NEW YORK (Reuters) – Taxpayers, check your calendars: There are 41 tax-planning days before the books close on 2013. With new tax provisions in place and several benefits expiring at the end of the year, now is the time to plot your year-end financial strategy.

Here are year-end moves that will make that April tax deadline less painful.

- First, check your income and your expected marginal tax rate for the year, so you can avoid surprises. If you’re a high earner – or have special income coming this year – that’s especially important because a variety of new taxes kick in this year at various income levels. Single taxpayers earning more than $200,000 and joint filers earning more than $250,000 will have a new 0.9 percent Medicare tax on wages exceeding that amount.

NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Taxpayers, check your
calendars: There are 41 tax-planning days before the books close
on 2013. With new tax provisions in place and several benefits
expiring at the end of the year, now is the time to plot your
year-end financial strategy.

Here are year-end moves that will make that April tax
deadline less painful.

- First, check your income and your expected marginal tax
rate for the year, so you can avoid surprises. If you’re a high
earner – or have special income coming this year – that’s
especially important because a variety of new taxes kick in this
year at various income levels. Single taxpayers earning more
than $200,000 and joint filers earning more than $250,000 will
have a new 0.9 percent Medicare tax on wages exceeding that
amount.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The brokerage industry is reaching out to consumers with a new “Investors First” initiative designed to win the hearts and minds of those who are skeptical of Wall Street advisers.

The initiative, unveiled last week in Washington by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group representing the nation’s largest brokerage firms, currently consists of a pamphlet for consumers encouraging them to work closely with their investment professionals. But it’s just the first of a series of steps that SIFMA says it will be rolling out to “demonstrate our commitment to putting customers first.”

NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) – The brokerage industry is
reaching out to consumers with a new “Investors First”
initiative designed to win the hearts and minds of those who are
skeptical of Wall Street advisers.

The initiative, unveiled last week in Washington by the
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade
group representing the nation’s largest brokerage firms,
currently consists of a pamphlet for consumers encouraging them
to work closely with their investment professionals. But it’s
just the first of a series of steps that SIFMA says it will be
rolling out to “demonstrate our commitment to putting customers
first.”

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Jerome Schlichter, the St. Louis
attorney credited with literally making a federal case out of
401(k) fees, just filed his 14th class action against a company
he claims mismanaged its employees’ retirement savings.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in
Massachusetts against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co,
states that the firm “larded” its 401(k) program with overpriced
and inferior investments and engaged in “blatant self-dealing”
by making money selling its own services to the plan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jerome Schlichter, the St. Louis attorney credited with literally making a federal case out of 401(k) fees, just filed his 14th class action against a company he claims mismanaged its employees’ retirement savings.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co, states that the firm “larded” its 401(k) program with overpriced and inferior investments and engaged in “blatant self-dealing” by making money selling its own services to the plan. MassMutual, headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, could not be reached immediately for comment.

NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) – If you have been waiting years
for a decent raise, you will probably have to keep waiting – the
average salary increase in the United States planned for 2014
will be only 2.9 percent, according to a Towers Watson survey.
And rather than being shared equally, that raise will be aimed
disproportionately at workplace stars.

This is all the more reason not to leave money on the table
when selecting your employee benefits for 2014, something most
workers are doing right about now. But the majority of workers -
roughly 60 percent – simply let their benefit choices ride from
one year to the next, and do not bother re-evaluating whether
they should be switching to new plans for healthcare coverage or
other benefits, says Karen Frost, a vice president and
healthcare expert at Aon Hewitt.

By Linda Stern

NEW YORK, Oct 23(Reuters) – If you’re waiting until
Thanksgiving kicks off the season of goodwill, stop waiting.
Halloween is a more appropriate time to plan your charitable
strategy for the rest of the year.

That may be especially true in 2013, when sizeable stock
market gains and new taxes on the wealthy are pushing some
people to increase their philanthropy and to do so in a
strategic way.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Statisticians have noted a rise in “gray divorces” lately. Spouses who stayed together through decades of sickness, health, richness, poorness, child rearing and parental health troubles are breaking up, just as they are supposed to be entering their own happy golden years.

No doubt some have unhappily “stayed together for the kids,” but something else is at play here. Spouses who have compromised for years see retirement as a last chance to do what they want.

NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Statisticians have noted a rise
in “gray divorces” lately. Spouses who stayed together through
decades of sickness, health, richness, poorness, child rearing
and parental health troubles are breaking up, just as they are
supposed to be entering their own happy golden years.

No doubt some have unhappily “stayed together for the kids,”
but something else is at play here. Spouses who have compromised
for years see retirement as a last chance to do what they want.