It looks like Congress won’t get around to fixing the estate tax before this year ends. Aside from boosting the incomes of estate planning attorneys, this doesn’t help anyone. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

A report released this month on indicates that while average college debt levels reached $23,200 for the graduating class of 2008, there is an extremely wide range of variation among student debts loads in different parts of the country and at different school. It’s not very enlightening to ... Read more

This past summer I wrote about the novel Macroshares trusts released this year that enable investors to speculate on the direction of housing prices. Earlier this week, MacroMarkets announced that instead of terminating in 2014, the trusts will terminate next week. Read the full article ... ... Read more

Last Friday, the House passed the the W all Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a measure hailed as the biggest reform of financial services in half a century. Already, though, some interesting exceptions have been spotted in the bill, which weighs in at 1200-plus pages. The bill does a n ... Read more

For many people, December is the riskiest month in which to buy into a new mutual fund in a taxable account. This has nothing to do with the gyrations of the stock market, and everything to do with taxes. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

As the end of the year approaches, it’s always a good idea to take see if there are any last-minute moves that make sense for you. Here are four opportunities for tax savings: Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

As the Christmas shopping season approaches, it’s a good idea to do what you can to reduce your risk of identity fraud when you shop online. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

The big guns in the securities industry have expressed a desire for a “harmonized fiduciary standard” for broker-dealers and investment advisers. That sounds good, but as the details emerge, it looks more and more as though this "harmonized" standard is actually a "gutted" standard ... Read more

I’ve learned from Newstex, which syndicates this blog through its Authoritative Blog Content service, that the FFS Blog's content can now be accessed using an Amazon Kindle. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more

Construction-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar recently announced its willingness to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of charging excessive fees in four of its employee 401(k) plans. Read the full article ... Read the full post ... Read more