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Guides to US federal rules: IRS contribution limits, Social Security, Medicare, and the insurance lines regulated state by state.
29 guides
Covered here: 401(k) · IRA · HSA · Medicare · Social Security · figures in USD
Open enrollment is asking for a number the IRS has not published. The 2026 health FSA limit is $3,400 with a $680 carryover, dependent care jumped to $7,500, and the 2027 figure is late for a reason worth understanding before you elect.
CMS has written four rules for plan debit cards into federal regulation, and one of them says the card is limited to the plan year. In the same rule it scrapped the mid-year notice that would have listed the benefits you had not used. Both take effect for 2027.
The programme that spreads Part D drug costs across the year renews automatically if you stay put. If you change plans during Open Enrollment, even to another plan from the same insurer, your new plan is forbidden from signing you up. You have to ask.
Reaching the cap means the rest of the year's covered drugs cost you nothing. Which is why the definition of what counts is worth more attention than the figure: a drug off your plan's formulary can cost you hundreds and move you no closer to it.
The 2027 HSA limits are $4,500 for self-only coverage and $9,000 for family coverage. All six thresholds from Revenue Procedure 2026-24, what each one actually controls, and the ceiling that quietly decides whether your plan qualifies at all.
Open Enrollment runs 15 October to 7 December. Average Medicare Advantage premiums fall 16.5%, the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400, and the one number everyone wants is not out yet.
One has a yearly cap on what you pay and a network. The other has no cap and no network. The asymmetry most people miss is that only one of these choices is easy to reverse later.
The headline figure is real: average Medicare Advantage premiums fall 16.5% in 2027. What CMS actually said about dental, hearing and vision is narrower than it sounds, and it does not tell you what your own plan will pay toward a crown.
The rule that removed the income ceiling on Marketplace premium tax credits applied to tax years 2021 through 2025. It has lapsed. Above 400% of the federal poverty line there is now no credit at all, not a smaller one.
Company-initiated non-renewal rates rose between 96% and 216% by region from 2018 to 2024, on the NAIC's own analysis. Cancellation mid-term is tightly limited. Declining to offer you another year is not.
During it, insurers cannot refuse you or charge more because of your health. After it, they generally do not have to sell to you at all, and Medicare Open Enrollment in the autumn does not reopen it.
Your own retirement accounts force withdrawals from 73, with a 25% excise tax for missing one. An account you inherit has to be emptied inside ten years. Confusing the two is how people end up with a bill they did not expect.
People 65 and over may claim an extra $6,000 deduction for tax years 2025 through 2028, on top of the existing senior amount. It phases out above $75,000 of modified AGI, and because of where it sits on the return, it does not lower the income figure Medicare uses.
The Social Security Fairness Act repealed two provisions that cut benefits for people with a pension from work outside Social Security. SSA put the affected group at 3.2 million, and around 72% of state and local public employees were never in it.
Building and contents are separate purchases under an NFIP policy, each with its own deductible. A flood that damages both means paying both, which is the part nobody discovers until the claim.
A named storm deductible is a percentage of the insured value, not a flat sum. On a $300,000 home a 5% deductible is $15,000 out of pocket, and what triggers it is written into your policy, not decided by the weather.
The rule that would have closed the federal window on 15 December was struck down in court. CMS has confirmed the dates: 1 November to 15 January. But 15 December still decides when your coverage starts.
Doing nothing rolls you into next year's version of your plan, which may not be the plan you chose. Premiums, networks and drug lists all change on 1 January, and this is the window in which you can do something about it.
One dollar over a bracket costs $1,148.40 for the year. The 2026 surcharge is set by the income you reported two years ago, which is why it arrives as a surprise and why the appeal form matters.
Two homeowners with identical damage and identical deductibles can receive $14,000 and $4,000. The difference is one phrase on the declarations page, and most people do not know which one they have.
Ten times your salary is a sales heuristic, not a calculation. Work from what your household would actually lose, subtract what Social Security would actually pay, and pay attention to the years in the middle when it pays nothing at all.
The 2026 elective deferral limit is $24,500 and the IRA limit is $7,500. Here is what changed from 2025, who qualifies for each catch-up tier, and how the income phase-outs actually work.
The 2026 HSA limits are $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage. Three new rules take effect this year, including bronze exchange plans and direct primary care.
The standard Medicare Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026 and the Part B deductible is $283. Here is the full cost table, who pays more, and how the 2.8% COLA offsets the increase.
Homeowners insurance increases are not uniform across the US. Federal data shows the national inflation-adjusted average rose about 3% while some coastal areas rose 25% or more. Here is what drives your renewal.
Most US homeowners insurance excludes flood entirely, and the federal policy that fills the gap is narrower than people expect. What the NFIP defines as a flood, the $250,000 and $100,000 ceilings, the basement rule, and the condition that decides whether you are paid depreciated value.
The premium is the number people compare plans on, and it is the one that tells you least about a bad year. How the four cost numbers fire in sequence, what the $12,000 ceiling for 2027 does and does not cap, and the silver-plan rule that decides whether you get cost-sharing help at all.
SSA announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 on 14 October 2026, and the taxable maximum rises to $192,300. Here is every figure the Social Security Administration has published for 2026 and 2027, and which of them will actually change what reaches your account.
The NAIC divides life insurance into two basic types: term and cash value. Here is how each actually works, why permanent costs more, what cash value really is, and how to decide which one fits your situation.