I hope you’ve enjoyed the holidays. As we ring in the New Year and start our client review cycle, one of the things that we do for our clients is to review the beneficiary designations of their retirement accounts (pensions,READ MORE
Author: Rick Brooks
Rick Brooks, CFA®, CFP® is a partner of Blankinship & Foster LLC and is the firm’s Chief Investment Officer. He is a lead advisor, counseling clients on all aspects of personal financial management. Rick serves on several boards. He is the Chairman of the Board of Girl Scouts San Diego, and also chairs the San Diego Foundation’s Professional Advisor Council. Rick and his family live in Mission Hills. Rick enjoys spending time with his family, theater, cooking, skiing, gaming and reading.
IRA & QRP Retirement Account Distribution Rules — With the year-end approaching, an important deadline for retirement account owners is also coming: Required Minimum Distributions. This article will deal with some of the distribution rules surrounding IRAs and Qualified RetirementREAD MORE
There has been a lot written about Social Security lately, but I was stunned recently by a presentation at the UCSD Economics Roundtable. According to Professor John Shoven of Stanford University (who studies Social Security, aging and retirement), the VASTREAD MORE
Recently I wrote about having a charitable giving plan, and how that can allow people to be strategic about their charitable gifts. As tax rates have been on the rise lately, many people have been looking for ways to reduceREAD MORE
Life insurance is often used for alternative purposes, such as borrowing against it, but there’s a catch. When the cash value bleeds down to nothing, the policy generally needs to be cancelled, and that “tax-free” loan you took becomes a taxable distribution of any earnings on the policy. You’re also out the insurance policy you had planned on.