Estate Management

Before you say, “Oh, that doesn’t sound too hard,” you simply haven’t thought of the complexity.

While not the most favorable RMD rules imaginable, I’m sure it is still a relief to know that you don’t need to navigate the new SECURE Act rules just because you dissolved the trust.

“I’m 19 years old. How do I inherit a 401(k) from my aunt?”

The short answer is that most taxable distributions from inherited IRAs are taxed at the the child / beneficiary’s income tax rate. The longer answer is that there are multiple chances for inheritance to be taxed.

Roth conversions can only be performed during the IRA owner’s lifetime.

Beneficiary designations directly to your heirs are a cleaner estate planning solution.

If you inherit a traditional IRA from a person who had a basis in the IRA because of nondeductible contributions, that basis remains with the IRA assets as they come into your ownership.

Oddly enough, how a trust inherits an IRA is as important as what it does with the IRA after receiving it.

This is intended to be a brief overview of what you should do once you realize you are overseeing an estate.

The required IRA distribution in the year the account owner dies is called a Year of Death RMD.

There is unique tax planning involved though when an age 70 1/2 IRA owner was younger than the beneficiary.

Although you can have second generation beneficiaries, the first non-spouse designated beneficiary is the last one to receive a new RMD divisor calculation.

Inherited RMD rules demonstrates the power and importance of beneficiary designations and why it is so important to set them.

Funeral expenses are often a family’s fourth largest expense.

You’ve been named the executor of a relative’s will – now what?

It is often said that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. The IRS takes that truism to heart.

There is no accounting for how many heirs an account might need to be divided among in an estate plan. Here are the best practices for how to divide the estate.