Photo credit: jb You’ve likely heard the conventional wisdom – “when you leave your job, you should roll over your retirement account”. You may know that it makes sense (or at least you assume it makes sense), but do you know…

Photo credit: jb We’re here in the midst of tax season, and some of you may be wondering about tax credits. Some tax credits are more valuable than others, something a lot of folks don’t realize. Most tax credits are not…

Many of us are covered by one or more types of defined contribution retirement plans, such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or any of a number of other plans. What many of these plans have in common is that they are…

Photo credit: jb Employers have been giving us lots of opportunities to make this decision of late: when leaving an employer, whether voluntarily or otherwise, we have the opportunity to rollover the qualified retirement plan (QRP) such as a 401(k) from…

Photo credit: jb For many folks, starting to receive Social Security as early as possible is important – even if they’re still actively working and earning a paycheck. The desire to start receiving that Social Security benefit as soon as possible…

Did you know that there is a specific order for distributions from your Roth IRA? The Internal Revenue Service has set up a group of rules to determine the order of money, by source, as it is distributed from your account.…

In a recent news release (IR-2024-306), the IRS warns about scams you need to be aware of, really heinous contacts where the scammers pretend to be the  IRS. But here’s one key takeaway: the IRS doesn’t use email (or text messages)…

In case you don’t know what a 72t distribution is, this is shorthand for the Internal Revenue Code Section 72 part t (or IRC §72(t) for short), and the most popular provision of this code section is known as a Series…

Photo credit: jb All future Social Security recipients face this question at some point: When should I file for benefits? As you are likely aware, age 62 is the earliest that you can file for retirement benefits. By filing at this…

Photo credit: jb In what some, including myself, may find a surprising move, recently Congress approved a measure to completely eliminate the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. The President has signed this bill into law. What this means is…

Financial planning often requires us to face our own certain demise – something that we never wanted to do, but still a certainty that we all must face. Among the things that we want to do when planning for the inevitable…

When you have a 401(k) plan that contains stock in your company, there is a special provision in the tax law that may be beneficial to you. This special provision is called Net Unrealized Appreciation, or NUA, treatment. It allows you…

Photo credit: jb Have you ever wondered if it was actually necessary to file a tax return? Perhaps your income is relatively low, and so you wonder if it’s really required of you to file a return. Often it’s not entirely…

Note: you can find the first part of this discussion of Social Security Survivor Benefits at the link. Part 1 covered the basics of Survivor Benefits, and this article covers other considerations with the Survivor Benefit, including non-spouse survivor’s benefits and…

In a previous article we reviewed the very confusing  Social Security Spousal Benefit. That article raised a lot of questions from readers about another confusing provision of the Social Security system: the Survivor Benefit. As with all of these discussions, don’t…

Photo credit: jb Qualified Retirement Plans (QRPs), which include 401(k), 403(b) and many other employer-based plans, are governed by federal law under ERISA. One of the tenets of ERISA is that there are certain rights for the spouse of the employee-participant…

Photo credit: jb Note: with the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law, File & Suspend and Restricted Application have been effectively eliminated for anyone born in 1954 or later. If born before 1954 there are some options…

Photo credit: jb Most of the time, when taking a distribution from a 401(k) or other Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP) prior to age 59½, there generally is a 10% penalty that applies. That is, unless one of the exceptions applies. If…

Photo credit: jb One of the provisions that is available to the individual who inherits a 401(k) or other Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP) is the ability to convert the fund to a Roth IRA. This gives the beneficiary of the original…