Yesterday, President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year 2015 Budget. As has been the case with previous budgets, this year’s version includes a number of proposed changes aimed at retirement accounts. Six out of the 7 provisions detailed below, or similar versions of them, were included in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget last year.
When it comes to estate planning, one of the primary goals is to transfer as much of a person's assets to their intended beneficiaries at the lowest cost or, in other words, by paying the least amount of tax. Today, the federal estate tax exemption is $5,340,000 per person. It is also portable (can be transferred) between spouses, giving them a maximum exemption of $10,680,000 per couple and the maximum rate is 40%. That is a far cry from where we’ve been.
This week there were five private letter rulings (PLRs) issued by IRS that dealt with IRA issues. Don’t let these problems happen to you or to your clients! Click to learn more about these rulings.
Below we share with our readers the two videos as a continuation of yesterday's myRA coverage, which included our detailed analysis of the retirement plan proposal with videos and popular tweets incorporated.
Contributing to a retirement account EARLY in your life and EARLY in the year can pay big dividends over the long run. How? We explain below.
When you are entitled to receive withdrawals from your employer's retirement plan, such as a 401(k), a rollover to an IRA is a smart move in most cases. But there are some times when it’s best to leave the money in the employer plan and NOT do a rollover to an IRA. We detail those scenarios below.
Suppose you are one of the many retirement account owners who converted funds to a Roth IRA in 2010 when there was a special 2-year “deal” on paying the taxes. Now you are wondering when you can take a distribution of those funds. The simple answer is that you can always take a distribution of your converted funds. However, depending on what you withdraw, you may not be happy with the tax consequences. Here are the rules.
The general rule for making IRA contributions after an individual dies is that you can’t. However, as is the case with many of the IRA rules, there is an exception. We explain below.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks at the once-per-year rollover rules, touches on how to name a properly titled inherited IRA and once again dissects the always-confusing Roth IRA 5-year rules. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes an answer to a question on those rules, as well as an inquiry on spousal beneficiary rules and the differences between an IRAs and fixed annuities. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
