Michael Kitces

Financial advisors may need to alter the traditional way they view investors’ safety zones.

The rush to shift money to Roth IRAs may be built on bad assumptions. Keep your clients from making a mistake.

Should older clients' portfolios be adjusted more quickly to bring equity allocations to their desired level? New research says yes.

Using multiple accounts for a Roth IRA conversion gives clients a chance to separate winners and losers after the fact.

For advisors, there are significant non-portfolio issues to consider when interest rates finally increase.

Rule changes mean the AMT is here to stay, but that could actually be good news for some clients. Just keep them out of the 'bump zone.'

The implementation of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 started the process of "decoupling" between the Federal estate tax and various states. As the years moved forward, many states retained a $1 million estate tax exemption amount, decoupling their exemption from the Federal amount that has ultimately risen to its current $5 million level. However, the reality is that a second decoupling just occurred in 2011, and as a result, a new state estate tax planning "loophole" has opened up, creating a planning opportunity for many clients, but only until the states close the loophole.