Most home buyers purchase life assurance when they arrange a mortgage, but only a minority obtain another form of financial protection that they are five times more likely to need before they reach retirement. Critical illness assurance pays a tax-free lump sum on diagnosis of any one of [ Read More → ]

More than a third of working Britons have no pension in place The findings suggested that the number of people without their own pension scheme is increasing, up 2 per cent each year over the past three years. It comes after Dame Joan Bakewell, the broadcaster and Government’s voice for [ Read More → ]

You may have noticed that I talk a lot about planning for retirement. I even go so far as to use sports analogies to get my points across. No analogies this week, however. I just want to discuss financial planning for people under age 35. Read the original article at Palmbeachpost

Dame Joan Bakewell: ‘We cannot have a large segment of the population simply not working and living off the rest. The old will have to work’ Photo: GETTY She said the current mandatory retirement age of 65 – which allows employers to force older workers to retire – should be abolished, [ Read More → ]

In what federal prosecutors described as the longest sentence ever imposed for a financial crime in Southern California, a Riverside County man was sentenced Monday to 100 years in prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of about $35 million. Richard Monroe Harkless, 65, who ran the operation from [ Read More → ]

SAN FRANCISCO - Social Security provides a majority of the retirement income for about two-thirds of Americans over age 65, but if you’re in your mid-50s or younger, it’s time to make alternate arrangements. The program’s dismal outlook has long been known, but the recent economic crisis further scarred the program’s [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that’s happened since the 1980s. The deficits , $10 billion in 2010 and $9 [ Read More → ]

It’s no coincidence that HSBC should offer its lowest ever mortgage rate – 1.99pc for two years – just as official confirmation came this week that new borrowing has fallen to a record low. Lenders are having to compete harder than ever to stay in business and homebuyers [ Read More → ]

I work for a public employer and have the option to restore retirement credit for times when I withdrew from the system. Basically I will get 2.5 percent of salary for every year of service that I add. This seems like a really good deal. Is it? The first thing you [ Read More → ]

My recent column about Roth IRA conversions unleashed a flood of reader e-mails illustrating widespread confusion. I’ll try clearing them up. Traditional and Roth IRAs are types of inidual retirement accounts. Contributions to traditional IRAs may be tax deductible, but withdrawals are taxed. Roth IRA contributions are never deductible, but withdrawals [ Read More → ]