Posts by Marcus Velasco

What is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)? The TCJA, which was passed in 2017, made significant changes to individual income taxes by: expanding income tax brackets, lowering tax rates, doubling the estate tax exemption and the standard deduction while limiting what could be itemized, along with other changes. The law took effect on January…

After a lifetime of hard work and diligently paying your taxes throughout your working and retirement years, you may be surprised that when you plan for your legacy, a portion of your estate may be subject to the estate tax. But what is the estate tax? How does it apply? And how might it change going…

This article is the third of a three-part series on planning for retirement. The first article discussed “Are you Ready” for retirement. The second article, “Making it Last”, discussed maximizing the value of your retirement assets to provide for the retirement you hope to have. Here we will discuss some of the basics of estate…

This article is the second of a three-part series on planning for retirement. The first article discussed “Are you Ready” for retirement. Here we will cover maximizing the value of your retirement assets to provide for the retirement you hope and deserve to have. The final article will be on estate planning and is forthcoming.…

This article is the first of a three-part series on planning for retirement. The focus of this article is preparing yourself. Follow up articles will cover maximizing the value of your retirement assets and estate planning. Are You Ready . . . Emotionally? In our culture it’s not uncommon to ask someone, “So what do…

The final numbers aren’t available yet, but identity theft and consumer fraud are tracking to have their biggest year in 2020. In 2019, more than 3.2 million reports of fraud and identity theft were recorded, with victims losing $1.9 billion. The losses included more than 270,000 cases of credit card fraud, averaging $6,000 per incident.…