bobrichards
The Bankruptcy Law
The Bankruptcy Abuse Protection and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) simultaneously increased, in some cases substantially, the creditor protection available to retirement accounts for those who declare bankruptcy.
Before implementation of the Bankruptcy Act,...
Spousal Advantages
When it comes to the spouse inheriting the IRA, the spouse gets special flexibility. (This should make you feel good that you’ll be dead and your spouse is still getting special advantages.)
Only spouses can...
Separate Account for Non-spouse Beneficiaries
There are non-tax reasons to create separate trusts for beneficiaries:
Individual Life Expectancies Can Be Used.
Avoid Beneficiary Disagreements.
Maintain Separate Investment Strategies by Beneficiary.
Beneficiaries Have Option to Choose Separate IRA Custodians.
Special Needs of Certain Beneficiaries.
The question...
Protect the IRA Value
Life insurance
Earlier, we showed how a large IRA in a significant estate can be burdened with an 86% combined tax (federal income tax, state income tax and state estate tax). A common way to...
Properly Naming Beneficiaries
The Stretch IRA
The stretch IRA is the ability of the named beneficiaries to spread required post-death distributions over their life expectancy according to the IRS Single Life Expectancy table. In English, it means that...
Problems With Custodians
I think that few financial advisors discuss this with their clients or even understand some of these issues. The custodian that holds your IRA (bank, securities firm, insurance company) may have rules that do...
No Beneficiary
Suppose that the owner of an IRA or company plan dies before his or her RBD without naming a designated beneficiary?
The beneficiaries must then withdraw from the account under the five-year rule. And it...
IRAs—The Missing Link in Many Seniors’ Estate Plans
According to the IRS, 43 million people have $2.7 trillion in retirement accounts. Most of this money will become IRA rollovers, and the dollars will continue to grow. Yet IRAs are neglected in the...
IRA Asset Wills
Funds in your IRAs pass outside of your will and are distributed according to beneficiary-designation forms that you fill out when you open the accounts. But unlike wills that provide details on how property...
How to Work With Non-spouse Beneficiaries
Non-spouse beneficiaries cannot do IRA rollovers as per IRC Section 408(d)(3)(C). Nor can they use the 60-day rollover rule. However, they can possibly move inherited IRAs by trustee-to-trustee transfers. But the IRA custodian might...