The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued new rules for broker-dealers requiring them to search for securities holders if they lose contact with them.  The rules require for the first time that broker-dealers attempt to find securities holders that they have lost touch with.  Broker-dealers and other participants in the securities market must also notify people who have not processed checks that were issued to them in association with their securities.

A report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has confirmed that disabled veterans continue to face unreasonable delays in receiving benefits.  According to the report, the average time to process a veteran’s disability claim is 272 days, an increase of 40 percent since 2011.

Every day approximately 53 veterans die while waiting for their benefits.  The VA has a backlog of about 900,000 claims.  Eric Shinseki, the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, has said that the claims system will be improved significantly by 2015.

Congress has renewed a charitable rollover provision for individual retirement accounts (IRAs) that applies to people age 70-and-a-half and older.  The provision had expired and has now been renewed through the end of 2013.  The provision has several tax benefits.

IRA owners who meet the minimum age requirement can donate up to $100,000 directly from their retirement account to charities such as churches, schools and other nonprofit organizations – although not most private foundations.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation has joined forces with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to launch a new website, BBB Smart Investing, which is intended to help investors avoid unlicensed brokers and fraudulent investment schemes.
The website, located at www.bbb.org/smartinvesting, combines the consumer outreach of BBB with the extensive knowledge of FINRA.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the independent regulator of securities firms, accomplished much in 2012 in the areas of detecting fraud, developing cross-market surveillance and improving transparency in securities markets.  The regulator also assessed $68 million in fines and ordered $34 million in restitution to customers during 2012, a record amount.

New York seniors are getting a prescription price break.

According to the AARP, almost 300,000 New York seniors enrolled under the state’s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program are slated to receive co-payment assistance this year. Co-payment assistance, canceled due to budget constraints, was restored in the state’s budget as of January 1, 2013, though funding past March 31, 2013 has yet to be determined.

James Gandolfini, the actor who played mafioso Tony Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos, died on June 19 of a sudden heart attack. Gandolfini had a reported net worth of $70 million. He had executed a new will in December of 2012 and had created at least one trust, for his son Michael. Although the actor clearly put some thought into estate planning, his estate will end up paying millions of dollars in federal and state estate taxes, much of which could have been delayed or reduced through the proper use of trusts and other estate planning tools.

Life insurance plays an important part in your estate plan, especially if you have young children or a spouse or family member with a disability who depends on you for support.  Life insurance can be especially helpful in providing immediate cash at death, which is often needed for funeral expenses and to pay the debts of the decedent.

In determining how much life insurance you need, you should consider both the long-term needs and short-term needs of the people who depend on your income.

January 31, 2013 – The two-week-old strike by New York City school bus drivers will continue, as the city rejected the union’s proposal for a “cooling-off period” during which the drivers would return to work and the city would stop seeking bids for a new bus contract. The strike has disproportionately affected students with special…

The two-week-old strike by New York City school bus drivers will continue, as the city rejected the union’s proposal for a “cooling-off period” during which the drivers would return to work and the city would stop seeking bids for a new bus contract.

The strike has disproportionately affected students with special needs.  Only 152,000 of New York’s more than 1.1 million school children ride the school system’s yellow buses, but 54,000 of them are students with special needs, many of whom use wheelchairs.