Retirement Watch Weekly
Estate Plan Building Blocks: Estate Tax, The Marital Deduction and Trusts
Many people have procrastinated about Estate Planning. They delayed making or updating plans because of uncertainty over the tax law or turmoil in asset values. People naturally procrastinate because estate planning is complicated and full of unfamiliar terms and concepts. Most of you will have or at least consider the same basic tools and strategies […]
How to Multiply the Benefits of Gifts
A key estate planing tool for almost every family is more valuable as of Jan. 1, 2009. The annual gift tax exclusion is increased to $13,000, up from $12,000. Each person can make gifts of up to $13,000 annually to any other person without incurring gift taxes or counting against the lifetime annual gift credit […]
When You Should File Gift Tax Returns
Too often people neglect to file gift tax returns. A smart plan is to file a gift tax return even when not required to. In some situations that provides substantial insurance. Gifts above the annual exemption amount ($13,000 for 2009) potentially are taxable and must be reported on Form 709. The gift might not be […]
Long-Term Care Insurance Policies and the Credit Crisis
The financial crisis is raising new concerns about long-term care insurance policies. In December Conseco announced it was transferring most of its 140,000 long-term care insurance policies into a nonprofit trust supervised by the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner. No new money will be put into the trust to pay claims, and insurance rater A.M. Best warned […]
Why You Must Convert Your IRAs
Converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA has been a valuable tool to consider since the Roth was created in 1997. There are two reasons why a conversion is worth far more consideration now than in the past. First, a brief review of the basics. A Roth IRA has “back-ended tax benefits.” There are […]
Are Variable Annuities Safe?
First to fall were the homebuilders and mortgage companies. Then the investment banks and a few commercial banks tumbled. Next in line in the financial crisis might be insurance companies. Insurers, especially those that issue a lot of variable annuities, are under scrutiny and facing skepticism about their financial stability. The focus of attention lately […]
October – December 2008
RMD Relief for 2009, not 2008 December 19, 2008 05:00 p.m. Many IRAs experienced steep declines in their values in 2008. This can put a strain on those over age 70½. They are required to take minimum distributions from their IRAs and other qualified retirement accounts based on their values as of Dec. 31, 2007. […]
The Crisis and Money Market Funds
Once we left the 1980s behind, I thought this issue would not be addressed again. But for the second consecutive month we are having a discussion about when your money is insured by the government or an entity created by it. Money market funds are this month’s focus. Traditionally a money fund is where you […]
