The Slott Report

There are three life expectancy tables used by IRA and employer plan account owners and beneficiaries. These tables were last updated by IRS for optional use in 2002 and were mandatory in 2003. You cannot choose which table you would like to use. Each one must be used in certain situations. Click to learn more about each table.

Yesterday, the IRS released a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights," to help organize "the dozens of existing rights in the Internal Revenue Code into ten fundamental rights," as well as make the "rights clear, understandable, and accessible for taxpayers and IRS employees alike."With that in mind, it occurred to me that IRA owners would benefit from an "IRA Owners’ Bill of Rights," of sorts, to help understand certain aspects of their retirement accounts. Below is a list of 10 key rights that any and all IRA owners should be aware they have.

The Slott Report Mailbag returns to answer a question on the benefits of IRA trusts as beneficiaries (we've covered the advantages and disadvantages in several articles chronicled here), the details involved when moving money between IRAs and company plans and whether retirement plan funds affect your Social Security benefits.

So, you make your way into the financial "doctor's" office, armed with all of your bank and retirement account statements. What should you expect from the meeting - what burning questions should you and your financial team have the answers to? I examine the mandatory 3 questions that must be asked and answered below.

If you're receiving a distribution from your employer's retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, you have the choice to roll over those funds tax-free to an IRA. There are two ways to do that. Click below to hear more about each choice.

You name a trust as the beneficiary of your IRA. How many beneficiaries are there of the IRA? One. You name a trust as the beneficiary of your IRA. The trust beneficiaries are your six children. How many beneficiaries are there of the IRA? One – the trust. That’s right. There is only one beneficiary. The children do not get to split the IRA. They do not get to use their own life expectancies, they all have to use the age of the oldest trust beneficiary. They do not get to choose whether to take stretch distributions or take their entire share in one lump sum. They are not the beneficiaries – the trust is the beneficiary.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag talks about an "educational" IRA (a popular topic during graduation season), how to value non-spouse inherited IRAs and whether a retired individual can go through with a Roth conversion. Click to read this week's Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.

This past Monday, our nation celebrated Memorial Day, a day dedicated to honoring the brave men and women who have lost their lives while serving in our Armed Forces. While no financial benefit can ever console or adequately compensate the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, when a member of the Armed Forces dies, his or her loved ones are often the beneficiaries of a Service member’s Group Life Insurance (SGLI) policy. Click for more details about this policy and how it affects the families of those who served their country.

If you’re thinking about moving your IRA funds to a different IRA custodian, generally the better way to do it is by transferring the funds directly to another financial institution. IRA-to-IRA transfers are often called direct transfers or trustee-to-trustee transfers. In a direct transfer between IRAs, you don’t have use or control of the IRA money while it’s being moved between two financial institutions. A benefit of using direct transfers between IRAs is that transfers do not have to follow the IRA 60-day rollover rules.