Articles
Welcome to our research center! We've put together a library of information on important financial topics that we believe you'll find helpful.
Simply click on one of the general financial topics below and you'll find a selection of easy-to-understand information sheets about related financial concepts and strategies. This information is updated regularly to reflect the latest facts, figures, legislation, and economic trends.
Estates & Trusts
-
What Key Estate Planning Tools Should I Know About?
Wills and trusts allow you to spell out how you would like your property distributed, but they also go beyond that.
-
How Can a Living Trust Help Me Control My Estate?
A living trust can help control the distribution of your estate upon death.
-
What Are the Pitfalls of Probate?
The probate process can be lengthy and complex. There are strategies you can use to help avoid the probate process.
-
How Can My Gift Benefit Me and the Charity?
To retain the tax advantages associated with charitable giving, your gift must be made to a qualified organization.
-
How Can I Build and Preserve My Estate?
Life insurance can be used to help preserve the value of your estate for your heirs.
-
Can I Benefit from an A-B Trust?
An A-B trust can be an effective way to help reduce estate taxes and preserve family assets for heirs.
-
What Is the History of the Federal Estate Tax?
Careful estate planning is still one of the most important ways to manage and protect your assets for your heirs.
Retirement
-
Why Do People Buy Annuities?
Annuities, an insurance-based financial vehicle, can provide many benefits that retirement investors might want.
-
What Are Annuity Living Benefits?
Living benefits can help protect variable annuity owners from running out of money in retirement.
-
How Much Do I Need to Save?
Many realize it’s important to save for retirement, but knowing exactly how much to save is another issue altogether.
-
What Does the Changing Pension Landscape Mean for Retirement?
With the changing pension landscape, it is important to take charge of your own retirement security.
-
Unforgettable Birthdays
There are key dates after you turn 59½ that can impact your taxes, Medicare eligibility, and retirement benefits.
-
What Is an Indexed Annuity?
An indexed annuity may provide some upside potential and downside protection.
-
How Should I Manage My Retirement Plan?
Employer-sponsored retirement plans are more important than ever, but managing the assets can be confusing.
-
Save Now or Save Later?
If you start saving for retirement sooner, the more money you are likely to accumulate and possibly retire sooner.
-
What Is a Roth IRA?
Qualified Roth IRA distributions in retirement are free of federal income tax and aren’t included in gross income.
Tax Planning
-
How Much Money Can I Put Into My IRA or Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan?
IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans are subject to annual contribution limits set by the federal government.
-
What Is a Required Minimum Distribution?
Required minimum distribution is the annual amount that must be withdrawn from a qualified retirement plan/account.
-
What Are the Tax Benefits of Charitable Trusts?
For the grantor, there are a few potential tax benefits that can come with setting up a charitable trust.
-
How Can I Benefit from Tax-Advantaged Investments?
Many traditional tax-advantaged investment strategies have gone away, but there are still some alternatives.
-
What Is the Most Tax-Efficient Way to Take a Distribution From a Retirement Plan
Consider a trustee-to-trustee transfer to an IRA versus a lump-sum distribution from a workplace retirement plan.
-
What Is the Tax History of the United States?
United States tax law is a constantly changing landscape. The latest major piece of tax legislation is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.
Investing
-
What Is an Exchange-Traded Fund?
ETFs have unique attributes and attempt to track all types of indexes, industries, or commodities.
-
How Are Growth and Value Stocks Different?
The labels growth and value reflect different approaches that can be used when making investment decisions.
-
What Is Diversification?
An important element to successful investing is to manage investment risk while maintaining the potential for growth.
-
What Is a Stock Index?
Stock market indexes can be useful benchmarks for gauging the performance of an investment portfolio over time.
-
How Do Mutual Funds and Stocks Differ?
The difference between purchasing an individual stock versus shares in a mutual fund to potentially earn dividends.
-
What Is the Difference Between a Fixed Annuity and a Variable Annuity?
Both fixed and variable annuities could be appropriate options for an individual interested in purchasing an annuity.
-
What Investment Risks Should I Know About?
Understanding different types of investment risk can help investors manage their money more effectively.
-
What Is Dollar-Cost Averaging?
Dollar-cost averaging involves investing a set amount of money on a regular basis, regardless of market conditions.
Cash Management
-
How Long Will It Take to Double My Money?
Before making investment decisions, it is helpful to determine the real rate of return on the investment.
-
How Can I Better Manage My Short-Term Cash?
There are numerous investment alternatives available to help provide liquidity.
-
What Advantages Does a Biweekly Mortgage Offer?
Biweekly mortgage payments can have a dramatic effect on the amount of interest homeowners have to pay.
-
What Savings Alternatives Are Available?
There are a number of savings alternatives that could help you earn a reasonable rate of return.
-
How Does Inflation Affect Me?
Historically, one of the best ways to fight the effects of inflation has been to utilize growth-oriented investments.
Risk Management
-
Why Purchase Life Insurance?
If you have a family who relies on your income, it is important to have life insurance protection.
-
Why Are Annuities Considered an Insurance Product?
An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company to pay you future income in exchange for premiums you pay.
-
Am I Prepared for Long-Term Care Expenses?
The odds of needing long-term care increase as you age. Prior planning can help protect you from financial ruin.
-
What Does Medicare Cover?
Medicare is the federal health insurance program for those persons age 65 and over. But what does it cover?
-
How Likely Am I to Need Long-Term Care?
If you were to suffer an illness or disability that required long-term nursing care, would you be covered?
-
What Are the Basic Types of Life Insurance?
When selecting a life insurance policy, examine all your options, as well as the positives and negatives of each type.