Tag: Tax Planning

How The Tax Code Got So Complicated

Mar 2, 2026

If you’re wading through the process of preparing your tax return, you may well be asking, “Why does this have to be so complicated?” I hear some version of this from clients every year. The forms feel endless. The rules seem arbitrary. Even financially savvy people...

Taking a Closer Look At Financial Sacred Cows

Oct 27, 2025

Some financial advice is repeated so often it begins to seem cast in stone: Never touch your 401(k). Always diversify. College is the path to success. Debt is dangerous. I recently attended the 2025 Nazrudin Project retreat, a gathering of planners, therapists, and...

“Big Beautiful Tax Cuts” Deliver Less Than Promised

Jul 28, 2025

The recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” was promoted as the largest middle-class tax cut in history. The price tag: $5 trillion. The pitch: permanent, revolutionary relief for working families. The reality: a master class in tax theater. The first act of this...

Beware of Borrowing That Helps Your Advisor, Not You

Jun 30, 2025

When Maria needed $400,000 for a down payment on a new home, her broker at a large Wall Street firm offered a solution: “Don’t sell investments and trigger capital gains. Just take out a margin loan.” A margin loan is a line of credit from a brokerage firm, secured by...