Posts Categorized: Retirement Planning

What You Must Know About Your Right to Your Spouse’s Retirement Benefits

If you are part of a blended family, navigating the complexities of estate planning is crucial to ensure your assets are distributed according to your wishes. Managing considerations such as holiday arrangements for children and planning family vacations is part of the routine. However, it’s equally important to address the fate of your assets, particularly retirement assets, through careful planning.

In the context of blended families, failing to establish a clear plan for your assets before your passing means that the law will dictate the distribution, potentially conflicting with your intentions. This oversight, especially in the case of retirement assets, can lead to significant financial consequences for your loved ones and even result in prolonged and costly conflicts. READ MORE

Have You Thought Through Your Retirement Plans?

Beginning your retirement is a great milestone that is worth celebrating. You have put in many years of hard work, and you are now able to focus your energy on the next phase of your life. However, before you begin this next chapter, you need to make sure that you have fully thought through this exciting change in your life.

Having a properly executed and legally binding estate plan is a great first step toward ensuring that you and your loved ones are cared for. However, estate planning is not a one-and-done event. It is important that you review your plan every year or so, especially after major life events such as the beginning of your retirement. When considering your existing plan, ask yourself the following key questions: READ MORE

Key Milestones For Planning Your Retirement

The key to having a comfortable retirement is to save as much as possible as early in your career as possible. Time, tax breaks, and compounding interest all add up, and by getting into the habit of saving when you are young, it will be exponentially easier to reach vital retirement goals as you get older.

With this in mind, one of the most important things you can do at this age is to take full advantage of employer-sponsored retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, and other tax-advantaged plans, especially if your employer offers a match. A common rule of thumb is that you should save at least 15% of your pre-tax income each year. If that’s not possible, then save as much as you can – and at least enough to get the full benefit of your employer’s matching contribution if one is offered.  READ MORE

The SECURE Act’s Impact On Estate and Retirement Planning—Part 1

The changes ushered in by the SECURE Act have dramatic implications for both your retirement and estate planning strategies—and not all of them are positive. While the law includes a number of taxpayer-friendly measures to boost your ability to save for retirement, it also contains provisions that could have disastrous effects on planning strategies families have used for years to protect and pass on assets contained in retirement accounts. READ MORE

The SECURE Act: How Does It Affect Your Retirement Accounts?

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act), which became effective on January 1, 2020. The Act is the most impactful legislation affecting retirement accounts in decades. It will have a positive impact for many older Americans but could have negative tax consequences for many beneficiaries of their retirement accounts. READ MORE

The Silent Threat to Your Estate Plan

It is common knowledge that everyone needs to have an estate plan in place. Commonly, the focus is on assets, taxes, and any changes to legislation that may affect the security of your loved ones in the event of your incapacity or death. What many often forget, however, is that changes in family dynamics and READ MORE

5 Reasons to Protect Your Retirement Accounts Now

During your lifetime, your retirement account has good asset protection, but as soon as you pass that account to a loved one, that protection evaporates. This means one lawsuit and POOF! Your life long, hard earned savings could be gone. Your heirs could be left penniless.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. A special trust called a “Standalone Retirement Trust” (SRT) can protect inherited retirement accounts from your beneficiaries’ creditors. READ MORE

Estate Planning Considerations for Benefits Open Enrollment

The fall, generally late-October or early-November, is the time when employers send out summaries of employee benefits offered by the company and give employees the option to enroll in these benefits. If you are contemplating new benefits and changes to your beneficiaries, give me a call so I can ensure your beneficiary designations work as expected with your current estate plan. READ MORE

Your 2018 Taxes – Get Started Now

While we are not yet at the end of the year, even though it is fast approaching, now is a great time to take a moment and start your year-end tax planning for 2018. It is particularly necessary this tax year because of the changes to the tax law that became effective in 2018. READ MORE

Rewarding Your Employees By Giving Them the Business

Retiring from your business can a tough decision. To ensure that what you have built continues on, there needs to be a plan for succession. For some people, they have spent years grooming a child or other family member to take over, wanting the business to stay in the family. Others look to sell to a third party for a quick way out that will also give them a nest egg for their next phase of life. However, there is a third option–transferring the business to your employees. READ MORE

Retirement Planning for Business Owners

When you are the owner of a business, planning for retirement requires proactivity and strategy. It’s not just the dizzying array of choices for retirement accounts, there’s also planning for the business itself. Who will run the business after your retirement? Additionally, your estate plan must integrate into your retirement and business transition strategy. READ MORE

Protecting Your Children’s Inheritance When You are Divorced

Consider this story. Beth’s divorce from her husband was recently finalized. Her most valuable assets are her retirement plan at work and her life insurance policy. She updated the beneficiary designations on both to be her two minor children. She did not want her ex-husband to receive the money.

Beth passes away one year after her divorce. Her children are still minors, so the retirement plan and insurance company require an adult to be appointed to receive the inheritance Beth left behind. Who does the court presumptively look to serve as the caretaker of this money? Beth’s ex-husband who is now the only living parent of the children. (In some states, this caretaker of the money is called a guardian, whereas in others it is the conservator. The title does not matter as much as the role, which is to manage the funds on behalf of a minor, since the minor is not legally able to handle significant assets or money.)

Sadly, stories like Beth’s are all too familiar for the loved ones of divorced people who do not make effective use of the estate planning tools. Naming a beneficiary for retirement benefits or life insurance, or having a Will can be a good start. However, the complexities of relationships, post-divorce, often render these basic tools inadequate. Luckily, there is a way to protect and control your children’s inheritance fully. READ MORE