Retirement Planning

An annuity can be a useful tool for long-term care planning, but annuities are also complex financial products that are hard to understand. If purchasing an annuity, you need to consider your options carefully. ...

A new report finds that almost no retirees are making financially optimal decisions about when to take Social Security and are losing out on an average of more than $100,000 per household in the process.

Older Americans with a life insurance policy that they no longer need have the option to sell the policy to investors. These transactions, called "life settlements," can bring in needed cash, but are they a good idea? ...

Federal law requires that after you reach age 73, you must begin withdrawing a minimum amount from your retirement accounts. But what if you die after you begin or before all the account funds have been distributed?...

Donor-advised funds are a growing trend in giving that may get more popular due to the new tax law.

The number of older Americans with student loan debt – either theirs or someone else’s -- is growing. Sadly, learning how to deal with this debt is now a fact of life for many seniors heading into retirement.

A U.S. court has struck down a rule intended to prevent financial advisers from steering their clients to bad retirement investments, but there is a new proposal to address the same problem.

There are two main types of employee retirement savings plans: the traditional 401(k) and the Roth 401(k). Distributions from a Roth 401(k) are usually tax-free, but there is a little-known situation where distributions can be taxed.

Figuring out how much to save for retirement and when you can safely stop working can be difficult. A growing number of online retirement calculators, many of them free, are available to help.