1) Lack of Healthcare and Disability Planning. The majority of deaths occur in hospitals or other institutions. Patients may be incapacitated to the point where they can no longer communicate their healthcare wishes. Advance Directives and a Healthcare Power of Attorney can identify healthcare proxy decision-makers, specify wishes for end-of-life care, and provide...
Category: IRA
Investment, Insurance, Annuity, and Retirement Planning Considerations
If your clients choose to use a Standalone Retirement Trust (SRT) to provide asset protection benefits for their beneficiaries, the tax-related asset allocation strategy would be essentially the same as without an SRT, with one small exception.
To help minimize additional tax consequences, consider skewing your investment plan toward:
Warning: Don’t Let Creditors Inherit from You
Shocking to most people, the retirement account you leave for your spouse can be seized in a divorce, lawsuit, or bankruptcy.
3 Options Available To Surviving Spouses
When your surviving spouse inherits your IRA, he or she generally has three options:
Cash out the inherited IRA and pay the income tax.
WARNING! The...
Roth IRA Conversions After Tax Reform…Still a good idea? What are the implications for your family if you don’t spend all the money?
Twenty years ago, the Roth IRA first became available to investors as a financial tool for their estate planning needs. These accounts have maintained their popularity because unlike their traditional IRA counterpart, a Roth IRA provides account owners tax-free income during retirement.
In fact, many people chose to convert...
How Does an IRA Fit Into Your Estate Plan?
When you think of IRAs, you probably think of retirement. But what happens to your IRA money after you’re gone? The answer depends on how you go about creating your estate plan and selecting beneficiaries, and you might be surprised to find out that your money could end up with...
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Inherited IRAs are Not Protected from Creditors
On June 12, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court—in a unanimous decision—ruled that Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) inherited by anyone other than a spouse are not retirement funds and therefore are not protected from the beneficiary’s creditors in bankruptcy.
The reasoning is, because the beneficiary cannot make additional contributions or delay distributions until retirement, it...
Caution: Creditors Now Have Easy Access to Inherited IRAs
Do you have IRAs or other retirement accounts that you plan to leave to your loved ones? If so, proceed with caution. Most people don’t know the law has changed: inherited retirement accounts no longer have asset protection, meaning they can be seized by strangers.
How Can Inherited IRAs Be Protected? Enter the...
Estate Planning Mistakes Regarding Individual Retirement Accounts
For many people, retirement savings accounts are among the largest assets they have to bequeath to their children and grandchildren in their estate plans. Sadly, without professional and personally tailored advice about how best to include IRAs in one’s estate plan, there may be a failure to take advantage of techniques that will maximize...
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