Retirement planning is complicated. It's a personal and situational endeavor with plenty of possible pitfalls in the way of success. This week's Slott Report Mailbag illustrates several various situations in which the individual sought help from either publications or professionals and is still left confused. Click to read this week's Q&A with our IRA Technical Consultant.
Many advisors and the public have asked us about the status of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) for 2014. QCDs, also known as charitable IRA rollovers, expired after December 31, 2013. While it was widely expected that Congress would reinstate them, as of today they have not yet been reinstated for 2014.
If your employer offers a SIMPLE IRA Plan, make sure to participate in it to get free money. A SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) IRA Plan is a company retirement that is set up by a business that has less than 100 employees. The rules require that each employee must establish his own SIMPLE IRA to receive the contributions. Click to learn how to get FREE money in a Simple IRA Plan.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag demonstrates IRA intricacies, but also the difficulty in rectifying mistakes that have been piling up without an IRA owner's knowledge for years. These questions, and our answers, also stress the importance of putting together and working with a knowledgeable retirement team - an attorney, accountant and financial advisor.
Real estate is an allowable investment inside an IRA, but you’re going to have to find an IRA custodian willing to do it. A recent Tax Court case showed how not to invest IRA money in real estate. An individual wanted his IRA to directly buy a piece of undeveloped land, but the problem was his brokerage firm (the IRA custodian) had a policy of not allowing clients to invest in "alternative investments" which included real estate. Click to learn how NOT to invest your IRA in real estate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This special edition of The Slott Report Mailbag answers several of the common Roth conversion questions we receive - from the beginning "conversion conversation" to the actual conversion process. Click to read this week's Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
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