Financial planning experts recommend the amount of money you’ll need to have accumulated is equivalent to 70 percent of your annual salary at the time you retire, for each year of living in retirement. For example, if you’re making $75,000 per year at age 65, and expect to live another 20 years past that in retirement, you’ll need: $75,000 x .7 x 20 = $1,050,000. Saving for retirement must become a priority for all Americans, lest they are comfortable burdening their offsprin

Retirement benefits—including employer contributions to pensions, 401(k)s and retiree health-care benefits—fell from 9.1 percent of worker pay in 2001 to 6.8 percent in 2015. Jul 19, 2017 (Bloomberg) --Americans are more worried about retirement, and they're getting less help saving for it. Employers cut their contributions to workers' retirements by a quarter from 2001 to 2015, according to a new report by the consulting firm Willis Towers Watson. The biggest driver: the dec

Annuities initially were developed by insurance companies to help protect people from outliving their money in retirement. As annuities have evolved, however, they’ve also been proven to be useful in addressing a number of other retirement and financial planning issues. “Insurance companies have done a great job responding to the changing needs of today’s consumers, allowing advisors to help their clients find the right tool for the job,” said Eric Henderson, senior vice pres

The estate tax cuts in the new Tax Reform Bill, which was passed in both the House and Senate last week, could help foster continuous future investing among a person’s heirs and will help ensure that real estate and businesses remain in the family. This is because the new tax bill will allow the exemption for estate taxes to increase from the current limit of $5 million to approximately $11 million. Those with families can double their maximum exemption from $10 million to ov