Each year the trustees of the Social Security/Medicare trusts are required to report on the status of the trust funds. Last month, having included the effects of the recession in their projections, they released a new report. The news is not good. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

My final post in recognition of Disability Insurance Awareness Month discusses key factors that can affect the cost of disability insurance. I’ll also touch on the question of how much disability coverage a person needs and discuss the things that you should consider in determining how much ... Read more

A couple of items at the Calculated Risk blog caught my eye today; both suggest that mortgage rates might well be headed higher. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

If you’re shopping for your own disability coverage (rather than receiving disability insurance as an employer benefit), you'll encounter a myriad of policy differences. You need to understand one of the most critical elements in any disability insurance policy: the definition of what a "disa ... Read more

My first post discussed why you might need disability insurance; today I’d like to explain a few of the important variations in disability coverage.I think the most mystifying insurance terms are those used to describe policy renewal provisions. ... Read the full post ... Read more

Earlier this month I offered a list of financial planning suggestions for recent college graduates . Since It's often the case that there's a delay period between graduation and the start of a new job, I’d like to expand on one of the items in the list: finding health insurance after gradu ... Read more

Yesterday I attended the spring New England Economic Partnership (NEEP) conference, held semiannually by the nonprofit economic research group that studies the region's economy. They were optimistically cautious. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month. You won’t be getting any “Happy Disability Insurance Awareness Month” cards, though, because Hallmark™ hasn't caught up to this yet. The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education makes this declaration annually, but the average per ... Read more

Last Thursday, I attended an excellent seminar held by State Street Global Advisors and Morningstar. Although the meeting focused on building portfolios with exchange traded funds (ETF's), the highlight of the afternoon was a presentation on the current state of the global markets. Read the fu ... Read more

Brokers are not innately bad people, but the systems under which they’re required to function can make it tough for them to work in the best interests of their clients. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more