Peter Kinney articles

Handing children part of their inheritance while everyone is still around to enjoy it can sound much easier than dealing with an estate later. However, once the amount gets large enough, tax questions start appearing fast. The surprising part is that the biggest tax issue may not be the one families expect.

Some gifts don't come wrapped. When one sibling receives years of free childcare from a parent, the others may eventually wonder whether that generosity gave someone an enormous financial advantage, and whether the family should ever put a price on it.

Before online shopping, there was the catalog. Throughout the 1970s, families flipped through colorful pages of toys, clothes, electronics, and holiday gifts, turning the arrival of a thick booklet into one of the most exciting shopping traditions of the year.

Family ties make this complicated. When one sibling wants to keep an inherited house and another wants their share of its value, agreeing on a price can become surprisingly difficult, especially when sentimental attachments and financial expectations collide.

They were everywhere. For millions of families, these discount stores were once fixtures of everyday life, until a changing retail economy turned some of America's most familiar names into memories.

The mortgage is finally gone. That sounds like the beginning of a worry-free retirement, but owning your home outright doesn't mean the expenses stop, and some of the biggest bills can arrive when you're least prepared for them.

This is unsettling fast. A fake rental ad can turn an innocent homeowner into the public face of somebody else’s fraud, and the financial consequences depend on what the scammer actually did with your property information.

Your dad named you beneficiary of his retirement account, but his will says split everything. Learn whether you must share the inheritance, which rules apply, and potential tax consequences.