Planning, planning, it’s all about planning when your goal is retirement. When you hang up your career, you don’t want any surprises, or at least as few as possible. In the 21st century, retirement is completely different than it’s ever been. As a kid, I saw people retire after working 40 or 50 years for the same company. On their [...]
Death tax, inheritance tax, estate tax—call it what you will, they all mean that some government entity wants to put its hand in your pocket or your heirs’ pockets, after your demise. On the federal level, the estate tax issue is not as big a deal as it was back in the day. Today individuals can pass on more than [...]
The IRA is a great retirement savings vehicle; money grows on a tax-deferred basis and that’s a good thing. Eventually, though, you have to pay the IRS piper when you choose to withdraw funds for retirement or when you’re forced to withdraw the Required Minimum Distribution at age 72. Let’s be clear. You can take money from your IRA anytime [...]
You’ve done all the planning. Your trust is set up. You’re comfortable that your estate will be distributed exactly as you want. There’s just one more decision to make—an important one. Who should be the trustee? James J. Ferraro, JD is vice president and legal counsel at Argent Trust Company. He says there is much to consider when choosing a [...]
You spend a lifetime earning, saving, acquiring. But the old adage is true—you can’t take it with you. So, what do you do with your assets when you’re gone? How do you want them distributed? That’s where a good estate plan comes in. However, some estate plans are based on ideas that just aren’t true. Plans are made based on [...]
What to do? What to do? The 2020 presidential election is just around the corner and questions are being asked about how to protect your wealth, no matter who’s elected. Each candidate has broadly divergent views about income taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes; how much you keep, and how much the government will come after. With that in mind, [...]
Oh, my! I cringe every time I hear that someone has added their kids’ names to the deed of their house as an estate planning technique. It’s done for the right reasons, but it often backfires. Sometimes, elderly people will add kids to the deed, thinking they’re removing the house from their assets in order to become Medicaid-eligible. Unfortunately, there [...]
If you turn 60 years old in 2020, your Social Security benefit may get hit with a double-whammy. People turning 60 this year are at the tail end of the Baby Boom generation, and the first Americans ever required to wait until age 67 to receive full Social Security benefits. Older Boomers have been able to claim full benefits at [...]
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