‘This has gone on too long’: The bank paid itself $18,000 in fees. My late father’s trust has not been distributed. What recourse do I have?

My father’s father set up a trust at a major bank with my father and the bank’s trust department as co-trustees. My father died at the end of last year; upon his death, the trust was supposed to be di...

Bernstein launches coverage of Canada’s Tilray, Cronos and Canopy Growth but stops short of any buy ratings

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Nadine Sarwat initiated coverage of three Canadian cannabis stocks on Wednesday but stopped short of any buy recommendations at current levels. “Is the buzz gone...

‘Am I being ripped off?’ I moved into my husband’s home. I pay for groceries. The rental income from my apartment goes into our joint savings.

I read one of your previous columns regarding the boyfriend who wants the letter writer to move in. My case is similar, but we have already made a decision on how to structure our finances as they rel...

Are older workers getting ‘quiet-fired?’

Here’s a strange paradox regarding older workers: On the one hand, they’re 14% less likely to receive the highest annual performance ratings, according to Mercer’s Workforce Sciences Institute. But, t...

Move over Florida — Pennsylvania dominates ‘Best Places to Retire’ rankings

Sure, Florida still has some allure for retirees, but Lancaster, Pa. nabbed the top spot for the best retirement destination amid concerns about housing affordability. According to U.S. News & Wor...

40% of households will pay no federal income tax this year. Why that’s good news.

Millions of workers are bouncing back — and making enough money to pay Uncle Sam. Some 72.5 million households or 40% of households will pay no federal income tax this year, down from the pre-pandemic...

Republicans claim Google is sending their fundraising emails to Gmail users’ spam folders

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Republican National Committee has filed a lawsuit against tech giant Google, alleging the company has been suppressing its email solicitations ahead of November’s midterm elec...

IRS has been missing out on $500 billion in taxes owed annually — and the gap between what’s owed and paid is projected to widen

There’s a difference between the amount of taxes that people and businesses owe the Internal Revenue Service and the amount they actually pay. From 2014 to 2016, that multibillion-dollar gap widened, ...

‘When we dated for 5 years, he implied he was financially secure’: My husband was always hesitant about his finances. Now I know why.

Dear Quentin, My husband and I make about the same salary, and live modestly. Six months after we married, I found out my husband’s net worth is virtually zero. He owes more money than he has assets (...

Millions of working Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck — and running out of cash as another recession looms

Inflation is taking its toll on people’s emergency funds. The share of workers who say they are living paycheck-to-paycheck has surged among middle- to high-income earners — 63% and 49%, respectively ...

20-year-old investor who made $110 million on a meme stock is now pushing for change at psychedelics company MindMed

The 20-year-old investor who found fame this year when he made $110 million trading shares of troubled retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, -5.48%, has turned activist shareholder and is pushing ...

My boyfriend has a nicer house, and says I should live with him. My mortgage is paid off. He believes I should pay half of his monthly costs. Is that fair?

Dear Quentin, My boyfriend owns a house with a 30-year mortgage balance of $150,000 on a 4% interest rate. He has $275,000 in cash and retirement accounts. He is retired. My house is paid off. I have ...

China outnumbers the U.S. for the first time in this ranking of the world’s ‘best’ universities and U.S. economy will likely fall into recession, former Fed official says

Hi, MarketWatchers. Don’t miss these top stories. China outnumbers the U.S. for the first time in this ranking of the world’s ‘best’ universities Artificial intelligence is among the few fields that b...

Personal savings have plunged — how to boost your savings in case of a recession

As red flags go, this is a big one. The personal savings of Americans have plunged this year, hitting $629 billion in the second quarter of 2022, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St....

‘My girlfriend owes $200,000 in medical and credit-card debt’: She wants me to settle it — by paying a portion of the outstanding amount

Dear Quentin, My girlfriend owes over $200,000 in medical and credit-card debt, but she believes it can be settled for 5% of the total amount if someone else will pay that. She reasons that her credit...

Mortgage rates surge to a 20-year high, leading to steep decline in home sales

The numbers: Mortgage rates have risen to the highest level in 20 years. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.94% as of October 20, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday.  That’s...

IRS releases new federal tax brackets and standard deductions. Here’s how they affect your family’s tax bill.

America’s high inflation rate will produce a 7% increase in the size of the standard deduction when workers file their taxes on their 2023 income, according to new inflation adjustments from the Inter...

Do you have problems with the IRS — or does the IRS have a problem with you? Read this before you act.

How do you deal with a problem like the Internal Revenue Service? And how do you deal with your own tax problems as they pertain to the IRS? To be clear, I’m not talking about major problems like righ...

New IRS tax brackets and standard deduction could save families hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Now, for the bad news.

In a time of rising costs, the Internal Revenue Service just raised income-tax brackets through new inflation adjustments for next year. It might feel tough sometimes to link the IRS with the concept ...

How to save a bundle on your tax return

This is Part Two of our list of suggested year-end strategies. Part 1 discusses gaming the federal standard deduction, and managing capital gains and losses. The tax environment is getting friendlier ...

Why stock market investors should wait for the 10-year Treasury to ‘blink’

When a key part of the U.S. bond market starts shrugging off new Federal Reserve interest rate hikes or tough talk on inflation, it’s probably time to buy stocks, according to James Paulsen, the Leuth...

What bank earnings tell us about how consumers are doing with high inflation, recession worries — ‘It’s not a crack in current numbers’

For all the worries about inflation’s pinch and the chance of a recession, just-released earnings reports from big banks indicate the wallets of many regular Americans are generally holding up as they...

Social Security COLA, Gen X and boomer money woes, and more retirement news and research

From MarketWatch: Social Security COLA 2023 benefits are rising 8.7% — here’s what that means for recipients: The cost-of-living adjustment for 2023 will be the largest increase for Social Security be...

Social Security’s ‘taxable maximum’ inches higher—but will it make a dent in the trust fund?

Social Security’s payroll tax cap was raised nearly 9% for 2023, meaning more income will face Social Security taxes next year, but the rise is unlikely to affect the solvency of the trusts underpinni...

Inflation Pushes Social Security COLA to 8.7% in 2023, Highest Increase in Four Decades

Social Security checks will be 8.7% bigger in 2023, the largest cost-of-living adjustment to benefits in four decades, the Social Security Administration said Thursday. The extra funds will provide re...

‘The mood has turned darker’: Desperate to outrun inflation, people are making big (and easy) changes to their habits. You can too.

We never were the same after last summer. Stubbornly high inflation rates in recent months and several interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve are impacting consumer behavior. That’s according...

A shocking number of baby boomers and Generation X plan to work past 70—or forever

Almost half of baby boomers and more than one-third of Generation X expect to work past age 70 or do not plan to retire at all, highlighting the need for backup plans in case life’s unexpected events ...

Baby boomers, Generation X expect to work past 70 — or forever

Almost half of baby boomers and more than one-third of Generation X expect to work past age 70 or do not plan to retire at all, highlighting the need for backup plans in case life’s unexpected events ...

‘We’re likely to see one of the greatest transfers of intergenerational wealth,’ says head of TIAA

For 25 years, we at MarketWatch have made retirement one of our core coverage areas. We have tried to help our readers navigate the fraught and often confusing issues surrounding saving, investing and...

Is the Stock Market Open Today? Here Are the Hours for Columbus Day 2022.

Columbus Day arrives this year after investors navigated choppy waters last week. The S&P 500 marked its largest two-day gain since April 2020 on Tuesday, after a weak ISM manufacturing activity r...

Americans are souring on the housing market and California is now giving residents up to $1,050 of ‘inflation relief’ — here’s who is eligible

Hi, MarketWatchers. Don’t miss these top stories. September jobs report highlights major shift in white-collar work — as Labor Department plans changes to jobs questionnaire ‘The old question was beco...