Matthew J. Illian, CFP®, AIF®, Author at FIGuide

Overfunded College 529 plan? No Problem!

Dec 30 2015

While most Americans have made little if any progress in their college savings goals, others have a more enviable dilemma of potentially running past the finish line. Still others have found that their children aren’t choosing the collegiate path. No need to worry. You have many great options when managing an overfunded 529 college savings plan.

Withdraw the Funds

If you have more money than college expenses, you can simply withdraw the funds. The down side is that your earnings are included in taxable income and incur a 10% penalty. If you invested ten thousand dollars which grew to fourteen …

Are CEOs Talented or Just Lucky?

Mar 10 2015

Are CEOs Talented or Just Lucky?

For too long, the only voices accusing many of America’s corporate executives of excessive pay came from a small group of academics and activist investors. When the divorce of a billionaire oil executive went to court, an unlikely voice joined the chorus.

The legal defense of Harold Hamm, chief executive of Continental Resources, hinged on the belief that a majority of his wealth was simply the result of happenstance and luck. The defendant wasn’t talented, they argued, he was simply part of an energy industry experiencing a rising tide of growth. If the courts agreed with Hamm’s feeble self-assessment, it …

SEC Q&A: How do I find out whether an investment adviser ever had problems with a government regulator or has a disciplinary history?

Jul 23 2014

Golden Glasses

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has on their website a page entitled, “Investment Advisers: What You Need to Know Before Choosing One” which begins:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) receives many questions about investment advisers—what they are and how to go about choosing one. This document answers some of the typical questions we receive from investors about investment advisers.

Here is one of the questions and answer from that site:

Q: How do I find out whether an investment adviser ever had problems with a government regulator or has a disciplinary history?

A: Most investment advisers

Video: Virginia’s Neighborhood Assistance Program Tax Credits

Jul 04 2014

These tax credits begin to be doled out starting July 1 and you need to act quickly if you want to participate! This video presentation discusses Neighborhood Assistance Programs (NAP), and how donating to a local charity can both help people in your area and help you with your Virginia tax bill.

Photo by Sheila Sund used here under Flickr Creative Commons. …

Don’t Do Something. Just Stand There!

Jul 04 2014

Sisters Forever

You learn a lot by the discipline of reading old news.

Most of financial news is just noise. You ought to ignore it when it is published, and if you practice reading it with three months of hindsight you can train yourself gain the discipline of recognizing its foolishness in real time.

I’m commenting today about a great article by Mitchell Tuchman published five months ago. January, 2014 had just ended with the the Dow down 4.4%, the S&P 500 off 2.9% and the Nasdaq composite down 1.28%. Here is how Tuchman begins the article:

The headlines pulled no

Author - Matthew J. Illian, CFP®, AIF®