This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks at IRA beneficiary language and procedures as well as Roth conversions and recharacterizations, a topic we cover heavily in Ed Slott's 2014 Retirement Decisions Guide. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
2014 is almost here, but we wanted to open the Slott Report Mailbag one last time to answer some pressing year-end retirement planning questions, as well as several issues with decisions that will come in the new year. Click to read this week's Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
Many individuals are advised by their attorneys to set up a trust. There are a lot of good reasons to have a trust. But you really have to think twice before naming a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA. Read that sentence again – think twice before naming a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA. When that happens, who is the beneficiary of the IRA? Click to find out.
Creating an estate plan can be a very challenging process. For starters, it involves serious contemplation of on'’s death and the resulting aftermath, which can, in and of itself, be an uneasy topic of discussion. In some cases, however, the process can be particularly emotional and technically challenging. Oftentimes this occurs when someone chooses, for one reason or another, to treat children or other similar beneficiaries unequally, perhaps even disinheriting one or more of them.
Do you have a will, a trust, and retirement accounts? Who will get your retirement assets? Let’s say that your will says that everything goes to your spouse, your trust says that everything goes to your children, and the beneficiary form for your IRA says that everything goes to your spouse and your children equally. Who gets your IRA? These answers and more below.
Life events happen. Marriage is one of those major life events that make you focus on not just the present, but the future. Ed Slott and Company IRA Technical Consultant Jeffrey Levine got married this past Sunday then sat down to talk about how you can name a non-spouse beneficiary of your retirement account.
If you are elderly, or your parents are elderly and you help them with their finances, you should consider getting a Power or Attorney (POA). A POA lets you name or appoint someone to handle important legal and financial issues for you, either now or in the future if you are unable to make decisions for yourself. A POA can also be used to manage or make decisions related to your IRAs.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag (a special Monday edition) includes questions on the new tax law and two popular topics - required minimum distribution (RMD) rules for a beneficiary and Roth IRA contribution rules.
You inherited an IRA or a Roth IRA. Since you are not age 70 ½ yet, you did not think you had to take required distributions (RMDs) or maybe your advisor told you that. WRONG!!!A non-spouse beneficiary generally must take his first required distribution in the year after the account owner's death.Here are the rules for a beneficiary that is named on the beneficiary form (or is named through the document default provisions). These rules do NOT apply to beneficiaries who inherit through an estate. They may be the same for a beneficiary who inherits through a trust, but that is a way more complicated situation and you should be working with a knowledgeable advisor to determine how RMDs to the trust will be calculated.We are going to assume that you have set up a properly titled
Almost all IRA owners will name a primary beneficiary of their IRA; usually some person who will receive your IRA assets after you die, such as your wife or husband or children. Virtually all IRA custodians will also allow you to name a contingent beneficiary.
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