Markus Andrews

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid soft launched over the weekend.
However, the form is only available for short periods of time for now as the U.S. Department of Education works to “resolve minor issues.”
Even if students are able to submit a completed 2024–25 FAFSA form, that information won’t be sent to schools until late January, the Education Department also said, which could potentially delay financial aid award offers from colleges.

A new Free Application for Federal Student Aid soft launched over the holiday weekend with much anticipation after a long delay.
However, for now, the 2024–25 FAFSA form is only available for short periods of time as the U.S. Department of Education works to “resolve minor issues,” according to a department spokesperson.

This soft launch period and pauses will allow for “updates to the form as needed,” the department said. Still, “thousands of people successfully completed their application while we monitored performance in-real time.”
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Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz aimed to test out the new site over the weekend, to no avail.
“I have not been able to submit the form, and I’ve heard from no students who have been able to submit the form,” he said Monday.
Indeed, the form was only available briefly over the holiday weekend: a 30-minute window on Dec. 30, a 30-minute window on Dec. 31, and a two-hour window on Jan. 1, according to the Department of Education.

As of Tuesday, the site remained open for a longer stretch and more than 30,000 applications were successfully submitted, the Department said. During that time, Kantrowitz was also able to submit a form, he said.

Some 17 million students file the FAFSA each year

A plan to simplify the FAFSA has been years in the making. In 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act was passed to streamline the process and overhaul dozens of systems, some of which have not been updated in almost 50 years. Those changes are finally going into effect.
In ordinary years, the FAFSA form is used by more than 17 million students and roughly 5,500 colleges and universities in all 50 states, according to the Department of Education.

They had to have something available even if it wasn’t ready for prime time.

Kalman Chany
author of The Princeton Review’s “Paying for College”

The FAFSA serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including federal student loans, work study and especially grants — which have become the most crucial kind of assistance as college costs soared because they typically do not need to be repaid.

What FAFSA delays mean for college-bound students

Kalman Chany, a financial aid consultant and author of The Princeton Review’s “Paying for College,” advises students and families not to panic if they cannot file the FAFSA during the soft launch.
“If you are having access issues, it is better to wait,” he said. “They had to have something available even if it wasn’t ready for prime time.”
If students do submit a completed 2024–25 FAFSA form early this year, that information won’t be sent to schools until late January, the Department of Education also said, “so you will have ample time to fill out the form and do not need to rush to complete the form during the soft launch.”
Because of the postponement, colleges might still be able to get financial aid award offers done by late March or early April, according to Kantrowitz. “Otherwise, it will be a complete disaster,” he said.
“Families will not be able to get financial aid offers in a timely manner. Already, students who applied early action or early decision do not have award offers.”

What’s changed with the new FAFSA

Not only has the timing changed, but the simplified form now also uses a calculation called the “Student Aid Index” to estimate how much a family can afford to pay.
Under the new system, more low- and moderate-income students will have access to federal grants, but the changes will reduce eligibility for some wealthier families.
And, as part of the FAFSA simplification, families will no longer get a break for having multiple children in college at the same time, effectively eliminating the “sibling discount.”

For now, the new FAFSA also relies on old consumer price index figures from 2020, which don’t account for the recent runup in inflation. That could mean many students “will get less financial aid than they deserve,” Kantrowitz said.
“It is a pretty big deal,” he said. “We are talking about thousands of additional dollars that families will have to pay for college.”
All families of four in this application cycle with adjusted available income of more than $35,000 will be affected by the failure to make inflationary adjustments, with middle- and higher-income students the hardest hit, according to Kantrowitz.
There will be less of an effect on lower-income students whose expected family contribution was already $0.  
For example, a typical family in New York with adjusted available income of $100,000 could be expected to contribute $12,943 instead of $9,162 toward their annual college costs — a difference of nearly $4,000 in aid, according to calculations by Kantrowitz.
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A simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid finally became available over the weekend.
However, there are some “issues” with the soft launch, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Even if students do successfully submit a completed 2024–25 FAFSA form, that information won’t be sent to schools until late January, the Education Department also said, which could potentially delay financial aid award offers from colleges.

A simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid is finally online after a significant delay.
However, as part of a “soft launch,” the new FAFSA form has only been periodically available. It’s likely few, if any, of the millions of students applying to college for the 2024-25 academic year have been able to successfully submit an application, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“I am convinced that nobody has been able to submit the form,” he said.
“Congress required the FAFSA to be available before Jan. 1, 2024. They missed that deadline,” Kantrowitz said.
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“Leading up to and as part of the soft launch, we have identified some minor issues,” the U.S. Department of Education said in a statement Sunday . “We are aware of these issues and are working to resolve them.”
For now, Kalman Chany, a financial aid consultant and author of The Princeton Review’s “Paying for College,” advises students and families not to panic. “If you are having access issues, it is better to wait,” he said.

“They had to have something available even if it wasn’t ready for prime time.”

Even if students do submit a completed 2024–25 FAFSA form early this year, that information won’t be sent to schools until late January, the Department of Education also said, “so you will have ample time to fill out the form and do not need to rush to complete the form during the soft launch.”
With the delayed timeline, colleges might still be able to get financial aid award offers done by late March or early April, according to Kantrowitz. “Otherwise, it will be a complete disaster,” he said. “Families will not be able to get financial aid offers in a timely manner. Already, students who applied early action or early decision do not have award offers.”

What’s changed with the new FAFSA

Not only has the timing changed, but the simplified form now also uses a calculation called the “Student Aid Index” to estimate how much a family can afford to pay.
Under the new system, more low- and moderate-income students will have access to federal grants, but the changes will reduce eligibility for some wealthier families.
And, as part of the FAFSA simplification, families will no longer get a break for having multiple children in college at the same time, effectively eliminating the “sibling discount.”

They had to have something available even if it wasn’t ready for prime time.

Kalman Chany
author of The Princeton Review’s “Paying for College”

For now, the new FAFSA also relies on old consumer price index figures from 2020, which don’t account for the recent runup in inflation. That could mean many students “will get less financial aid than they deserve,” Kantrowitz said.
“It is a pretty big deal,” he said. “We are talking about thousands of additional dollars that families will have to pay for college.”
All families of four in this application cycle with adjusted available income over $35,000 will be affected by the failure to make inflationary adjustments, with middle- and higher-income students the hardest hit, according to Kantrowitz. There will be less of an effect on lower-income students whose expected family contribution was already $0.  
For example, a typical family in New York with adjusted available income of $100,000 could be expected to contribute $12,943 instead of $9,162 toward their annual college costs — a difference of nearly $4,000 in aid, according to calculations by Kantrowitz.
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The S&P 500 ended the year up 24.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the year with more than a 13% gain.
“It is exciting to see healthy, positive returns,” said Marguerita Cheng, a CFP and the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth.
What moves should investors make when stocks have soared? Here’s some advice from Cheng and other members of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

Rear view of woman sitting on top of mountain against cloudy sky during sunrise.
Simonkr | E+ | Getty Images

It was a very good year for the stock market.
The benchmark S&P 500 ended the year with a 24.2% gain, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than a 13% this year and and the Nasdaq soared 43%.

An investor who had $500,000 in the S&P 500 index around 12 months ago, would have roughly $630,000 now, according to an analysis by Morningstar Direct.
“It is exciting to see healthy, positive returns,” said certified financial planner Marguerita Cheng, the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth.
What moves should investors make when the market is soaring? Here’s some advice from Cheng and other members of CNBC’s Advisor Council.

‘Don’t chase the market’

Although many investors are seeing their portfolios at all-time highs, they should typically avoid cashing out because of the rally, Cheng said.
“I advise clients to remember that the time they are in the market is more important than trying to time the market,” Cheng said.

Indeed, over the last 20 or so years, the S&P 500 produced an average annual return of around 6%. But if you missed the 20 best days in the market over that time span by trying to time things to your advantage, your return would shrivel to 0.1%, according to an analysis by Charles Schwab.
“The market keeps going up, so even though it’s at a high, it might be even higher in the future,” said CFP Sophia Bera Daigle, founder of Gen Y Planning in Austin, Texas.
Yet the recent rally doesn’t mean you should suddenly pour more money into your investments, either, said Ivory Johnson, a CFP and founder of Delancey Wealth Management in Washington, D.C.
“Don’t chase the market,” Johnson said. “Often times retail investors get excessively bullish after the move has already happened, and turn a win into a loss.”

Afraid that the good times will give way to a recession? It may be helpful to zoom out.
Dramatic ups and downs aside, history reveals the market reliably gives more than it takes over long periods.
Between 1900 and 2017, the average annual return on stocks has been around 11%, according to calculations by Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. After adjusting for inflation, that average annual return is still 8%.

Consider rebalancing, risk tolerance

If most of your investments are pinned for retirement, you likely want to stay the course, experts say.
That’s because you’re not supposed to touch that money until your post-working years, which, for most people, is far down the road.
But if you have stocks in a brokerage account that you’ve been holding for over a year, there may be cases where it does make sense to redirect some of your profits, Bera Daigle said.
For example, it can be worth it to do so if you want to pay off debt or don’t have sufficient emergency savings (most advisors recommend salting away three to six months worth of expenses).
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Amid a market rally, investors should typically “execute the same process as you would do when stocks go down,” Johnson said.
“Review your risk tolerance, time horizon and ask if anything has changed,” Johnson said.

It is exciting to see healthy, positive returns.

Marguerita Cheng
CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth

Big drops and rises in the market can be a good time to rebalance your portfolio, said CFP Cathy Curtis, founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning in Oakland, California.
“It’s quite possible that the rally of the last few months has created an overweight to stocks versus bonds in a person’s portfolio,” Curtis said.
For example, if you want your money allocated 70% to stocks, and 30% to bonds, you may now or at least soon need to sell some stocks and add to your bonds, she added. More

London, Rome and Paris are generally among Americans’ favorite overseas destinations each year.
Many travelers are eyeing different trips in 2024. Demand is surging for major cities in Asia — like Tokyo; Seoul, South Korea; and Shanghai — as the continent reopens from Covid-19-related border closures.
Off-the-beaten-path locales in Europe, ski destinations in Canada and Atlantic beach getaways are also trending, data shows.

Tokyo, Japan.
Matteo Colombo | DigitalVision | Getty Images

When it comes to travel abroad, popular destinations like London, Paris and Rome always seem to top the wish list for Americans.
But many travelers are looking beyond those mainstay cities for trips in 2024. Interest in major Asian hubs, off-the-beaten-path locales in Europe and other areas has surged, experts said.

“It’s clear that 2024 is shaping up to be the year of globetrotting,” Airbnb wrote last month.
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Broadly, overseas travel is hot: Searches for international flights are up 13% year-over-year, even though prices are about 10% higher, according to Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak, a travel website.
“Americans are looking to go abroad,” Hafner said. “They’ve done the domestic stuff the last couple years.”
Here are the trending destinations for Americans in 2024.  

1. Asia takes the crown again

Kanchisa Thitisukthanapong | Moment | Getty Images

Americans flocked to the Asia-Pacific region in 2023 — and that love affair is poised to continue in the new year.
Tokyo and Seoul, South Korea, respectively rank as the No. 1 and 2 trending international hot spots next year among U.S.-based travelers, according to travel app Hopper.
Kayak data shows a similar trend. Its top five hot spots are in Asia: Hong Kong; Shanghai; Taipei City, the capital of Taiwan; Tokyo; and Osaka, Japan, respectively.
For example, searches for Hong Kong and Shanghai are up 355% and 216%, respectively, year-over-year, according to Kayak. (The travel site analyzed search traffic among Americans from March 16 to Sept. 15 this year, for travel planned in 2024, and compared it to the same period last year.)

Kyoto, Japan
Sw Photography | Stone | Getty Images

Japan also ranks highly among non-U.S. travelers: Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo are among the top 24 worldwide destinations next year, according to Airbnb data.
Asian nations were among the slowest to ease border closures related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that they’re open again, tourists are unleashing a pent-up wanderlust, experts said.
“People couldn’t travel there, and now they are making it up,” said Sofia Markovich, a travel advisor and founder of Sofia’s Travel.
China reopened its borders in January 2023, “one of the last places” to do so, Hafner said.

Japan reopened to tourists starting in June 2022. There are other factors driving increased interest to that nation, like a historically strong U.S. dollar relative to the Japanese yen (and other currencies), which gives Americans additional buying power, and more flights from budget airlines, Hafner said.
Search traffic for Japan has more than tripled for trips during the first nine months of 2024 relative to the same period in 2023 — a larger increase than any other nation, Airbnb said.

Americans are looking to go abroad. They’ve done the domestic stuff the last couple years.

Steve Hafner

Historically, Tokyo has “hands down” been the most popular city for Americans to visit in Asia, said Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper. Now, demand is “even greater” than usual, she said.
Tourists may also pay a hefty premium to fly to Asia next year: “Good deal” prices for airfare to the continent is $1,204 for 2024, on average — 45% more than 2019, a much larger increase relative to other continents, according to Hopper.

2. Going off the beaten path in Europe

Stockholm, Sweden.
Leonardo Patrizi | E+ | Getty Images

Overcrowding in the traditional European hubs is driving an influx of tourists to generally less-frequented areas, experts said.  
For example, Stockholm, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; Helsinki, Finland; and Prague, Czech Republic, respectively rank seventh to 10th on Kayak’s list of trending destinations abroad.
Copenhagen, Denmark, is No. 4 on Hopper’s 2024 hot spot ranking. Prague and Edinburgh, Scotland, are No. 7 and No. 8, respectively.
“People are really discovering the off-the-beaten path places,” Markovich said. “Because your Paris and your Rome and London and Barcelona are just too crowded. And experienced travelers want to get away from that.”
She recommends “a lot” of Scandinavian travel since it’s “so unspoiled by overtourism.”

The Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Andrew Merry | Moment | Getty Images

Additionally, Finland became a member of the NATO military alliance in 2023, driving more awareness of the nation among Americans, Kayak’s Hafner said.
Cities like Budapest and Prague have always been popular but not to the extent of some European tourist magnets, Markovich said.
One of those typical magnets — Paris — is poised for an additional burst this year: The City of Light is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Demand for flights to Paris — and for nearby cities — during the Olympics has more than doubled versus this time last year, according to Hopper data.
Lower relative prices for some lesser-known spots in Europe are also likely attracting people, Berg said, especially since average flights to Europe overall are 5% more expensive in 2024 versus 2023, at $717, Hopper data shows.

3. The Atlantic tropics over the Caribbean

Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.
Faba-photograhpy | Moment | Getty Images

Although places like Cancun, Mexico, remain popular as warm-weather beach destinations, Americans are increasingly turning to Atlantic tropical vacations over the Caribbean, said Hopper’s Berg.
“This is something new this year that we started seeing emerge” and the trend “will definitely continue” in 2024, she said.
For example, Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, and Funchal, the capital of Portugal’s Madeira archipelago, ranked No. 9 and 10, respectively, on Hopper’s international trend list. Both are located off the West African coast.

People are really discovering the off-the-beaten path places.

Sofia Markovich
travel advisor

Though not on the Atlantic, Málaga, a Mediterranean port city on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, ranked sixth on Kayak’s list. The Andalusian city gets about 300 days of sunshine a year, on average, and, according to one recent report, is the No. 1 city in the world for expats.
Search interest there is up 60% year-over-year, Kayak data shows. And that’s following a year in which Málaga was already “overrun,” Hafner said.
“I think that word has gotten out,” he said.

4. Canada’s ski mountains are having a ‘renaissance’

A ski slope at Grouse Mountain in Vancouver, Canada.
Daisuke Kishi | Moment Open | Getty Images

Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal in Canada ranked third, fifth and sixth, respectively, on Hopper’s international trend list for 2024.
Winter tourism likely plays a big role, Berg said.
“We’ve seen a real renaissance of Canadian ski destinations,” she said. “They’re rivaling a lot of European ski destinations.”
Plus, air travel to Canada is generally about a third of the price of a trip to Europe, Berg added. More

This year, 40% of Americans said they do not make financial resolutions for the new year and 68% said they do not have written financial plans at any point in the year, according to research from BMO Financial Group.
However, setting a budget goes a long way in managing your personal finances.

“Many people spend time doing a New Year’s resolution,” said Kamila Elliott, a certified financial planner at Collective Wealth Partners. She explained that people often focus on achieving their personal goals “but an annual budget allows you to focus on your financial goals and understanding what you want to accomplish financially in the year.”
The first step is to figure out your income.
“Knowing your income is extremely important because you know exactly how much you have to deploy,” explained Elliott. “So typically for my clients, we get their pay stubs and look at their net play.”
Net pay refers to your gross pay minus taxes, withholdings and deductions such as Social Security, Medicare and employee benefits such as your health plan.
“I look at it on a monthly basis,” said Elliott, who is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

“I typically take someone’s biweekly paycheck times 26 and then divide it by 12 or if you are getting paid bimonthly, which is 24 pay periods divided by 12,” she said.
The second step is to calculate your expenses. They can often be split into two types: fixed and variable.
“Fixed expenses are things like your rent, your mortgage, your car payment, things that you know exactly what it will be and how you can plan for it accordingly,” Elliott said.
“Variable expenses can be tricky since some of them you can control and some you can’t,” she added.
“How much are you spending on groceries? How much do you spend on eating out or clothing? Averaging them out will help you get a really good view of what that looks like for you on a monthly basis,” she explained.
The final step is setting a goal.
The budget parameter that many experts recommend is the 50-30-20 budget, where 50% of your take-home pay goes to your needs, 30% to your wants and 20% to savings for your financial future.
Watch the video to find out more about how to set an annual budget for the New Year. More

Sally Anscombe | DigitalVision | Getty Images

Company: Elanco Animal Health (ELAN)

Business: Elanco is an animal health company that delivers products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. Its portfolio serves animals across its core species and offers products in two categories: Pet Health, which is focused on parasiticides, vaccines and therapeutics; and Farm Animal, which consists of products designed to prevent, control and treat health challenges primarily focused on cattle.
Stock Market Value: $7.34B ($14.90 per share)

Activist: Ancora Advisors

Percentage Ownership:  ~3.0%
Average Cost: n/a
Activist Commentary: Ancora is not an activist investor. It is primarily a family wealth investment advisory firm and fund manager with $8.7 billion in assets under management, with an alternative asset management division that manages approximately $1.3 billion. It was founded in 2003 and hired James Chadwick in 2014 to pursue activist efforts in niche areas like banks, thrifts and closed-end funds. Ancora’s website lists “small cap activist” as part of its products and strategies and their strategy has evolved in recent years. From 2010 to 2020, the majority of Ancora’s activism was 13D filings on micro-cap companies and in the past few years they have taken a greater number of sub-5% stakes in larger companies. The alternatives team has a track record of using private and when necessary, public engagement with portfolio companies to catalyze corporate governance improvements and long-term value creation.

What’s happening

On Dec. 14, Bloomberg, citing people familiar, reported that Ancora has taken a position in Elanco and is pushing for a replacement of the company’s CEO, changes to the company’s board composition and improved margins.

Behind the scenes

Elanco is one of the largest global animal health pharmaceutical companies, developing and marketing products for both pet health and farm animals. It operates in a secularly growing industry, which has seen a massive wave of consolidation, and has been historically recession resistant. The company is one of four players – including Zoetis, Merck Animal Health and Boehringer Ingelheim – who collectively have 80% market share. Elanco spun out from Eli Lilly in 2018 and was met with a lot of excitement: In its first day of trading, the stock closed higher by 50% from its IPO price. The reason why the stock was received so well was because management publicized opportunities to grow revenue at or above industry growth rates and to improve margins by approximately 1,000 basis points over five years. In 2018, Elanco’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization margins were 21% versus 38% for Zoetis, its closest peer. While Zoetis’s product mix allows for higher margins, that gap is still way too big and Elanco management targeted 31% EBITDA margins by 2023.

Then, on Aug. 20, 2019, Elanco announced an agreement to acquire Bayer’s Animal Health business. Elanco explained this acquisition as being too good of an opportunity to pass up, as it would significantly expand scale and change the mix of the business. As a result, management accelerated the timeline of its margin target goal by a year and announced that because of this acquisition they would reach their goal of 31% EBITDA margins by 2022. But then, in 2020, management revised its guidance and stated that it was now hoping to achieve 31% EBITDA margins by 2024, a year later than its first projection and two years later than its last projection. To confuse and frustrate shareholders even more, management claimed that they have realized significant cost savings, but this is not resulting in margin expansion.
In October 2020, Sachem Head Capital Management filed a 13D on Elanco also taking issue with the company’s EBITDA margins and progress in improving them. On Dec. 13, 2020, Sachem Head and Elanco came up with a cooperation agreement, giving the activist three board seats for William Doyle, Scott Ferguson and Paul Herendeen. Scott Ferguson has since resigned from the board, but Doyle and Herendeen currently serve as directors.
Now, Ancora has taken an approximately 3% position and intends to push for margin improvements, a board refreshment and CEO replacement. Ancora sees this as a failure of corporate governance and accountability. Aside from management’s failure to improve margins over the past five years, they overpaid for Bayer and were late in converting their debt from variable to fixed resulting in much higher interest expenses. Further, the board that does not appear to hold management accountable. For instance, at the 2023 annual meeting, 62% and 71% of voting shareholders were against the election of two directors. Despite the results, the board did not make any changes. The director who received 71% of votes against him is the chairman of the company, R. David Hoover.
The board’s chickens may be coming home to roost. Ancora will have the opportunity to replace four directors at the next annual meeting, one being the company’s CEO Jeff Simmons. Ancora is pushing for board refreshment and the replacement of the CEO, but the firm might be able to do that in one fell swoop. If Simmons is not re-elected as a director, it will be hard for even this board to keep him as CEO.  Ancora will likely nominate three industry directors and one Ancora executive, signaling their intention to be a long-term shareholder. Of the four incumbent directors up for re-election at the next annual meeting, all received over 20% “against” votes at their last election in 2021 (with two of them over 46% and Simmons over 37%) and were not even being contested. That was when Elanco was trading at $35.76 per share. It is now at about $14 per share. Shareholders should be waiting for Ancora with flowers and chocolate. We think Ancora should easily win three seats in a proxy fight, and it could have a better than even chance of winning the fourth. Institutional Shareholder Services understandably does not like recommending voting against a sitting CEO, but it also does not like a board that has ignored the will of its shareholders. Even if Simmons can retain his board seat in a proxy fight, if this goes to a vote, the large number of shares voted against him will send a strong message to the board and likely be the writing on the wall for him.
We rarely see a company set up so well for board refreshment and management change. A refreshed board and management team that can get gross margins from the mid-50s to the 60s and EBITDA margins up to the high 20s (even below management’s promised 31%) would substantially increase shareholder value. 
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.  More

The Powerball jackpot has ballooned to an estimated $760 million, the sixth-largest prize in the game’s history.
There are two payout options for the winner: annuitized payments worth $760 million or a lump sum valued at $383.6 million.
The next Powerball drawing is on Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET.

mphillips007 | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images

Assemble a team of financial experts

Typically, lottery winners “don’t have the knowledge base to handle this large sum of money,” said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago-based lawyer who has represented several lottery winners. “It’s very similar to what we see with our professional athlete clients.”
That’s why it’s critical to find the right team of experts, including a financial advisor, accountant and attorney, he said.

The winner also needs to prepare for the “estate tax consequences” of the multimillion-dollar windfall, according to Warren Racusin, a wealth planning attorney and partner at Lowenstein Sandler.

For 2024, the federal estate tax exemptions are $13.61 million per individual or $27.22 million for married couples. But without changes from Congress, those limits will drop by roughly one-half in 2026 when provisions sunset from the Republicans’ signature 2017 tax overhaul.
“There are a variety of estate planning ideas and techniques that you can use to save on estate taxes and benefit your family,” Racusin said.

Saturday’s Powerball drawing comes roughly 2½ months since a single ticket sold in California won the game’s $1.765 billion jackpot. Meanwhile, the Mega Millions jackpot is back down to $92 million and the odds of winning that prize are roughly 1 in 302 million.
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Struggling borrowers will be shielded from significant penalties for late and missed payments through September 2024.
Here’s what borrowers need to know.

Miodrag Ignjatovic | E+ | Getty Images

Borrowers don’t need to apply

Borrowers do not need to enroll in the on-ramp period, the U.S. Department of Education says. If your loans were eligible for the pandemic-era payment pause, which mainly include those in the Direct program, then borrowers will also qualify for this relief.
Loans that don’t qualify include private student loans and commercially held Federal Family Education Loans.

On-ramp period isn’t the same as payment pause

Unlike during the pandemic-era pause on federal student loans, when interest rates were set to zero, the debt will continue to grow at its pre-Covid rate over the next year (interest formally began accruing on federal student loans Sept. 1.)
To be clear: forgoing payments or making only partial payments during the on-ramp period means you’ll likely have a larger bill come October 2024.

For that reason, Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for federal student loan servicers, said he hoped borrowers weren’t thinking this is just another payment pause.
“There is a fundamental difference here, which is that interest is accruing now,” Buchanan said.

Collection activity halted

Aside from the accruing of interest, experts say there are unlikely to be other significant penalties of not making payments during the on-ramp period. However, like with all things student loans, it makes sense to be careful. One borrower told CNBC that her account was put into past due status when she didn’t make her October payment.
Still, the Department of Education says it will not report your missed payments during this period to the credit bureaus.
Borrowers should also be shielded from collection activity, including the garnishments of their wages or retirement benefits, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

It’s still best to make payments

If you can afford to make your student loan payments, most experts recommend that you do so to avoid ending up with a larger bill when the on-ramp period ends.
Still, these experts say some borrowers with small debt balances who believe they will qualify for President Joe Biden’s Plan B for student loan forgiveness are taking their chances and holding off on making their payments.
“They’re trying to buy themselves time,” said Braxton Brewington, press secretary for the Debt Collective, a union for debtors.
Biden’s plan is currently working its way through the regulatory process. It is unclear if the administration’s second attempt at providing people relief will end any differently than its first, with a failure at the Supreme Court. More