Estate Planning

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...

Retirees of any age with large IRAs must understand that their IRAs can be hit with estate and income taxes when they die. And...

The Bankruptcy Abuse Protection and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) simultaneously increased, in some cases substantially, the creditor protection available to retirement accounts...

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...

The spouse has more options than a non-spouse beneficiary. Here are the four options: You can rollover the deceased’s IRA to your own. This is...

Here are the steps, and we’ll discuss them in order of priority: Separate your portion from other IRA beneficiaries. Retitle the IRA. Name a beneficiary. Move it to...

Can a trust be the beneficiary of an IRA? Even though there are no tax benefits, there may be circumstances when you want to name...

The estate tax is a tax on accumulated wealth. So if you die and you are considered wealthy (by the estate tax rules then...

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...

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...