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You’d think that if you pay for health insurance you’d have a right to know what your plan is paying for. But patient privacy rights can override your desire to know who’s claiming what on your health plan. “Adult children are most certainly worried about this lack of privacy, so much so that it causes many to not seek treatment at all,” says Andrew Schrage of Money Crashers. “This can be especially true in cases of substance abuse or contraceptive care.” Children over age 18 who remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26 under the Patient Protection [...]

Learn how FMLA rules may apply to your business. If you have 50 employees or more, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires you to allow your employees to take unpaid leave to deal with important family and health situations. Be sure that both you and your supervisors understand how, and whether, FMLA rules apply to your business. The FMLA allows employee benefits to continue without interruption or to be reinstated when they return to work. This enables eligible employees to address family and medical responsibilities while maintaining their job and career. Unlike many common leave benefits offered by [...]

If you’re considering getting into the landlord game, you might wonder whether it’s best to buy a single family home or a condominium. Many people say to stay away from condominiums because of all the issues with homeowners associations, and they have a point. However, single family homes have many issues, too, so don’t make up your mind so quickly. Here are several things to consider in this “Rumble in the Investment Property Jungle.” Round 1: Investment returns When you’re buying an investment property, the first thing you should do is pencil out your real estate deal to see if [...]

Dear Dave, My brother asked me to put his name on my credit card as an authorized user. He said it will help improve his credit score. Is this true, and would it help my score in any way? -Anna Dear Anna, Your brother is wrong. It will not improve his credit score at all. As an authorized user, he is not the owner of the debt. There’s a high likelihood that it will affect your credit score in a negative way, though, because there’s a good chance he’ll do some dumb things with your card. Look at it this [...]

GREATER NOIDA Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya does not have to do a deal with UK drinks giant Diageo and will not sell prized assets to rescue his grounded Kingfisher airline, he told Reuters at the weekend. Speaking in his office at Force India, the Formula One team he co-owns, the UB Group head poured scorn on media reports that he would be forced to sell stakes in profitable businesses to fund Kingfisher. “That is the media perspective of what I am going to do. I am not so sure that I lack commercial acumen to the extent that I [...]

Dear Dave, When it comes to taking control of your money and living on a budget, what’s the biggest thing a family can live without? Will Dear Will, There are always the shiny things people can do without. Sometimes people sell a fancy car or boat and get rid of a $ 600-a-month payment right off the bat. But on a regular, day-to-day basis, I think maybe the biggest and best thing you can amputate from your life is eating out. I love a good restaurant, and I’ve got nothing against the industry. The problem, though, is that people are [...]

LONDON Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie family have proposed a divorce with London coal miner Bumi Plc, the group they co-founded with financier Nat Rothschild, offering to take back the Indonesian assets they brought in less than two years ago. News on Thursday of the proposed split, which would leave the London firm without operating assets, comes after months of tumbling prices and shareholder tension, and just weeks after Bumi Plc announced a probe into potential wrongdoing at its Indonesian operations, including PT Bumi Resources, the jewel in the Bakrie crown. Bumi said in a statement that the Bakrie Group had offered [...]

Lending money to family and friends Lending money to loved ones could be a gesture of good will — or it could be disastrous to your own personal finances, depending on the circumstances. *Ann’s co-worker was in a jam. She had car trouble, no extra money and wanted to borrow $ 500. “Money was tight for me, but I knew it was tighter for her,” Ann recalls. So she lent her co-worker the $ 500. Her friend paid her back, in full, about a year later. But not all loans work out as well. Beth and her husband lent her [...]

How to Avoid an Inheritance Feud Why does a family feud sometimes erupt after a funeral? Maybe it’s the feeling that the “black sheep” of the family doesn’t deserve anything, or the “golden child” got more. Then, too, it could be the heated debate about whether to sell or keep the family home. If you want a Molotov cocktail, combine money, grief, a surviving stepmom or stepdad, a touchy economy, and long-simmering sibling rivalry. “Inheritance feuds can be an expensive, time-consuming, hurtful disaster,” says Kay Boyd, a senior vice president and wealth consultant at Sovereign Investment Group. Case in point: [...]

AT&T Inc (T) is following bigger rival Verizon Wireless (VZ) with a new type of family plan that comes with as much as a four-fold increase in its fees for data services such as mobile Internet. But, unlike its rival, AT&T says the plan will be an option rather than a requirement for new customers and subscribers upgrading to a new phone. Late in August, AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, will launch the new offering, which allows its customers to buy a single data plan for up to 10 devices and includes unlimited phone calls and text messages. [...]