An important aspect of Roth and traditional IRAs is that they can be inherited, with potential benefits for the heir(s). However, there are some myths afloat about inherited IRAs that need to be sunk. Read the full article

Last week, the NPR show This American Life marked the anniversary of the housing-credit crisis by updating its entertaining report on the events that led to the collapse of the credit markets last year. Read the full article

Last week I received an email that really annoyed me. It was an invitation to a seminar on how to use celebrity endorsements as a marketing tool. Read the full article

I can’t say I’m very surprised by this: the IRS is reporting its first prosecution of a fraud scheme involving the new $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit. Read the full article

Today I’m going to tell you something to cross off your list of criteria when trying to choose a financial planner, physician, or lawyer: inclusion in one of the Consumer’s Research Council of America's so-called guides. Read the full article

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. I’ve learned that it's not unheard-of for a professional tax preparer to advise a married individual to file his or her tax return using the single filer status. No! No! Bad tax preparer! Read the full article

The Bernard Madoff scandal has been extraordinary. The amount of money lost, the number of years that the scheme went on undetected, and world-wide extent of the fraud are unprecedented. The fact that Madoff’s victims were mostly highly sophisticated investors is unsettling for a lot of people – if experienced investors could be fooled, how can the average investor avoid getting taken by an unscrupulous adviser? Here's how. Read the full article

The news media continue to reverberate with details of Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment scheme. Sadly, a number of charitable foundations, including Elie Wiesel's Foundation For Humanity, Steven Speilberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation, and the Robert Lappin Foundation, had most of their funds invested with him. The Lappin Foundation, based on the North Shore of Boston, has had to shut down. Read the full article

2008 has been firmly established as an annus horribilis for the financial world. Yesterday, Wall Street got another big dose of bad news as a well-known stockbroker and former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange was arrested yesterday for swindling investors out of tens of billions of dollars. Read the full article

Several MA cities, towns, and the Mass Turnpike Authority received some investment help from Attorney General Martha Coakley recently. Although it's often assumed that institutional investors are sophisticated in their understanding of investments, the case initiated and settled by the Massachusetts AG shows that even "big" investors sometimes fail to follow one of the cardinal rules of investing: make sure you understand what you're investing in. Read the full article

Many homeowners struggling to keep up with mortgage payments are probably using their credit cards to make ends meet. Now, apparently, people who can't pay their mortgages have a new alternative: they can charge their monthly mortgage payments to a credit card directly. I wish I were making this up, but I'm not. Read the full article

There is a warm place in the Bostonian heart for locals who have become famous (or notorious, at least). One such was Charles Ponzi, the colorful fraud who emigrated to Boston in 1903 with a couple of dollars in his pocket and managed to become a millionaire by 1920 (before he got caught). Although he did not invent the "Ponzi Scheme," he carried it off with such flair that when it recurs — as it does fairly often — it is invariably referred to by his name. The Associated Press reported recently that the SEC has frozen the assets of Safevest LLC and its proprietor, Jon G. Ervin of Mission Viejo, who apparently was seeking to follow in Mr. Ponzi's footsteps. Read the full article

What does it actually cost if you don’t pay off your credit card balances each month? What does a credit card purchase cost if you just make the minimum payments? Read the full article

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