Anyone can seem like a good financial advisor when markets are doing well. The expectation investors have when investing in capital markets is to make money, so when expectations are easy to meet, the bar tends to be set pretty low. However, it’s downturns in the markets that separate great financial advisors from mediocre ones. It’s times like these when people may wonder what their financial advisor is doing during this bear market.
Pre-tax retirement plans have been a favored vehicle of investors and financial advisors for many years. As a financial advisor, I have held the opinion that these plans are one of the, if not the, best way to save for retirement.
In my opinion, Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) are one of the most underutilized tax strategies around today. This is especially true considering the increased standard deduction amount implemented by the “Trump Tax Law.” Those who qualify and are already giving to charity often get significant tax savings with little-to-no downside by utilizing them. In this article, I will go through some basics of QCDs and three ways they can save taxpayer's money.
Two things in life are certain: death and taxes, but have you ever considered the impact your death has on the taxability of your things? Depending on how you are saving, you could potentially be passing a tax obligation onto your heirs.
If I could only contribute to one retirement account for the rest of my working career, it would be a Roth IRA or Roth 401k. Although there are many benefits to a Roth IRA, there are three benefits that I find to be most intriguing. On top of the benefits I lay out below, you will be pleased to hear that in recent years employers have made the Roth 401k more accessible and the contribution limit on Roth IRAs has increased!
The SECURE ACT was enacted on January 1, 2020. While it has been a few years since the act was passed, the effect of the largest retirement reform since 2006 is still being felt today. One of the major changes was the implementation of new required minimum distribution (commonly known as RMD) rules for Inherited IRAs. I like to call this the death of the Stretch IRA. First, let’s establish that an inherited IRA is when a loved one or family member dies with money left in their IRA, 401K, or even 403B, and you are named as a beneficiary. The funds are passed on to you through a vehicle called an Inherited IRA.
Stellantis, formally Chrysler, employees will be eligible to receive annual profit-sharing. As a result, approximately 40,500 U.S. hourly workers will receive up to $14,760 in profit sharing.
Business owners have a great deal of responsibilities to contend with on a day-to-day basis. As a business owner myself, I can understand and appreciate the sometimes overwhelming list of tasks that need to be done. Among that list, usually somewhere near the bottom, is the process of setting up a retirement plan for yourself and your employees. Although setting up a plan does involve some work on the part of business owners, it does not necessarily need to be a time-consuming or expensive proposition.