Often, estate planners and elder law attorneys are faced with the challenge of trying to protect an aging client who's gradually descending into dementia or becoming emotionally needy, making him vulnerable to unscrupulous caregivers, friends...
Last month's column discussed why clients with college-bound children should not only permit themselves to borrow money to pay for education expenses, but should even be encouraged by you to do so. Since that time, dozens of education loan...
April's column discussed charitable lead trusts, and why the vehicles might be an optimal solution for wealthy clients who wish to give more money to charity in the near-term and family in the long-term, and less to Uncle Sam forever. But CLTs...
Want some insurance with that managed account? Or how about wrapped around your target-date mutual fund? A number of companies are rolling out new hybrid products that wrap a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit around such managed investment...
Few things in the tax code are clearer than this: A surviving spouse named as the beneficiary of retirement plan death benefits of a deceased spouse can roll those death benefits into her own individual retirement accounts (IRA). But one...
In a move that generated considerable joy and surprise,1 the Internal Revenue Service announced in Notice 2008-30 that beginning this year, a decedent's qualified retirement account can be directly rolled over into a Roth individual retirement...
Given a choice, most of your clients would rather pay for their kids' college education from accumulated savings or an overabundance of current income (if not a full ride based on the child's expertise at Guitar Hero). But when those sources of...
It is a delicious bit of irony that the high-income earners who usually foot a disproportionate share of the federal income-tax bill are also (by definition) precluded from funding a Roth IRA. Therefore, their income-tax rate during retirement may...
The 97.5 million viewers who tuned into this year's Super Bowl got a little dose of retirement reality from AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, which spent its entire broadcast advertising budget for 2007 and 2008 on the sports event. In the...
The Roth IRA turns 10 years old in 2008, and chances are that some of your clients are among the 17 million Roth IRA owners who would happily celebrate if a birthday party of sorts were thrown. But you probably have an equal number of clients who...
