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The Money Overview

Retirement Planning

Failing to update a beneficiary after a divorce can send your money to an ex-spouse

A retirement account does not know a marriage ended unless someone tells it. Federal law lets a divorced person’s former spouse collect a 401(k) or pension payout years after the split if the account’s beneficiary form was never changed — even when a divorce decree promises the money to someone else. The Department of Labor’s […]

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Retirement Planning

Failing to update a beneficiary after a divorce can send your money to an ex-spouse

A retirement account does not know a marriage ended unless someone tells it. Federal law lets a divorced person’s former spouse collect a 401(k) or pension payout years after the split if the account’s beneficiary form was never changed — even when a divorce decree promises the money to someone else. The Department of Labor’s […]

Read More

Banking & Credit Cards

Fraud & Scams

A fake-overpayment scam pressures seniors to wire back money they never received

A buyer for an item listed online sends a check or money order for more than the agreed price, then asks the seller to wire...

Loans & Lending

Heirs of a reverse-mortgage borrower have limited time to repay or sell before foreclosure

When a reverse-mortgage borrower dies, the loan does not simply pass to whoever inherits the house; it becomes immediately due and payable, and a clock...

Loans & Lending

A total and permanent disability discharge can wipe out federal student loans for disabled borrowers

A federal loan discharge that erases a borrower’s entire remaining student debt is available to anyone certified as totally and permanently disabled, and most people...

Loans & Lending

Nine on-time payments can pull a defaulted student loan out of default

Nine on-time monthly payments, spread across a ten-month window, can lift a federal student loan out of default and erase the record of that default...

Loans & Lending

Defaulting on a federal student loan can also seize a tax refund and wages, not just a check

The federal government has two tools that can take money directly from a borrower who defaults on a federal student loan: intercepting a tax refund...

Bank Accounts & Fees

Five U.S. banks have failed in 2026, yet insured deposits moved to new banks intact

Five federally insured banks have failed in the United States so far in 2026, the most recent a 153-year-old Philadelphia savings bank that closed its...

Retirement & Taxes

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