INHERITED IRA RULES: Avoid Costly Mistakes and Minimize

INHERITED IRA RULES: Avoid Costly Mistakes and Minimize Inheritance Taxes with Stretch IRAs and Roth IRAs

Do you have an individual retirement account (IRA) that you're planning to leave to your heirs? Or do you expect to inherit an IRA from a parent, relative or friend at some point in the future? Since retirement accounts make up the majority of many peopleâ€™s estates, you probably answered â€œyesâ€ to one, or both, of these questions.

If so, NOW â€“ not later -- is the time to understand the IRA beneficiary rules and options.

Why? Because one wrong decision can lead to expensive consequences. Unfortunately, many owners of IRAs and their financial advisors are not aware of all of the various rules â€“ and time limits - regarding inheriting an IRA.

However, not taking the time to understand these rules is crucial mistake that can have disastrous consequences. If you inherit an IRA, you'll have some important decisions to make and strict deadlines for making them. Making the wrong choice or not making a choice by a deadline, could trigger an unnecessary tax bill and result in forfeiting the opportunity for future tax-advantaged growth. One wrong move and the entire IRA could be taxed - rather than tax-deferred.

Mistakes are painfully common when IRAs are passed to heirs. Even financial professionals don't always know the rules. Since IRAs are a fairly new retirement vehicle, we are in the first generation of dealing with inherited IRAs. Many advisors are just not up to speed on the rules.

Donâ€™t count on your accountâ€™s custodian to provide customized advice either. While some custodians are more versed in the maze of rules surrounding inherited IRAs than others, IRA custodians are not in the business of advising beneficiaries or their best moves. They are not tax experts or comprehensive financial planners.

The problem is that a mistake made on the part of the custodian, or bad advice, leaves beneficiaries holding the bag and footing the tax bill.

Author and Financial Planning expert, Lisa Hay, CPA, has written this user-friendly guide to help you navigate the labyrinth of rules regarding inherited IRAs, and ensure that your inheritance is not diminished by paying unnecessary taxes.

This book is organized into seven chapters: The first chapter provides general information on inherited IRAs, the second and third chapters provide additional details regarding applicable rules for Inherited Roth IRAs and Traditional IRAs, respectively. The last four chapters are broken down into the following categories with specific options for each of the four categories:
â€¢Traditional IRAs â€“ Spouse
â€¢Traditional IRAs â€“ Non-spouse
â€¢Roth IRAs â€“ Spouse
â€¢Roth IRAs â€“ Non-spouse

Within each of the above four chapters, various options are discussed, with detailed discussions regarding the specifics of account type, when money will be available and other important considerations.

In addition, for Traditional IRAs, options which be broken down based on whether the account owner was under or over age 70Â½.

The appendix provides key dates you should keep in mind to make sure you meet the IRS deadlines that apply to the options you choose.

Country	USA
Author	Lisa G. Hay CPA CFP
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	A Precious Gift, LLC
Manufacturer	A Precious Gift, LLC
NumberOfPages	67
PublicationDate	2014-01-17
Publisher	A Precious Gift, LLC
ReleaseDate	2014-01-17
Studio	A Precious Gift, LLC

INHERITED IRA RULES: Avoid Costly Mistakes and Minimize Inheritance Taxes with Stretch IRAs and Roth IRAs

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