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investment

Inherited IRA Multiple Beneficiary Example

I thought it might be helpful to work through an example of an IRA that has been inherited by multiple beneficiaries, so that we can discuss the important components of working with such a situation. In our example, we’ll say there is an IRA worth $800,000 at the date of death of the original owner, and she has designated four beneficiaries of the account.  One of the first factors that is important to note is that the beneficiaries could be anyone – they do not have to be related to the original owner, or likewise they could be the children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers or sisters of the original owner.  For the purpose of this example though, none of the beneficiaries is the surviving spouse of the original owner – surviving spouses have different rules to work from. Option 1 – Do Nothing The beneficiaries of the original account could […]

Book Review: The Wall Street MBA

This book, by Mr. Reuben Advani, sets out to cover much of the pertinent information required in an MBA program within its pages, and I think it does a good job of meeting this goal.  Mind you, I don’t have an MBA degree so I can’t say with certainty that the goal is accomplished, but I’d have to say that the book does an excellent job of hitting all of the important points of required knowledge, specifically as it relates to investing and individual company valuation.  I liked this book, but then again I’m kind of an out-of-the-ordinary accounting/investing geek. Where I have some confusion with this book is in understanding who is the target audience.  The problem is that the subject matter gets pretty involved in accounting principles that can be overwhelming to the average individual – potentially so much that the average individual may lose interest.  On the […]

About to Graduate? Learn How to Save!

Hey, soon-to-be-graduates: as you begin to make your way out into the world of full-time employment, you’ll soon be faced with many, many “grown up” ways to spend the money you’ll be earning.  You’ll of course have rent, insurance, food and clothing, maybe a car payment, and you’ll want to use some of that new-found money to blow off steam, however you choose to do that – maybe fulfilling a lifetime dream of getting “beaked” by Fredbird, for example. If you’re on top of your game, you’ll may also be thinking about saving some of your earnings.  Here, you’ll have a bundle of options to choose from – regular “bank” savings accounts, 401(k) plan (or something similar) from your employer, and IRA accounts, both the traditional deductible kind and the Roth kind (hint: the Roth kind is what I want you to pay particular attention to). Side note: even if […]

UBTI in an IRA

Image via Wikipedia I’ve mentioned before about various types of transactions that are not allowed in your IRA, but we’ve not actually covered the topic of Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI) in your IRA.  UBTI isn’t prohibited within an IRA, but it does pose problems and adds a great deal of complexity to your account. Unrelated Business Taxable Income So, what is UBTI anyway?  The concept of UBTI pre-dates IRAs – it was originally developed in relation to charitable organizations, trusts, and other tax-exempt entities.  The IRS developed this concept to ensure that tax-exempt organizations didn’t have a competitive advantage over taxable organizations, such as for-profit corporations.  The way that income is determined to be “unrelated” is by checking these two tests: Is the income from a trade or business that is regularly carried on? Is the trade or business unrelated to the tax-exempt entity’s exercise of the entity’s tax-exempt […]