By Kristian Gore; WKRB13 ~ Jul 29, 2014

AT&T (NYSE:T)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company, AnalystRatingsNetwork reports. The stock traded as high as $37.48 and last traded at $36.77, with a volume of 70,501,056 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $35.65.

Specifically, Director Glenn H. Hutchins acquired 100,000 shares of AT&T stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $35.64 per share, with a total value of $3,564,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

By Glenn Ruffenach; MarketWatch ~ Jul 28, 2014

If you’re trying to estimate health-care expenses in retirement, a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation highlights some important numbers.

Medical bills in later life can put even the sturdiest of nest eggs at risk. A study released in June by Fidelity Benefits Consulting estimated that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2014 will need an average of $220,000 (in today’s dollars) to cover medical expenses throughout retirement. What’s more, that figure doesn’t account for over-the-counter medications, most dental services and long-term care.

By Damian Paletta; The Wall Street Journal ~ Jul 28, 2014

WASHINGTON—Medicare’s hospital-insurance program spent less on benefits in 2013 than it did the previous year, despite covering an additional 1 million people, according to a federal report released Monday, the latest sign that growth in health costs is tapering off.

The findings come in the annual report card from the trustees of Medicare and Social Security. They project Medicare will be able to continue paying full hospital benefits for its elderly or disabled clients without any changes in the law through 2030—four years later than last year’s estimate.

By Andrew M. Seaman; Reuters ~ Jul 28, 2014

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drugs that have been investigated to increase so-called “good” cholesterol may not prevent deaths, heart attacks or strokes as many hoped, according to a new analysis.

Due to limitations in existing studies and ongoing experiments involving these and other drugs, researchers not involved with the analysis caution that it’s too early to give up on medications that increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, however.

From Joyce Migdall; The Washington Post ~ Jul 28, 2014

Contrary to the secondary headline — “Retirees are unaffected when third-party insurers pick up risk” — on “Why more companies want to wipe pensions off their books” [Business, July 24], retirees’ pensions are jeopardized when they are stripped off companies’ books via sale to an insurance company. Would savers be unaffected if their FDIC-insured bank CDs were sold to Prudential, eliminating the FDIC insurance? Retirees assume the added risk.

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar; The Associated Press ~ Jul 27, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you have health insurance on your job, you probably don’t give much thought to each year’s renewal. But make the same assumption in one of the new health law plans, and it could lead to costly surprises.

Insurance exchange customers who opt for convenience by automatically renewing their coverage for 2015 are likely to receive dated and inaccurate financial aid amounts from the government, say industry officials, advocates and other experts.

By Erik Carter; Forbes ~ Jul 25, 2014

Are your investments allocated properly between your various retirement accounts? If you’re like many investors, at best you might manage your 401(k), IRAs, and taxable accounts separately and at worst, you have no idea what you even have in those accounts. If either of those sound like you, you’re probably missing some opportunities to enhance your after-tax returns.

By Anthony Giorgianni; Fox Business ~ Jul 24, 2014

Tax season may be long over, but tax-related scams aren’t. At least three states recently warned about scammers posing as IRS agents demanding payment of overdue taxes.

“These scammers have become increasingly aggressive over the last few months,” Attorney General Tom Horne of Arizona said in a statement.