Individual Retirement Accounts - IRAs
Strategies for maximizing your Individual Retirement Account (IRA’s) Investments, Tax Savings and Timing of Required Minimum Distributions
Found 388 Articles.
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How to Integrate IRAs into Estate Planning
IRAs are among the most valuable assets in many estates. The right moves can maximize the after-tax value of the IRAs for the objects of your affection. Too often, not enough thought is given to the different ways IRAs can be handled in an estate plan, so the value isn’t maximized. The IRAs don’t create […]
Two Important New IRA Rules
Summer began with a couple of surprising changes about IRAs being announced. These important rules should figure in your IRA planning. First, the Supreme Court weighed in. The background is that in 2005 the federal bankruptcy law was revised. One of the revisions eliminated a patchwork of state rules and made clear that IRAs and […]
Overcoming Hurdles to Stretch IRAs
Making IRAs last a long time, especially for heirs, is a prime goal of many IRA owners. Hurdles stand in the way. Required mini-mum distributions after age 70½ force them to withdraw more from their IRAs each year than they need or want to. The forced distributions trigger higher income taxes. Then, the heirs can […]
Avoiding Inherited IRA Problems
Inherited IRAs are the focus of some of the saddest stories in estate planning. An IRA owner takes the time to arrange things so that the IRA will pass to the beneficiaries at the lowest tax cost and the heirs can stretch the IRA to last for years. Unfortunately, the heirs fall into one of […]
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IRAs and Asset Protection
The recent Supreme Court decision limiting the protection of inherited IRAs in bankruptcy may be broader than initially thought. IRAs have been protected in bankruptcy since the law was changed in 2005. But a court ruled that an inherited IRA is not a “retirement account” and isn’t protected under the provision. The Supreme Court recently […]
Risks of the 401k to IRA Rollover
When people retire with a 401(k) balance or a pension plan, there’s an army of financial salespeople trying to get them to rollover that money to an IRA managed by the financial salespeople or their associates. That can be a good deal, but apparently for many people it isn’t. They aren’t financial sophisticated and get […]
Naming Trusts as IRA Beneficiaries
Trusts find their way into more and more estate plans, because they provide valuable benefits. Many people want to use trusts with their IRAs. I receive an increasing number of inquiries from readers asking how they can name a trust as beneficiary of their IRAs instead of individual heirs. That’s where they can get into […]
IRS Ignores Its Own Rollover Rules, Wins Court Case
You know that there are two ways to do a tax-free IRA rollover. One way is trustee-to-trustee, in which you never touch the money; one IRA custodian transfers money to another. The other way is the 60-day rollover. You receive money from the IRA and within 60 days deposit that same amount either in the […]
