Financial Planning

Investors try to maximize investment returns while managing the level of risk in their portfolios. But only after-tax investment returns are truly available to the investor. Tax consequences should be considered before making any investments. Tax treatment, good or bad, can have a significant impact on an investment decision.

A roundup of financial planning news from the previous month.

Taxation is merely one piece of the financial planning puzzle, but it is second only to investments as the topic that most individuals want to control during the financial planning process.

For this installment of Accounting Today and Cetera Financial Specialists' Seeking Success project, we looked at the ways different firms with wealth management practices approach one of their most valuable assets: their current clients.

Whether they realize it or not, taxes ended up going up for most taxpayers last year, despite the extension of the Bush tax cuts at the beginning of last year.

When President Obama announced the myRA program during his State of the Union Address this year, it likely raised several questions among those in the accounting community: What is this new program? How will it work? How does it compare to the retirement benefits businesses already provide to their employees? What do I need to share with my clients about this?

Nearly half of Americans prepare their own taxes, according to a new survey, and most of them seem to be convinced they are taking advantage of all the tax breaks available.

The Internal Revenue Service is permitting millions of dollars in potentially improper self-employed retirement plan deductions to be claimed, according to a new government report, which estimates that up to $71.4 million over five years could be saved with better controls.

An increasing number of employers are using cash-based long-term incentives as part of their employee compensation programs, according to a new survey.

The Internal Revenue Service is providing transition relief to owners of individual retirement accounts and individual retirement annuities relating to the application of a one-rollover-per-year limitation of the Tax Code.