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A few weeks ago more than three dozen billionaires signed up for The Giving Pledge an effort by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage wealthy people to give at least half of their fortunes to charity.

I recently read a post by Kate McBride regarding the differences between an advisor held to a fiduciary standard and a broker held to a suitability standard.  It was short accurate and to the point.  Therefore I credit her entirely for the comments below:

How often have you seen headlines on personal finance magazines touting Five Star Mutual Funds? You may figure that list generated by Morningstar constitutes great shopping ground. In fact many professional financial advisors begin their analysis by evaluating those five-star funds.

A note from a client thanking me for providing a complimentary long-term care (LTC) insurance policy review prompted me to think how a LTC review would be useful for many others.

We’ve all asked ourselves questions like “Why do smart people make foolish choices?” In Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (Doubleday June 2010) the authors Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman examine the reasons for our irrational behavior and suggest how we can make more rational choices.

When the actor Gary Coleman died on May 28th at the age of 42 after suffering a brain hemorrhage he left three different wills–including one that was handwritten. Legally the last will written is the binding document. However battle lines have been drawn and it is likely his family and friends are in for a long court fight.

The question posed in the title of this blog has a double meaning–jobs as in employment and Jobs as in Steve Jobs of Apple.

The recent death of two billionaires has thrust back into the spotlight the fact that Congress let the federal estate tax expire .

Legislators in Congress are reportedly considering creating a kind of Roth IRA version of the estate tax. “On The Money” a blog of the congressional newspaper The Hill recently reported that lawmakers are debating whether to let taxpayers opt to pay estate taxes in advance so their heirs owe nothing.

New rules approved this May by the Internal Revenue Service require 401(k) providers to offer participants at least three investment alternatives to company stock. Most plan providers do this anyway but the new rules also address the common corporate policy of disallowing employees from selling or diversifying out of company stock except at certain times.