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Posts by Eric Reed:
When you sell your home, the IRS allows one major form of capital gains break. It’s called the home sale exclusion, and it allows you to deduct a significant amount of the profit from your home sale to minimize or avoid capital gains taxes. If you’re selling an investment property, you can use the process known as a “like-kind” exchange to lower your tax burden, but this process only applies to investment and rental properties. Here’s what you need to know. A financial advisor could help you optimize your investment and estate planning strategies to lower your tax liability. Read more
If you own a home, you have paid an ad valorem tax. If you own a car, same thing. In fact, if you’ve ever bought anything in the United States, you have paid an ad valorem tax. These taxes are based on the value of some underlying asset. They are a very common form of taxation and long predate taxes on income or other earned wealth. Let’s break down the basics. A financial advisor could help you put a tax strategy together for your investments and estate. Read more
In financial law, an “estate” refers to all of the assets and property owned by someone who has died. However, this definition can have a few different applications depending on where in the estate process the decedent’s estate is. Estate planning is required to ensure your assets are handled exactly as you want after you’re gone. This process can get complicated and, over time, will also need updating and adjusting. That’s when working with a financial advisor can be a valuable decision. Read more
An IRA (and its corollary, the Roth IRA) is a form of tax-advantaged retirement account that lets you save money during your working years so you can withdraw it during retirement. There is no age… Read more
A health savings account (an HSA) is a form of tax-advantaged retirement account designed for healthcare spending. You can make contributions to your account at any time so long as you aren’t… Read more
From time to time an employer will have to make structural changes to their 401(k) plan. When that happens, they might need to freeze changes to the plan overall. This is called a “blackout period.”… Read more
A Social Security Administration (SSA) award letter confirms that you have been approved for benefits. Unsurprisingly, these letters are sometimes also referred to as benefit letters. These are… Read more
A limited liability company, or LLC, is one of the most common corporate forms in American business. It is relatively easy to establish and allows individuals or small groups to do business under a… Read more
Risk and return are, effectively, two sides of the same coin. In an efficient market, higher risks correlate with stronger potential returns. At the same time, lower returns correlate with safer … Read more
An illegitimate child, one whose parents were not legally married, usually has the same claims as any other child under statutory inheritance. Nowadays legitimacy rarely affects an individual’s… Read more
Home prices have nearly doubled in the last 10 years – and that could mean you owe some serious taxes if you are selling your home. After bottoming out around $259,000 in 2011, the average sale price… Read more
The 28/36 rule is a rule of thumb for managing your finances and a valuable tool in determining how much house you can afford. The rule says that you should dedicate no more than 28% of your pretax,… Read more
The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit are both programs designed to help alleviate poverty, but there are key differences. The EITC is a credit available to employed, low-income… Read more
To take out a home equity line of credit (a HELOC), you need to have at least 15% to 20% equity in your home. The exact amount depends on your lender and your financial details, such as credit score,… Read more
A no closing mortgage, sometimes called a zero closing cost mortgage, is one in which your lender provides the money to pay for the closing costs on your house. In exchange, you typically pay a… Read more
A warranty deed, as its name suggests, comes with warranties. The person or persons transferring the property, whether it’s being bought as a residence or as an investment guarantee they own it and… Read more
Elder law refers to legal issues that concern older adults, generally defined as people above the age of 65. It is often understood as an extension of traditional trust and estate law, but overlaps… Read more
Marital property, also known as marital assets, spousal assets or community property, matters when it comes to taxes, estate law and divorce. In most cases, separate property applies to the assets… Read more
When you need someone to make legally binding decisions on your behalf, you grant them that authority with a power of attorney form. There are many titles for the person who exercises this authority… Read more
A charitable lead trust is a form of charitable trust that first distributes assets to the named charities. Once the assets have been distributed to the charities as specified in the trust, the named… Read more
A charitable trust holds assets and distributes them to charities. When you establish the trust you can specify how it will manage and invest its assets, as well as how it will make donations. There… Read more
When companies issue stock they often split their shares up. Some shares, typically most of them, get offered to the general public. Others are restricted, which might be held by the company itself… Read more
An altcoin has one of two definitions. It is either any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin, or any cryptocurrency that is neither Bitcoin nor Ethereum. Regardless of which definition you pick, this… Read more
Student loans have become one of the most complicated aspects of modern finance. They involve large – often high interest rate – amounts of debt, typically taken on by young people with little… Read more
Earned income is generally recorded in two ways for federal tax purposes. There is W-2 income and 1099-MISC income. The former is for employees, either full- or part-time; the latter is for contract… Read more
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