 2.7% last year, reaching an all-time record of $390.05 billion. That’s also a record in inflation-adjusted dollars, reports the Giving USA Foundation in its annual report on philanthropy. Individuals, foundations, and corporations contributed to the robust growth in philanthropy, while bequests were projected to have declined by 9.0%. Some…
The IRS Opens a Facebook Page. Yours.
Two law professors at Washington State University have warned that the IRS has turned to data mining of social media in their enforcement efforts [Houser and Sanders, “The Use of Big Data Analytics by the IRS: Efficient Solutions or the End of Privacy as We Know It?”, 19 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 817…
Who Owns Mutual Funds?
There are an estimated 94 million mutual fund investors in the U.S., reports the Investment Company Institute in its 2017 Investment Company Fact Book. Those investors represent 54.9 million households, or roughly 43.6% of all U.S. households. That level of mutual fund ownership has held steady during this century. 43.6% of U.S. households own mutual funds…