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...
Why Be Concerned Since the Estate Tax is Supposed to Disappear?
That is not a bet you should make. For even if the tax goes away, the income tax “step-up-in-basis” provision for the most part...
What is the Estate Tax?
The estate tax is a tax on accumulated wealth. So if you die and you are considered wealthy (by the estate tax rules then...
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...
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...
Creditors and Bankruptcy and Your IRA
When you hold retirement money in a qualified plan, those assets are protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This is a...
What About Charities as IRA Beneficiaries?
You may think that it’s a nice thing to leave some of your unused retirement funds to charity when you go. Generally, this a...
Disclaimer
When people set up beneficiaries for their IRAs, they don’t know what the future holds. Assume a simple situation where the the IRA owner...
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...
Income in Respect of a Decedent (IRD)
Understanding the tax deductibility of income in respect of a decedent (IRD) is gaining significance as the baby boomer generation reaches retirement. Many parents...