The Slott Report

By Andy Ives, CFP®, AIF®IRA AnalystFollow Us on X: @theslottreport QUESTION: My brother passed away in May 2023. He had a small...

SIMPLE IRA plans are a popular retirement savings option for small businesses. The plans are available for companies with 100 or fewer employees who received at least $5,000 in pay from the company in the prior year. SIMPLE IRAs are designed to be administratively easier than 401(k) plans. Businesses can establish a SIMPLE by completing a model IRS form (either Form 5305-SIMPLE or 5304 SIMPLE) and can make contributions directly to employees’ IRAs.

It is December. The halls are decked, and Starbucks holiday cups are everywhere. The end of the year is not far away. That means the deadline is near for taking a required minimum distribution (RMD). Here is what you need to know if you have your own IRA or if you are an IRA beneficiary.

Question: Can you please tell me if a client can transfer her required minimum distribution (RMD) to a 529 plan for a grandchild’s college and avoid paying income tax on it similar to a transfer to a qualified charity? Thanks,

If the Grinch and Bad Santa both passed their FINRA Series 7 exam and decided to open an investment advisory firm, I’m pretty sure they would combine forces to intentionally deliver some of the WORST financial advice possible. Here are some of their truly terrible, hideously horrible, good-for-nothing planning ideas:

A few weeks ago, many of us were required to turn back our clocks one hour and say goodbye to daylight savings time. And with that change came the usual reminder to change the batteries in our smoke detectors. Based on the number of questions we continue to get about the Roth IRA five-year distribution rules, we think that adjusting the clocks should come with another reminder – on how the Roth IRA clocks work.

Thanksgiving is almost here! This is a time for us to gather together and express our gratitude for all the good things in our lives. When it comes to our retirement accounts, we frequently complain about the negatives, such as the many IRA rules that are way too complicated and confusing.

Year-end to-do lists are commonplace. The problem is, they always seem to get published in mid-to-late December. I can almost hear the collective “thanks for nothing” comment from readers as the information arrives too late to act upon. As we are still before Thanksgiving, here are a few year-end items to consider…before it really is too late.

Question: My client’s husband recently passed away. We have converted her late husband’s 401(k) to a beneficiary 401(k) in preparation for transferring it to a beneficiary (inherited) IRA. There is company stock inside the 401(k) currently. We want to leverage the NUA (net unrealized appreciation) tax strategy. Is stock inside a beneficiary 401(k) eligible for NUA, the same as the stock would have been when he was alive? All the best,

Question: My client’s husband recently passed away. We have converted her late husband’s 401(k) to a beneficiary 401(k) in preparation for transferring it to a beneficiary (inherited) IRA. There is company stock inside the 401(k) currently. We want to leverage the NUA (net unrealized appreciation) tax strategy. Is stock inside a beneficiary 401(k) eligible for NUA, the same as the stock would have been when he was alive? All the best,