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Of all the necessary functions a business must perform each day, few are more costly or inefficient than handling paper transactions – processing, posting, printing, mailing, and tracking checks.

The pandemic led to many people retiring earlier they had planned, in part because so many businesses had to shrink their payrolls in response to the lockdowns. As the pandemic has eased, now the American economy has a labor shortage problem

Have you thought about retirement? If you’re like most business owners, unless you’re within 10 years of the normal retirement date, you probably haven’t given it serious thought.

Ideal candidates for business loans generate sufficient cash flow to cover loan payments; have a solid, long-term track record of meeting financial obligations; have financial reserves to weather unexpected downturns or setbacks; and have collateral to put up for security.

One of the hot estate planning strategies earlier in this century was to name a minor child as the surviving beneficiary of an IRA. The child would have to take Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from the IRA every year

One of the biggest misconceptions I come across in the financial advice industry is that as you get older, you must reduce your allocation to stocks. While this philosophy might be grounded in some truth, it oversimplifies the reality.

According to the AARP, Americans donated more than $470 billion to charity in 2020. Charity fraud is a type of imposter scam, the No. 1 source of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission. Fake charities try to take advantage of your generosity and compassion for others in need.

Digital banking has come a long way in recent years, and now it can offer many ways for you to stay on top of your business needs.

The Keystone State ranked 29th in reported identity theft per 100,000 residents that year with nearly 34,000 Pennsylvanians claiming to be victims of the crime, according to the FTC. So, what can you do to reduce the risk of becoming a victim?

Just remember that there is no legitimate reason for anyone to pay more than the accepted price. Never agree to forward money to someone you don’t know on behalf of a “buyer.” Even if the funds are real, you could be implicated in money laundering.

In 2019, Congress revisited the rules for qualified retirement plans and IRAs, with an eye toward boosting retirement savings. To that end, the age limit of 70½ for making a contribution to a traditional, deductible IRA was eliminated. However, one still must have “earned” income to make any IRA contribution – income from investments, pensions, gifts, and Social Security benefits does not count. 

As a small-business owner, you want to make a workplace retirement plan available to your employees. But you know you don’t have the time or technical background to handle 401(k) administration. So, what do you do?

Thanks to the Internet and YouTube, doing it yourself has taken on a new life. For example, a young person we know was able to diagnose a problem with his clothes dryer, then order the key part and install it, thus saving the cost of an in-home repair. Information that once might have been hard to find outside of specialized publications has become accessible to everyone. But there are limits to self-empowerment. One area in which some people may be overconfident is financial management. There is more to financial planning than setting some goals and pinching some pennies.

Scammers have preferred methods of payments. Among the most popular are gift cards – perfect for non-refundable, nearly-impossible-to-trace fraud. According to a December report from the Federal Trade Commission, nearly 40,000 consumers reported losing $148 million in gift card scams during the first nine months of 2021. That’s more than what was reported in all of 2020. The number is even more surprising when it’s estimated that 95% of victims don’t even report the fraud.

Every day, thousands of people fall victim to fraudulent emails, texts, and calls from scammers pretending to be their bank. Add to that the expanded use of online banking and the problem is only growing worse.