MailBag

In this week's MailBag, we look at a question about how to get started using Twitter (and other social media) as a busy financial planner. What are the tools for efficiency, and what are the tips and tricks to get started easily? 

In this week's MailBag, we look at a question about the interplay between the phaseout of itemized deductions for high income individuals (the so-called "Pease limitation") and potential exposure to the AMT.

In this week's MailBag, we look at a recent inquiry regarding whether it's still a good deal to donate appreciated securities to a charity, now that the rules are back allowing Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) directly from an IRA to a charity.

In this week's MailBag, we look at a recent inquiry regarding the proposed changes to the fiduciary standard, and whether the implementation of a uniform fiduciary standard that applies equally to all types of advisors could help or hurt investment advisers and the public.

In this week's mailbag, we look at two recent inquiries: 1) what is the treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation for the purposes of the new 0.9% Medicare earned income tax starting in 2013; and 2) should you have separate Twitter accounts for your advisory firm and yourself personally, or just do everything personal and business from one account?

In this week's mailbag, we look at two recent inquiries: 1) was there anything illegal in what Hostess did in stopping its pension plan contributions and leaving a huge shortfall, and how shaky is the PBGC; and 2) how do you calculate cost basis for a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) as distributions are received, and what is the tax treatment of gains when the MLP is later sold?

In this week's mailbag, we look at two recent inquiries: 1) when do employee "salary deferral" contributions have to be made for a solo 401(k) where the business is an S corporation; and 2) is it a good idea to split end-of-year rebalancing trades to trigger the gains this year but the losses next year (even if it means you're out of the markets for a few days).