Beneficiary Designation

I recommend using this format: John Smith IRA/ Deceased 1/1/2009/ FBO (for the benefit of) Mary Smith as beneficiary. Make sure that the financial institutions gets the titling right not only on the statements it sends to you, but also on the internal records it uses for reports to the IRS, he says. Some large [...]

Beneficiary designation is critical to your estate plan especially when naming who gets the proceeds of your life insurance proceeds and your retirement plans. These funds are transferred directly to the people you name without going through probate. A spouse has the option of rolling over retirement monies into his or her IRA. Required distributions [...]

In 2010 the income limitation for converting traditional IRA to a Roth IRA will be eliminated. Furthermore, one half of the conversion income can be reported in 2011 and the final one half of conversion income can be reported in 2012. Whether paying the tax for future tax free withdrawals depends on many factors, but [...]