Insights

A qualified charitable distribution lets you give from your IRA directly to charity once you are 70½. The 2026 limit, the rules, and what to do before December 31.

A fiduciary investment advisor must put your interests first for the whole relationship. Here is what that means, how it differs from other rules, and how to check before you hire.

A fee-only financial advisor is paid only by you. Here is how that differs from commission pay, what fiduciary adds, and five questions to ask any advisor.

Six things to review before December 31: rebalancing, gains and losses, required withdrawals, contribution room, giving and beneficiaries.

Turning savings into retirement income comes down to a handful of decisions made in the right order: how much your investments need to provide, how the money gets to you each month, which accounts you draw from first, how you’ll handle a market drop early in retirement, and how required distributions, Social Security and Medicare…

Christian investing starts with seven questions for anyone who wants their portfolio to reflect their faith: what the money is for, which convictions should guide it, what you actually own, what “faith-based” means in your strategy, whether the portfolio still makes financial sense, how it supports both retirement and generosity, and whether your legacy reflects…

Tax-efficient investing starts with a simple idea: two portfolios with the same investments can leave you with different amounts after taxes. The difference comes from three habits: putting each investment in the right type of account, choosing funds that don’t create surprise tax bills, and being careful about when you sell. We don’t prepare taxes…

A Roth conversion moves money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. You pay income tax on the amount now, and in exchange, qualified withdrawals later are tax-free. It can be a smart move in the right years and an expensive one in the wrong ones. How a Roth conversion works The amount you…

The five years before you retire matter more than almost any others. A bad market, a missed deadline or a fuzzy budget hurts most right before you stop working. This pre-retirement checklist covers the five things to get right while you still have time to adjust. 1. Know your number Start with what you actually…

There are three ways to move retirement money into or between IRAs, and they don’t work the same. A direct IRA rollover or a trustee-to-trustee transfer is almost always the cleaner choice, because the money never passes through your hands and nothing is withheld. 1. Direct IRA rollover: from a workplace plan Your old 401(k),…