Fat Penny^TM

There are steps people can take to help prevent tax identity theft’and to cope after it happens.

We look at the facts regarding why even students from wealthy families should fill out the FAFSA, the odds of getting a full-ride scholarship, and more.

Standard & Poor's is expected to agree within days to pay $1.37 billion to settle lawsuits over its rosy grading of mortgage bonds in the financial crisis, sources told AFP Wednesday. Investors lost billions of dollars on the securities when the housing market crashed and showed that large numbers of the mortgages were highly risky "sub-prime" deals that quickly fell into default.

The Government Accountability Office rates IRS identity theft refund fraud efforts as needing improvement.

Personal finance author Barbara Stanny, author of "Sacred Success," says women, herself included, often earn less money than they could be. Manisha Thakor, co-author of "On My Own Two Feet," says women often make the mistake of keeping money secrets early on in relationships, such as hiding credit card debt or an overspending problem.

INDIANAPOLIS Anthem Inc. is offering several levels of free identity theft protection to current and former customers after hackers broke into a database storing information for about 80 million people.

Be ahead of the game — to gain access to owed funds, avoid fraud and reduce errors.

The average person can take several basic steps to guard against identity theft both inside and outside the health care world. Here's a sample of what experts advise:

Fake emails or phishing schemes, identity theft and tax return preparer fraud followed close behind. "The level of sophistication gets a little better every year," says Paul Gevertzman, a tax partner in accounting firm Anchin, Block & Anchin.

Monitor your transactions for your credit cards and checking accounts