Image via Wikipedia When you’re subject to the Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) and you have more than one IRA account to take the distributions from, you have a choice to make. Even though you have to calculate the RMD amount from all of your IRA accounts combined, the IRS provides that you could take the total of all your RMDs from a single account if you wish. With this provision in mind, you could take all of your RMDs from the smallest account, which would provide you the opportunity to eliminate one of the accounts in your list, thereby simplifying things. By reducing the number of accounts that you have, you could simplify the calculation of RMDs, estate planning, and just general paperwork. However, it might not always work to your best interests to reduce the number of accounts that you have. You may have multiple accounts in order to […]
qrp
Arguments in Favor of a Rollover
Image via Wikipedia If you have a 401(k), 403(b), a (gasp!) tax-sheltered annuity or other qualified retirement plan from a former employer, you may have considered if it would be beneficial to leave it where it is, or perhaps enact a rollover to an IRA. While it might be easiest to leave the account where it is, it’s possible that you are sacrificing flexibility and/or paying higher fees in exchange for the easier path. Quite often, 401(k) plans (and other qualified retirement plans, QRPs) are restricted to managed mutual fund investment options. Managed funds often carry high expense ratios, often greater than 1% and more. As you know, if you’ve read much about index funds, it is possible to reduce most of your investing expense ratios to far below .5%, in some cases as low as .1% or less. Over the course of many years, reducing these expenses can have […]
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2012 Retirement Plan Limits
Image via Wikipedia The new limits for retirement plans in 2012 have just recently been published. The details of these new limits are below: IRA The contribution limit (and therefore the deductible contribution limit) for a traditional IRA remains the same in 2012 as in 2011 – at $5,000. The catch up provision, available to taxpayers age 50 or better, also remains the same at $1,000. If you’re a Single filer and covered by a retirement plan via an employer, the deductibility phases out when your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is over $58,000 and phases out completely at an AGI of $68,000. This is an increase of $2,000 over the 2011 phase-out range. If you’re Married and filing jointly and the spouse making the IRA contribution is covered by a workplace retirement plan, the phase-out range is between $92,000 and $112,000, also up from 2011 by $2,000. If you’re not […]
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Enabling a Tax-Free Roth Conversion With a Mixed-Contribution IRA
Image by @dino via Flickr If you have an IRA that includes contributions that are both pre-tax and post-tax (deductible and non-deductible) as well as growth, you may have an option available to you that will allow for a tax-free Roth conversion. As you know, a Roth conversion can be done with IRAs that have mixed contributions, but when this is done, you will owe tax on a portion of the rollover – the portion that includes the pre-tax money. Even if your pre-tax money is in a totally separate traditional IRA, the conversion of your post-tax money will be partly taxed due to the cream-in-the-coffee rule, which requires that all IRAs be considered as one with regard to distributions (including Roth conversions). If you happen to have a 401(k) plan (or other Qualified Retirement Plan) that you’re participating in, you may have the option available to roll over your […]
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Leaving Your IRA to Your Family First, Then to Charity
Image by Mikey G Ottawa via Flickr Suppose you have a situation where you’d like to leave your IRA (or at least some of it) to a family member or a group of beneficiaries, and then leave the remainder of the IRA to a charity of your choice. One way to do this is to split the beneficiary designation between your family members and the charity. This is a simple way to make this designation, but it might not really achieve the purpose you’re hoping to. Suppose you’d like to make certain that a non-spouse family member has adequate income from your IRA for the remainder of his or her life, but you don’t want to overdo the bequest with a large appropriation (and taxes on the distribution). There’s a way to do this that may fit your needs: the Charitable Remainder Trust, or CRT. The Charitable Remainder Trust Using […]
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2 Good Reasons to Use Direct Rollover From a 401(k) Plan
If you have a 401(k) plan (or any Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP) such as a 403(b) plan), when you leave employment at that job you can rollover the plan funds to an IRA or another QRP at a new job. Listed below are 2 very good reasons that you should use a Direct rollover (also known as a trustee-to-trustee transfer) instead of the 60-day rollover. Image by aloucha via Flickr A 60-day rollover is where the former plan distributes the funds from your account to you, and in order to make the rollover complete you must deposit the entire distributed amount into the new plan or IRA within 60 days. Reasons to Use a Direct Rollover You must complete the rollover to the new account or IRA within 60 days. There is little if any leeway on this 60-day period – and though it seems as if this is a […]
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
The latest in our Owner’s Manual series, A 401(k) Owner’s Manual, was published in January 2020 and is available on 
A Medicare Owner’s Manual, is updated with 2020 facts and figures. This manual is available on 
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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”.