Personal Finance & Estate
180 items and 320 connections. Retirement accounts, Social Security, Medicare and Medi-Cal, insurance, wills and trusts, gift and estate tax. US and California rules as of 2026; not legal or tax advice, so confirm with your CPA and attorney.
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Zoom in to reveal more detail, out for the big picture · click a dot to open it · click a ◆ on a line for how two items connect · +N = hidden details · drag to move.⬢ account or plan◆ government program▲ insurance type▮ legal document or tool◎ tax rule● concept or strategy◉ agency
Retirement accounts & pensions
401(k)s, IRAs, Roths, pensions and drawing it down.
Social Security
How benefits are earned, claimed and taxed.
Medicare, Medi-Cal & long-term care
Medicare, Medi-Cal, ACA coverage and long-term care.
Life & other insurance
Life, disability, property and liability insurance.
Wills, trusts & estate planning
Wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney.
Income, gift, estate & real-estate taxes
Income, capital gains, real-estate, gift and estate taxes.
Investing basics & strategy
Compounding, diversification, index funds and strategy.
Credit, debt & mortgages
Credit scores, mortgages, HELOCs and reverse mortgages.
IRS, SSA, CMS & other agencies
Who runs what: IRS, SSA, CMS, DHCS, FTB and others.
Fraud, scams & protecting family
Scams, elder abuse and choosing honest advisors.
Every item as its own page (180)
Retirement accounts & pensions
- Defined-benefit pension
- 403(b) & 457(b) plans (nonprofit & government)
- 10% early-withdrawal penalty & exceptions (before 59½)
- ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act)
- Individual Retirement Account (traditional IRA)
- Required minimum distributions (RMDs)
- 401(k) plan
- SEP IRA & SIMPLE IRA (small-business IRAs)
- Cash-balance plan
- The 4% rule (safe withdrawal rate)
- Roth IRA
- Solo 401(k) (owner-only plan)
- Qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from an IRA
- Roth 401(k)
- Backdoor Roth IRA
- Roth conversion
- Mega-backdoor Roth (after-tax 401(k) to Roth)
- SECURE Act (2019) & SECURE 2.0 (2022)
- Inherited IRA 10-year rule
- 2026 contribution limits & catch-up rules
- Annuities (immediate, deferred, fixed-indexed, variable)
- Employer match & vesting schedules
- Retirement income planning (savings into paychecks)
- Rollovers & direct transfers
- Sequence-of-returns risk
Social Security
- Social Security (OASDI)
- FICA & self-employment tax (Social Security & Medicare)
- Spousal benefit (incl. divorced spouses)
- Survivor benefit (widows & widowers)
- Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)
- Benefit formula: 40 credits, top 35 years, AIME & PIA
- Full retirement age (67 if born 1960 or later)
- Taxation of Social Security benefits (up to 85%)
- WEP/GPO repeal (Social Security Fairness Act)
- Retirement earnings test (working before FRA)
- Trust fund depletion projection (~2033–34)
- When to claim Social Security: 62 vs. 67 vs. 70
Medicare, Medi-Cal & long-term care
- Medicare (federal health insurance at 65+)
- Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid)
- Medicare Part A (hospital)
- Medicare Part B (doctors & outpatient)
- In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS)
- Medigap (Medicare Supplement) & CA birthday rule
- COBRA & Cal-COBRA continuation coverage
- Medi-Cal estate recovery
- Medicare Advantage (Part C)
- PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly)
- Health savings account (HSA) vs. use-it-or-lose-it FSA
- Medicare Part D (prescription drugs)
- IRMAA (income surcharge on Parts B & D)
- ACA marketplace (Covered California) & premium credits
- Medi-Cal asset limit ($130,000, reinstated 2026)
- Health coverage before 65 (employer, ACA, COBRA; HMO/PPO/HDHP)
- HICAP (free California Medicare counseling)
- Home care vs. assisted living vs. nursing home: costs
- Long-term care (custodial care Medicare won't pay)
- Long-term care insurance (incl. CA Partnership policies)
- Medicaid (Medi-Cal) planning & the look-back period
- Medicare enrollment windows & late penalties
Life & other insurance
- Life insurance
- Title insurance (owner's & lender's)
- Universal & variable universal life (UL/VUL)
- Earthquake insurance (California Earthquake Authority)
- Indexed universal life (IUL)
- Auto insurance
- Buy-sell agreement & key-person insurance
- Disability income insurance
- Homeowners insurance & the California FAIR Plan
- Hybrid life / long-term care policy
- Landlord & commercial property insurance (loss of rents)
- Property & liability insurance
- Survivorship (second-to-die) life insurance
- Term life insurance
- Umbrella liability insurance
- Whole life insurance
Wills, trusts & estate planning
- Community property (California marital property)
- Charitable remainder trust (CRT)
- Estate freezes: GRATs & sales to grantor trusts (IDGTs)
- Advance health care directive & HIPAA release (California)
- Transfer-on-death & payable-on-death (incl. CA TOD deed)
- Beneficiary designations (they override your will)
- Conservatorship (court control without a POA)
- Durable power of attorney (finances)
- Family LLC / family limited partnership
- Funding the trust (retitling assets into it)
- Guardian nomination for minor children
- Incapacity planning (if you can't decide for yourself)
- Intestate succession (dying without a will or trust)
- Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)
- Irrevocable trust
- Last will and testament
- Pour-over will
- Probate in California (court process & statutory fees)
- Revocable living trust
- Special-needs trust
- Spousal lifetime access trust (SLAT)
- Successor trustee & trustee duties
Income, gift, estate & real-estate taxes
- Income tax (federal & California)
- Federal estate & gift tax (unified; California has none)
- 1031 like-kind exchange
- Capital gains tax (short- vs. long-term)
- Step-up in basis at death
- Gift tax annual exclusion ($19,000 in 2026)
- California income tax (top rate 13.3%)
- Quarterly estimated taxes & safe harbors
- Proposition 13 (California property-tax cap)
- Generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax
- Passive-loss rules & real estate professional status
- Home-sale exclusion ($250k / $500k, Sec. 121)
- Cost segregation & 100% bonus depreciation
- DSTs & 721 UPREIT exchanges (passive 1031 exits)
- Portability of a deceased spouse's unused exemption (DSUE)
- Net investment income tax (3.8%)
- Federal tax brackets (10%–37%)
- QBI deduction (20% pass-through, Sec. 199A)
- SALT deduction cap (raised to $40,000 in 2025)
- California pass-through entity (PTE) elective tax
- Proposition 19 (parent–child transfer limits)
- One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025 tax law)
- Estate & lifetime gift exemption ($15M in 2026)
- Depreciation & recapture (27.5 / 39 years)
- Form 709 (gift tax return)
- LLC & partnership taxation (Schedule K-1)
- Real-estate tax rules (depreciation, 1031, property tax)
- Standard vs. itemized deductions (incl. mortgage interest)
Investing basics & strategy
- Diversification
- REITs (publicly traded real estate)
- Index funds & ETFs
- 529 college savings plan (ScholarShare in CA)
- Asset allocation (stocks, bonds, cash, real estate)
- Bonds: Treasuries, T-bills, TIPS, I bonds & munis
- Compound growth (time × return)
- Concentration risk (one asset dominates)
- Dollar-cost averaging
- Emergency fund & cash (savings, CDs, money market)
- Inflation & real (after-inflation) returns
- Investment fees (expense ratios, AUM fees, loads)
- Real estate vs. stocks (illiquid vs. liquid wealth)
- Rebalancing
- Tax-efficient investing & asset location
- Tax-loss harvesting & the wash-sale rule
- Taxable brokerage account (individual, joint or trust)
Credit, debt & mortgages
IRS, SSA, CMS & other agencies
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- California Department of Insurance
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- FDIC & SIPC (bank deposit and brokerage protection)
- Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
- California Franchise Tax Board (FTB)
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
- California Dept. of Health Care Services (DHCS)
- FINRA & BrokerCheck
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
- California Employment Development Department (EDD)
- Financial & consumer regulators
- IRS audits & notices
- U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Admin.
Fraud, scams & protecting family
- Credit freeze (free at all three bureaus)
- Fiduciary duty vs. suitability (Reg BI)
- Adult Protective Services (APS)
- Choosing a fiduciary advisor (fee-only, CFP, CPA, attorney)
- Elder financial abuse
- Financial scams & fraud (incl. affinity & Ponzi schemes)
- Free-lunch seminars: trust mills & annuity churning
- Identity theft & the IRS IP PIN
- Impostor scams (IRS, SSA, Medicare, 'grandchild in trouble')
- Medicare fraud & medical identity theft (report to SMP)
- Real-estate wire fraud & deed (title) theft
- Romance & crypto 'pig-butchering' scams