Saturday, September 26, 2026
From taxable years beginning after 31 December 2026, a saver whose Social Security wages from the plan's own sponsor topped $145,000 the year before can no longer make a pre-tax catch-up contribution. It has to be Roth. The threshold is measured per employer, on last year's wages, which catches people who do not think of themselves as high earners.
Policies sold on assumptions about lapse rates, longevity and interest income that all proved wrong are now demanding premium increases from holders in their seventies, at the moment the coverage becomes relevant.
Retirement accounts and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation, not by will. The designation is usually older than the marriage, and nobody is reminded to look at it.
Private equity, private credit and real assets are arriving inside ordinary retirement plans, bringing diversification arguments and fee questions in equal measure.
The best-taxed account in the American system was designed for medical bills and is increasingly being used as a supplemental retirement fund by the people who least need help saving.
Millions of small businesses are owned by people at or past retirement age, and most have no succession plan. The scramble to keep them alive is reshaping local economies.
The largest generational wealth transfer on record is underway. Most of it is moving to households that were already comfortable, and much of it is being consumed by end-of-life costs before it moves at all.
Employee stock ownership plans spent decades as an ideological argument. They are being reconsidered as something plainer: a buyer who is already on site when no other buyer appears.