I am diabetic. This is one of those situations we’re dealt with in life that requires changes – and paying attention to a lot of stuff we never wanted to pay attention to. Like eating right, exercising, taking appropriate meds, and monitoring and adjusting. It’s a lifestyle change. What I’ve continued to notice is that, [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2009’
Age 70½ RMD Rules
As you are likely well aware, once you reach age 70½ you’re required to begin taking a minimum distribution from your IRA and/or qualified retirement plans. There are several things you need to know about these distributions, so that you don’t make any mistakes. Listed below are some of the more important rules – but [...]
Non-Spouse Rollover of Inherited IRA or Plan
When you inherit an IRA from someone other than your spouse, you are able to take advantage of certain protections or deferrals of tax inherent in the IRA, but you are somewhat restricted in your actions with the account. These rules also apply to a spouse who has elected NOT to treat the inherited IRA [...]
What Is It That You Want To DO?
Note: Taking a little break from tax law and retirement planning for the day… One of the questions that I often ask folks as we’re working on financial matters is – “what is it that you want to DO?” And in this case, DO is properly capitalized, because the context of the question is with [...]
SGLI Payment Rollover to Roth or ESA
Introduction On May 20, 2008, Congress passed H.R. 6081, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act (the HEART or Heroes Act), which was signed into law by President Bush on June 17, 2008. One of the major provisions related to retirement accounts (IRAs and qualified accounts) is the ability to rollover SGLI (Serviceman’s Group [...]
Credit Card Industry Reform
. By now you’ve likely heard about the reforms planned for the credit card industry. Mr. Obama has come in and saved the day for us poor, disheveled credit card users. Why, we’re all going to benefit from these changes… right? . . Wrong (or at least that’s how I’m reading it). So here are [...]
Creditor Protection for Retirement Plan Assets
In this day and age with bankruptcies on the rise, quite often this question comes up: are my retirement plan assets protected from creditors? And of course, there are two ways you can take this – are the assets protected from creditors of my employer; and are the assets protected from my personal creditors? Employer [...]
7 Mistakes With Stretch IRAs
The stretch IRA, when implemented properly, can be one of the great vehicles for transferring wealth to your heirs, maintaining the tax-deferred status until much later. The problem is that there are some very specific terms that must be met in order to achieve the stretch – and if you screw it up, there’s definitely [...]
Fiduciary Standard for All Advisors?
There has been a raging debate going on in the financial advisory world. You see, there are two primary governing bodies for folks in the financial services business: the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). There are others, literally dozens, but these are the two primary governing bodies. The Players [...]
Making an Income For Yourself, Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the initial steps you need to take as you plan your income stream, especially in retirement. In this second section we’ll talk about how to develop an income stream from your assets. But first, we need to get an understanding of just how much income we’ll [...]
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".
