True story: a decedent's trust had been named beneficiary of an individual retirement account (IRA.) While the trust beneficiaries were busy arguing over who was going to get what piece of the trust, the trustee, who was the decedent's surviving...
You’ve heard it a million times. There are lots of folks who are simply not prepared for retirement. But there’s an added complication for married couples: husbands and wives often have very different outlooks on, and expectations for...
It’s not exactly ground breaking news that Americans have a major retirement and savings problem. But next month, a group of Wall Street executives will meet with leaders in Washington D.C. to discuss a game plan to address those problems&...
How much is enough for a comfortable retirement? It’s a vexing question, particularly now that the vast baby boomer cohort is beginning to realize that they could live well into their 80s, 90s and even past 100.
The Internal Revenue Code and regulations allow a beneficiary of a pension plan to stretch out required minimum distributions (RMDs) over her life expectancy. This is an important tax benefit, because the beneficiary is taxed only on payments as...
If you’re thinking of recommending a target-date fund to an individual or small-business client, or if any of your clients already own one—and considering their burgeoning popularity, they probably do—you better take a good, long...
Back in the day, being an institutional consultant was cool. Retail advisor? Ha, that was crawling on your belly. Well, today, the institutional pension plan is essentially dead (or, put another way, no business is going to go out and create a new...
Clients are bombarding you with cost-basis questions. There's a steady stream of new directives from It's becoming impossible to find a couple hours a day to figure out the office's NCAA pool. But it might behoove you to put down the brackets and...
Want to goose your revenues? Of course you do. But how? For an increasing number of advisors, one solution is targeting small companies' 401(k) plans. There are a host of services you can provide, anything from setting up the plan and choosing the...
Christopher R. Hoyt, professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, and Bruce D. Steiner, attorney in the New York office of Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C., give us this lowdown on Notice 2007-5, 2007-5 IRB 1. With...