Many grandparents want to establish a college fund for their grandchildren. One way to do this is with a 529 plan. 529 plans have become to college savings what 401(k) plans are to retirement savings — an indispensable tool for helping amass money for college. That’s because 529 plans offer a unique combination of benefits

There is no magic formula to determine how much you or your child should borrow for college. But there is such a thing as borrowing too much. How much is too much? One guideline is for students to borrow no more than their expected first-year starting salary after college, which, in turn, depends on a

If you follow financial news, you’ve probably heard many references to “the Fed” along the lines of “the Fed held interest rates,” or “market watchers are wondering what the Fed will do next.” So what exactly is the Fed and what does it do? What is the Federal Reserve? The Federal Reserve — or “the

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in North America and Europe reached its second highest level on record in 2018. There were 19,501 deals worth $3.6 trillion — a 6.3% increase in deal volume over 2017. There was also a rise in mega deals exceeding $10 billion.1 Collectively, U.S. corporations had plenty of cash to spend