In today’s society, the historically “traditional” family is becoming less and less commonplace – apparently as many as 50% of all children under age 13 are currently living with one biological parent and that parent’s current partner who is not a biological parent of the child. Often as well, there is a significant age differential [...]
Posts under ‘estate tax’
Problems With Naming a Minor Your IRA Beneficiary
We’ve discussed the fantastic benefits that can be realized over time by naming a very young person as the beneficiary of your IRA (see “How To Turn $5,000 A Year Into a $33 Million Legacy” for details). This makes for a very elegant, clean tax-planning exercise; but in reality, a minor cannot legally hold assets [...]
IRAs Do Not Pass Through Your Will
Here’s a little fact that you may not realize: when you assign a beneficiary for your IRA account, you are effectively bypassing any outside action against that account – assuming that the beneficiary assigned is appropriate. For most assets that you own, when you pass away, your last will and testament determines who will receive [...]
Choosing a Beneficiary for Your IRA
One of the very important tenets of estate planning is to ensure that you’ve made an appropriate choice, or set of choices, for beneficiary(s) of your IRA account(s). The title of this article could be a bit misleading – the point of this article is to list some of the consequences of various choices for [...]
Understanding the 2010 Estate Tax Repeal
The start of a new year often signals a time for change–especially when it comes to taxes, and 2010 has brought some major changes. As of January 1, the federal estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes are repealed, and the step-up in basis rule is modified for 2010. While it’s possible (and some believe very [...]
The Dreaded “Double Tax” on IRAs
Chances are, if you hold a significant amount of money in your IRA accounts, you may have been approached by a financial professional who tells you about the “double tax” that may be a part of your account’s future. Here’s a brief explanation: when the owner of an IRA dies, assuming that the size of [...]
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