Do you regret converting your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA? Fortunately, a taxpayer-friendly aspect of the Roth conversion rules is that you have until October 15 (adjusted for weekends) of the year following the year of a conversion to reverse it. In other words, the deadline for reversing any 2016 Roth conversions is October 16,...

Reverse mortgages have been around for years. But they’re getting a new spin: Some senior homeowners are tapping into their home equity to “bridge the gap” until the time they’re ready to apply for Social Security benefits. However, an independent consumer agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — is cautioning retirees against using this...

Created just a few years ago in 2014, the My Retirement Account (myRA) program will end, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As part of the Trump Administration’s effort to slim down wasteful spending where possible, the Treasury has decided this short-lived Roth IRA backed by the government isn’t cost effective. First Some Background...

For years, people have questioned the viability of the Social Security system going forward. In July, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The report projects that the combined asset reserves of the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will...

We recently sent out a survey to our clients asking about their use of our Secure Client Portal. We weren’t surprised by the results, so we wanted to provide you some additional information regarding it. Our intent is that more clients will start to utilize this feature. Gardiner Thomsen understands how important security is to...

With the firm’s 100+ cooperative client base, we like to reflect back in the first edition of each year’s newsletter on what we have seen over the past year. There is obviously exceptions, outliers that performed much better than our overall characterization of the past year. Sadly, there are those that performed much worse. That...