Wealth management

Strategies to help your clients save for the rising cost of college

Accounting Today is in the midst of collecting submissions for its 2014 ranking of the Top Firms by AUM.

Bernard Madoff’s fraud might have been detected with enough due diligence in mid-2006, more than two years before the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled.

Broker/dealer HD Vest Financial Services Inc. has launched a proprietary tool to help its affiliated advisors integrate client tax information into their financial plans.

Financial stress among employees increased significantly last year, according to a new survey, with 23 percent reporting "high" or "overwhelming" levels of financial stress compared to only 18 percent in 2012 and 19 percent in 2011.

Twenty-five percent of Americans across all age groups admit they are not saving at all for retirement, or are unsure, according to a new survey.

The balances of Roth IRAs grew at more than double the rate of traditional individual retirement accounts from 2010 to 2012, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Those of us who already miss Jay Leno’s old “Jaywalking” segments on the Tonight Show shouldn’t be surprised that a lot of people just aren’t aware of what most of us would consider “common knowledge,” but a new survey demonstrates once again that you can never be too sure about your assumptions.

Real estate investment trusts were originally created to permit tax-efficient public investment in real estate, but REITs have also found wide use as private vehicles.

The Internal Revenue Service has published final regulations to provide guidance on which costs incurred by estates or trusts other than grantor trusts are subject to a 2 percent floor for miscellaneous itemized deductions.

Paid-for stock research has generally elicited widespread skepticism, but a new scholarly paper by three accounting professors suggests that paid-for analysts are more like auditors and credit-rating firms than is generally believed.

Congressmen Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Scott Peters, D-Calif., along with 21 other House Democrats, have introduced legislation to lower all federal student loans to 4 percent and allow borrowers to refinance their student loans at a lower rate.

Premature withdrawals from retirement accounts have become America’s new piggy bank, cracked open in record amounts during lean times by people like Cindy Cromie, who needed the money to rent a U-Haul and start a new life.

Consulting may be an attractive career move for CFOs who may not be ready to stop working when they retire, according to a new poll.

Remember -- it's all about them, not you.

We're dedicating this column to tax alpha because accountants who are financial planners are uniquely positioned to deliver it. But just what, you may ask, is "tax alpha"? If "alpha" is the return generated by an advisor's skill in picking and managing investments, then "tax alpha" protects that return and generates a boost by making sure that taxes don't eat away more of a client's wealth than absolutely necessary.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to amend the regulations for the treatment of U.S. taxpayers who own passive foreign investment company stock through tax-exempt organizations.

The more discipline an individual brings to their finances, the more financially secure he or she feels in the present, and the greater likelihood they’ll be happy in the future, according to a new study.

Employees are becoming increasingly engaged and more proactive in their financial planning, according to a new study.

U.S. taxpayers would need to pay an average of $1,259 more a year to make up the federal and state taxes lost to corporations and individuals sheltering money in overseas tax havens, according to a report.