Losing a loved one can bring not only an emotional burden, but also significant financial responsibilities related to settling the estate. If you are a beneficiary to retirement plan assets, you may inherit control of all or part of a retirement plan account. So, what exactly can one do with an inherited Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or a Roth IRA? What responsibilities do you have to the newly inherited account? The answers to these questions may depend on your relationship to the deceased. Here I will discuss several factors that will determine what you can do with inherited retirement assets.…
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According to the Social Security Administration, average life expectancies for current retirees are now 86.5 for women and 84 for men. While this means people can expect to enjoy more than 20 years in retirement, it also means that their retirement savings must sustain them for decades. But for many, the idea of living off one’s savings is terrifying. In its 2019 “Retirement Planning Survey,” Financial Advisor Magazine reported that 45% of advisors said outliving assets is one of the biggest threats that their clients face in retirement. Another 2019 study from Employee Benefit Research Institute found that only 42%…
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On June 23, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice that told taxpayers they could unwind any required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts that they had taken in 2020. This provides a significant opportunity for IRA beneficiaries who didn’t need this money for expenses. They can put these distributions back into their IRAs to grow there tax-deferred, lowering their total tax bill. Required Minimum Distributions In general, IRA beneficiaries who are at least 72 years old (or 70½ if they were born before July 1, 1949) are required to take a certain fraction out of their regular IRAs each year.…
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On December 16, 2019, Congress agreed to a spending bill which included a law called the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). The SECURE Act was passed only by the House in the summer, but seemed to be falling by the wayside until it was attached to this spending bill. The new law is effective January 1, 2020. Below is some insight into the major implications of this new law, and some thoughts on how to lessen the impact of the most important change: the removal of the stretch RMD provisions on inherited IRAs. What did…
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The decision of whether to make pre-tax or Roth (after-tax) 401k contributions frequently pops up, especially when investors start new jobs. Both pre-tax and Roth 401(k)s offer tax-advantaged investment growth, the same annual employee contribution limits, and both allow the plan participant to receive any available employer match. However, there are key differences between these options, so it is important to understand the pros & cons before electing whether pre-tax, Roth, or a combination of the two is appropriate for you. What is the difference between pre-tax and Roth? There are two primary differences – both of them are tax…
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It is no secret that many Americans are ill prepared for retirement (excluding our clients, of course). With the continued disappearance of defined-benefit pension plans (apart from public sector employees), inadequate savings, and low interest rates, people are depending on Social Security now more than ever before. Despite these facts, billions of dollars in lifetime benefits are lost each year because retirees make uninformed decisions about claiming Social Security benefits. This white paper will discuss various concepts to consider in order to help maximize lifetime Social Security benefits. Regardless of whether you feel Social Security will be a major factor…
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Recently, we received a call from a client who had previously retired but had decided to get back into the game and provide consulting services as an independent contractor. Part of the conversation was a discussion of the different approaches to consider in deferring income recognition and investing some of these newly earned funds in a tax efficient manner. Below we review some of the most common retirement savings strategies a self-employed person could utilize, and explore the pros and cons of each: Traditional IRA A traditional IRA is a method to save for retirement with tax benefits. Contributions made…
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