Missives

A new Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule has been published that would cover advice to roll retirement funds into an IRA which is intended to address perceived conflicts of interest.

Protecting a trust beneficiary’s interest in a Trust in a divorce proceeding is becoming more and more difficult as states seem to ignore separate property principles.

A backdoor Roth IRA conversion should be of interest to high earners who do not qualify to contribute under the current Roth IRA earned income rules,

We all know about the 10% excise tax, aka penalty, for taking a distribution from an IRA prior to age 59 ½. We are also aware of the several statutory exceptions to this excise tax, although keeping these exceptions, or safe harbors, straight in our minds can be more of a challenge.

Charities might consider revisiting their gift-acceptance-policies to include cryptocurrency.

While making qualified charitable contributions (QCDs) has become a highly popular way to carry out charitable giving objectives while at the same time reducing taxable required minimum distributions (RMDs), not to be forgotten are the aggregation/offset QCD limitations.

If Mr. Trump is re-elected President, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is adopted by his administration, there will be a profound impact on tax planning as we know it.

With employers now being offered some tax credits to induce them to adopt a retirement plan for their employees, they may be faced with a choice of establishing either a SEP IRA plan or a SIMPLE IRA plan.

Missing a required minimum distribution (RMD) is not Armageddon. There still is hope.

SLATs make a lot of sense to remove assets and their appreciation from a taxable estate. You just have to be careful to avoid all of the ‘traps’ along the way.