Managing financial issues after death of a spouse

Managing Financial issues after Death of Spouse

August 9, 2021

Managing financial issues that arise after the death of a spouse range from the simple—figuring out how to access online bill payment for utilities—to the complex—understanding estate and inheritance taxes. The first year after the death of a spouse is a time when surviving spouses are often fragile and vulnerable. It’s not the time to make any major financial or life decisions, says the article “The Financial Effects of Losing a Spouse” from Yahoo! Finance.

Tax implications following the death of a spouse. A drop in household income often means the surviving spouse needs to withdraw money from retirement accounts. While taxes may be lowered because of the drop in income, withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s that are not Roth accounts are taxable. However, less income might mean that the surviving spouse’s income is low enough to qualify for certain tax deductions or credits that otherwise they would not be eligible for.

Surviving spouses eventually have a different filing status. As long as the surviving spouse has not remarried in the year of death of their spouse, they are permitted to file a federal joint tax return. This may be an option for two more years, if there is a dependent child. However, after that, taxes must be filed as a single taxpayer, which means tax rates are not as favorable as they are for a couple filing jointly. The standard deduction is also lowered for a single person.

If the spouse inherits a traditional IRA, the surviving spouse may elect to be designated as the account owner, roll funds into their own retirement account, or be treated as a beneficiary. Which option is chosen will impact both the required minimum distribution (RMD) and the surviving spouse’s taxable income. If the spouse decides to become the designated owner of the original account or rolls the account into their own IRA, they may take RMDs based on their own life expectancy. If they chose the beneficiary route, RMDs are based on the life expectancy of the deceased spouse. Most people opt to roll the IRA into their own IRA or transfer it into an account in their own name.

The surviving spouse receives a stepped-up basis in other inherited property. If the assets are held jointly between spouses, there’s a step up in one half of the basis. However, if the asset was owned solely by the deceased spouse, the step up is 100%. In community property states, the total fair market value of property, including the portion that belongs to the surviving spouse, becomes the basis for the entire property, if at least half of its value is included in the deceased spouse’s gross estate. Your estate planning attorney will help prepare for this beforehand, or help you navigate this issue after the death of a spouse.

It should be noted there is a special rule that helps surviving spouses who wish to sell their home. Up to $250,000 of gain from the sale of a principal residence is tax-free, if certain conditions are met. The exemption increases to $500,000 for married couples filing a joint return, but a surviving spouse who has not remarried may still claim the $500,000 exemption, if the home is sold within two years of the spouses’ passing.

There is an unlimited marital deduction in addition to the current $11.7 million estate tax exemption. If the deceased’s estate is not near that amount, the surviving spouse should file form 706 to elect portability of their deceased spouse’s unused exemption. This protects the surviving spouse if the exemption is lowered, which may happen in the near future. If you don’t file in a timely manner, you’ll lose this exemption, so don’t neglect this task. Managing financial issues after the death of your spouse can be overwhelming. Work closely with an experienced estate planning attorney who is familiar with complex financial issues related to probate.

If you would like to read more about issues related to probate, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Yahoo! Finance (July 16, 2021) “The Financial Effects of Losing a Spouse”

Roth IRA a Good Choice for Retirement

July 28, 2021

While it may seem like only the ultra-wealthy benefit from a Roth IRA, this retirement tool is an excellent tax shelter that anyone can use, reports CNBC.com in the recent article “The ultra-wealthy have made full use of Roth individual retirement accounts. Here’s how you can do the same.” One of PayPal’s founders, Peter Thiel, had $5 billion in a Roth IRA as of 2019, according to a ProPublica report. It said that he used a self-directed Roth account, which allows the owner to hold alternative assets, like shares in a private company or real estate that generally can’t be placed in a regular Roth. A Roth IRA is a good choice for retirement income.

Traditional 401(k) plans and IRAs offer a tax break, when contributions are made. Taxes are paid upon withdrawal, which is supposed to happen only after a certain age when you’ve retired. By contrast, the Roth versions of the 401(k) and IRA don’t have the tax break up front—you have to pay taxes on the money or assets when making contributions—but there are no taxes paid upon withdrawal, and there are no required withdrawals, as there are with a traditional IRA and 401(k)s.

You pay income taxes on the money placed into the account, and then it grows tax free. You can take it out anytime, as long as the account has been owned for at least five years and you are age 59½ or older. Self-directed Roth IRAs permit tax-free growth and untaxed distributions plus investments can be made that are not available in regular Roth accounts.

Theil had private company shares in his self-directed Roth IRA, before PayPal was a publicly traded company. He benefited from both timing and savvy investment skills.

A self-directed Roth IRA is generally available only through specialized custodians. Brand-name financial companies don’t offer them. The custodians that hold self-directed IRAs do not manage the account or police what investments are placed into the accounts, so you’ll need the advice of a tax-savvy estate planning attorney to be sure you are following the rules. Note that there can also be valuation issues. The value of alternative assets is not as clear as publicly traded securities. You’ll need to get the value right, so you don’t break any tax laws. Once assets are in the account, you can sell them and use the proceeds to purchase other instruments in the account, all under the same tax-free Roth protection.

Even if you don’t use a self-directed Roth IRA, the standard Roth IRA yields many benefits. We don’t know what the future tax environment will be, but tax-free withdrawals in the future, combined with high-growth assets, make the Roth IRA a good choice for retirement nest eggs.

If you would like to read more about Roth IRAs and other retirement accounts, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: CNBC.com (June 24, 2021) “The ultra-wealthy have made full use of Roth individual retirement accounts. Here’s how you can do the same”

Who Inherits IRA if the Beneficiary Passes?

July 14, 2021

Retirement accounts need to have beneficiary designations to determine who inherits the funds when you pass. But who inherits an IRA if the beneficiary passes? Which estate would get the IRA when a non-spouse beneficiary inherits an IRA account but dies before the money is put in her name with no contingent beneficiaries can be complicated, says nj.com in the recent article entitled “Who gets this inherited IRA after the beneficiary dies?”

IRAs are usually transferred by a decedent through a beneficiary designation form.

As a review, a designated beneficiary is an individual who inherits an asset like the balance of an IRA after the death of the asset’s owner. The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act has restricted the rules for designated beneficiaries for required withdrawals from inherited retirement accounts.

Under the SECURE Act, a designated beneficiary is a person named as a beneficiary on a retirement account and who does not fall into one of five categories of individuals classified as an eligible designated beneficiary. The designated beneficiary must be a living person. While estates, most trusts, and charities can inherit retirement assets, they are considered to be a non-designated beneficiary for the purposes of determining required withdrawals.

Provided there is a named beneficiary, and the named beneficiary survived the owner of the IRA account, the named beneficiary inherits the account.

The executor or administrator of the beneficiary’s estate would be entitled to open an inherited IRA for the beneficiary because the beneficiary did not have the opportunity to open it before he or she passed away.

Next is the question of who inherits the IRA from the named beneficiary if she passes before naming her own beneficiary.

In that instance, the financial institution’s IRA plan documents would determine the beneficiary when no one is named. These rules usually say that it goes to the spouse or the estate of the deceased beneficiary.

If you are interested in learning more about beneficiary designations, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: nj.com (June 1, 2021) “Who gets this inherited IRA after the beneficiary dies?”

Consider taking RMDs at regular Intervals

July 12, 2021

There have been a number of changes to the requirements for RMDs—Required Minimum Distributions—from traditional retirement accounts, says a recent article titled “2 Essential Strategies for Taking Your RMDs” from Kiplinger. In 2019, the age for RMDs was raised from 70½ to 72. In 2020, they were waived altogether because of the pandemic. Now they’re back, and you want to know how to make good decisions about them. You might consider taking RMDs at regular intervals.

Most people take the default approach, taking a lump sum of cash at the start or the end of the year. This is not the best approach. Investment markets and your own need for income are better indicators for how and when to take your RMD. If you can at all avoid it, never take an RMD from a declining market.

You can take your RMD anytime during the calendar year, from January 1 to December 31. If it’s the first time you’ve taken an RMD, you get a bonus: you can wait until April 1 of the year after your 72^nd birthday. The RMD is calculated, by dividing the account balance on December 31 of the preceding year by your life expectancy factor, based on your age. You can find it in the IRS’s Uniform Lifetime Table.

2021 distributions will be bigger, and not just because of the market’s 2020 performance. Instead, distributions will be bigger because of how the accounts are designed, with RMDs becoming a larger percentage over time. It starts as a small percentage and eventually becomes the entire account, which is then depleted. Remember, the sole purpose of the RMD is to force retirees to take money out of their retirement accounts and pay taxes on the money.

Many retirees take RMDs because they need the money to live on. Here’s where money management gets tricky. It’s far easier to take smaller amounts of money at regular intervals, kind of like a paycheck, than taking a big amount once a year. We’re creatures of habit and are used to receiving income and managing it that way.

Distributions on a regular basis also fosters a better sense of how much money you have to live on, encouraging you to create and adhere to a budget.

If you don’t need the income, consider taking RMDs at regular intervals. It’s like the opposite of dollar-cost averaging. Instead of putting money into the market in small increments over time to even out market ups and downs, you’re taking money out of the market at regular intervals. You’re not cashing out at the market’s lowest point, or at the highest. And if you’re reinvesting RMDs in a taxable account, this strategy works especially well.

If you would like to learn more about RMDs and other topics related to retirement accounts, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Kiplinger (June 10, 2021) “2 Essential Strategies for Taking Your RMDs”

A trust is a good option when your children are minors

A Trust is an Option when Children are Minors

July 8, 2021

Let’s say that there’s a young father with a wife and young son, who owns a home and a Roth IRA account, with a few stock investments. On the stock investments, he’s filled out the beneficiary designation forms passing all his assets to his wife and son, should anything happen to him. This father owns his home is joint tenancy with right of survivorship with his wife. Does he need to set up a separate trust, if most of his assets pass through beneficiary designations? A trust is a good option when your children are minors.

Nj.com’s recent article entitled “Do I need a trust in case something happens to me?” says that leaving assets outright to a minor is typically a bad move. The son’s guardian and/or the court would take custody of the assets, both of which require significant court oversight and involvement.

The minor would also receive the assets upon attaining the age of majority, which in most states is age 18.

No one can tell what a young child will be like at the age of 18, especially after suffering the loss of their parents. Even if there are no significant issues, such as drug addiction or special needs, parents should think about what they’d have done with that much money at that age.

The best option is to leave assets in trust for the benefit of the minor son.

The trustee can manage and use the assets for the benefit of the young boy with limited court involvement.

The terms of the trust can also delay the point at which the assets can be distributed and ultimately paid over to the beneficiary, if at all.

For example, it’s not uncommon for a trust to stipulate that the beneficiary gets a third of the assets at 25, half of the remaining assets at 30 and the rest at age 35. However, other trusts don’t provide for such mandatory distributions and can hold the assets for the beneficiary’s lifetime, which has its advantages.

In some instances, the terms of the trust are included in a will. This creates a trust account after death, which is also called a testamentary trust.

If you have minor children, it is a good option to create a Trust. Talk to an experienced estate planning attorney, who can assess your specific situation and provide guidance in creating an estate plan. The attorney can also make certain that trust assets are correctly titled and that beneficiary designations of retirement accounts and life insurance are correctly prepared, so the trust under the will receives those assets and not the minor individually.

If you are interested in learning more about trusts and minor children, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: nj.com (June 14, 2021) “Do I need a trust in case something happens to me?”

How to Manage a Special Needs Trust

June 28, 2021

Special-needs trusts have been used for many years. However, there are two factors that are changing and parents need to be aware of them, says the article “Special-Needs Trusts: How They Work and What Has Changed” from The Wall Street Journal. For one thing, many people with disabilities and chronic illnesses are leading much longer lives because of medical advances. As a result, they are often outliving their parents and primary caregivers. This makes planning for the long term more critical. Second, there have been significant changes in tax laws, specifically laws concerning inherited retirement accounts. With the changes that are occurring, it is important to understand how to manage a special needs trust.

Special needs planning has never been easy because of the many unknowns. How much care will be needed? How much will it cost? How long will the special needs individual live? Tax rules are complex and coordinating special needs planning with estate planning can be a challenge. A 2018 study from the University of Illinois found that less than 50% of parents of children with disabilities had planned for their children’s future. Parents who had not done any planning told researchers they were just overwhelmed.

Here are some of the basics:

A Special-Needs Trust, or SNT, is created to protect the assets of a person with a disability, including mental or physical conditions. The trust may be used to pay for various goods and services, including medical equipment, education, home furnishings, etc.

A trustee is appointed to manage all and any spending in the special needs trust . The beneficiary has no control over assets inside the trust. The assets are not owned by the beneficiary, so the beneficiary should continue to be eligible for government programs that limit assets, including Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid.

There are different types of Special Needs Trusts: pooled, first party and third party. They are not simple entities to create, so it’s important to work with an experienced estate elder law attorney who is familiar with these trusts.

To fund the trust after parents have passed, they could name the Special Needs Trust as the beneficiary of their IRA, so withdrawals from the account would be paid to the trust to benefit their child. There will be required minimum distributions (RMDs), because the IRA would become an Inherited IRA and the trust would need to take distributions.

The SECURE Act from 2019 ended the ability to stretch out RMDs for inherited traditional IRAs from lifetime to ten years. However, the SECURE Act created exceptions: individuals who are disabled or chronically ill are still permitted to take distributions over their lifetimes. This has to be done correctly, or it won’t work. However, done correctly, it could provide income over the special needs individual’s lifetime.

The strategy assumes that the SNT beneficiary is disabled or chronically ill, according to the terms of the tax code. The terms are defined very strictly and may not be the same as the requirements for SSI or Medicaid.

The traditional IRA may or may not be the best way to fund an SNT. It may create larger distributions than are permitted by the SNT or create large tax bills. Roth IRAs or life insurance may be the better options.

The goal is to exchange assets, like traditional IRAs, for more tax-efficient assets to reach post-death planning solutions for the special needs individual, long after their parents and caregivers have passed. Work closely with an Elder Law attorney who has experience educating clients on how to manage a special needs trust.

If you would like to learn more about special needs planning, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (June 3, 2021) “Special-Needs Trusts: How They Work and What Has Changed”

Roth IRAs are an ideal Planning Tool

June 23, 2021

Think Advisor’s recent article entitled “Secure Act 2.0, Biden Tax Hike Plans Make Roth IRAs a Crucial Tool” says that Roth IRAs are an ideal planning tool, and that the Secure Act 2.0 retirement bill (which is expected to pass) will create an even wider window for Roth IRA planning.

With President Biden’s proposed tax increases, it is wise to leverage Roth conversions and other strategies while tax rates are historically low—and the original Secure Act of 2019 made Roth IRAs particularly valuable for estate planning.

Roth Conversions and Low Tax Rates. Though tax rates for some individuals may increase under the Biden tax proposals, rates for 2021 are currently at historically low levels under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed at the end of 2017. This makes Roth IRA conversions attractive. You will pay less in taxes on the conversion of the same amount than you would have prior to the 2017 tax overhaul. It can be smart to make a conversion in an amount that will let you “fill up” your current federal tax bracket.

Reduce Future RMDs. The money in a Roth IRA is not subject to RMDs. Money contributed to a Roth IRA directly and money contributed to a Roth 401(k) and later rolled over to a Roth IRA can be allowed to grow beyond age 72 (when RMDs are currently required to start). For those who do not need the money and who prefer not to pay the taxes on RMDs, Roth IRAs have this flexibility. No RMD requirement also lets the Roth account to continue to grow tax-free, so this money can be passed on to a spouse or other beneficiaries at your death.

The Securing a Strong Retirement Act, known as the Secure Act 2.0, would gradually raise the age for RMDs to start to 75 by 2032. The first step would be effective January 1, 2022, moving the starting age to 73. If passed, this provision would provide extra time for Roth conversions and Roth contributions to help retirees permanently avoid RMDs.

Tax Diversification. Roth IRAs provide tax diversification. For those with a significant amount of their retirement assets in traditional IRA and 401(k) accounts, this can be an important planning tool as you approach retirement. The ability to withdraw funds on a tax-free basis from your Roth IRA can help provide tax planning options in the face of an uncertain future regarding tax rates.

Estate Planning and the Secure Act. Roth IRAs have long been a super estate planning vehicle because there is no RMD requirement. This lets the Roth assets continue to grow tax-free for the account holder’s beneficiaries. Moreover, this tax-free status has taken on another dimension with the inherited IRA rules under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act. The legislation eliminates the stretch IRA for inherited IRAs for most non-spousal beneficiaries. As a result, these beneficiaries have to withdraw the entire amount in an inherited IRA within 10 years of inheriting the account. Inherited Roth IRAs are also subject to the 10-year rule, but the withdrawals can be made tax-free by account beneficiaries, if the original account owner had met the 5-year rule prior to his or her death. This makes Roth IRAs an ideal estate planning tool in situations where your beneficiaries are non-spouses who do not qualify as eligible designated beneficiaries.

If you would like to learn more about the role of retirement accounts play in estate planning, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Think Advisor (May 11, 2021) “Secure Act 2.0, Biden Tax Hike Plans Make Roth IRAs a Crucial Tool”

Category: ROTH IRA

Managing Financial issues after Death of Spouse

Roth IRA a Good Choice for Retirement

Who Inherits IRA if the Beneficiary Passes?

Consider taking RMDs at regular Intervals

A Trust is an Option when Children are Minors

How to Manage a Special Needs Trust

Roth IRAs are an ideal Planning Tool

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