Over the years I’ve had clients who knew they’d been named in estate planning documents as executor of an estate, and I’ve had others who found out only after a relative died that they had to settle an estate. In most cases, I’d get a call asking, “What do...
For adults, planning for retirement is a life-long pursuit. We have dreams of a wonderful lifestyle after saying goodbye to our careers. We never expect to be dependent on our kids, or the government or anyone else. This is what we’ve worked for. Unfortunately, almost half of retirees discover...
Planning for retirement. We spend most of our working career preparing for it, saving for it, covering every contingency. When you finally wave goodbye to the company, you’re ready for all that planning to take over. But does your planning take into account the taxes you’ll have to pay...
Planning, planning, it’s all about planning when your goal is retirement. When you hang up your career, you don’t want any surprises, or at least as few as possible. In the 21st century, retirement is completely different than it’s ever been.
As a kid, I saw people retire after working...
Death tax, inheritance tax, estate tax—call it what you will, they all mean that some government entity wants to put its hand in your pocket or your heirs’ pockets, after your demise.
On the federal level, the estate tax issue is not as big a deal as it was back...
The IRA is a great retirement savings vehicle; money grows on a tax-deferred basis and that’s a good thing. Eventually, though, you have to pay the IRS piper when you choose to withdraw funds for retirement or when you’re forced to withdraw the Required Minimum Distribution at age 72.
Let’s...
You’ve done all the planning. Your trust is set up. You’re comfortable that your estate will be distributed exactly as you want. There’s just one more decision to make—an important one. Who should be the trustee?
James J. Ferraro, JD is vice president and legal counsel at Argent Trust Company....