Tag: Congress

Conference Call: What you need to know about the SECURE Act

New IRA rules benefit the living, but not so much their survivors. The May 2019 SECURE Act restricts the tax-advantage IRAs that were benefiting spouses, children, and even grandchildren. In a conference call today with McManus & Associates clients, the firm’s Founding Principal John O. McManus educates on the Act’s changes to IRAs and how estate planning strategies should be modified as a result. Listen to the discussion by hitting play, and review an overview of the discussion with the outline below.

1.    The SECURE Act is here.

The Setting Up Every Community for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) as H.R. 1994, where it was passed by a 417-3 vote in May, 2019. It was then attached to the Senate’s end-of-year appropriations act, and thereafter signed into law by President Trump right before the end of the year. It has officially taken effect with the start of 2020.

2.    The SECURE Act is being pitched as a means of making retirement more attainable for more Americans.

Lawmakers have prominently highlighted the delay of the beginning age for required minimum distributions from 70½ to 72 and the elimination of the prohibition on contributions to an IRA after age 70½.

3.    The touted benefits of the SECURE Act are derived from the termination of the “stretch” (at a potential cost to your family).

To offset the budgetary impact of these modifications, the Act ends the “stretch” provision of IRAs and 401(k) plans. This means that, with some exceptions, the distributions of IRAs and other qualified retirement plans must be made to beneficiaries within 10 years of the death of the participant, instead of over the beneficiary’s lifetime.

4.    This change now demands a shift in the estate planning best practices.

The benefits of designating grandchildren or significantly younger children as the beneficiaries of retirement accounts, rather than older, financially independent children, are significantly diminished because they will no longer benefit from tax-deferred growth over the course of their (longer) lifetimes.

5.    There are now increased concerns about the use of “conduit trusts” under a Will or Revocable Trust.

If you have implemented a conduit trust as part of your estate plan, the lump sum distribution of the retirement account in the tenth year exposes the net proceeds to marital issues, litigation, creditors, and other attacks.

6.    Consider an accumulation trust instead.

In most cases, it continues to be advisable to deploy an accumulation trust under a Will or Revocable Trust in order to best secure the proceeds of the retirement account from vulnerabilities.

7.    Charitable Remainder Trusts and retirement accounts.

Such trusts can help to reduce the tax consequences of a large income event when the account is required to terminate and, if the estate is subject to estate or inheritance tax, a deduction is available because a charity is the beneficiary when the Trust ends.

8.    Life Insurance as a means of mitigating the income tax fallout.

Life insurance can provide liquidity to pay the income tax at the final distribution in the tenth year or, in the case of a Charitable Remainder Trust, help to ensure that a legacy passes down to the grandchildren.

9.    Preparing heirs for the inheritance.

Since the SECURE Act so clearly affects your youngest, perhaps least financially independent heirs, these changes may present a teachable moment to better educate them about exposure to wealth they may inherit, issues that can dramatically impact an estate plan, and the importance of developing financial responsibility and other productive habits.

10. Review the benefits of a Roth IRA.

For many, especially those who may not need required minimum distributions for quality of life expenses, it may be worth performing a tax analysis to determine whether conversion to a Roth IRA will have a more meaningful wealth transfer impact for heirs.

Conference Call: “Top 10 Estate Planning Considerations to Complete Before Year-End”

Yesterday, McManus & Associates held a client conference call reviewing several immediate strategies that clients should consider employing before year-end. With the proposed tax reforms listed in President Obama’s budget, certain planning strategies are in the crosshairs and may not be around for long. Although legislation next year could be made retroactive to January 1, 2014, if you act before the end of 2013 such changes will not affect your planning. Get inside the castle walls now.

During the half-hour call, the firm shares effective strategies and highlights maintenance items required to ensure one’s family wealth remains protected. Below are the 10 questions that will be answered by listening to the recording.

LISTEN HERE: “Top 10 Considerations for Estate Planning with Life Insurance”

  1. Laws could change with new revenue debates. Have you made lifetime gifts in trust? Created a grantor trust?
  2. Have you made sure to operate your family LLC/Limited partnership as a legitimate business? What should you do before year-end?
  3. What should you give away? Are you planning to make annual exclusion gifts, gift appreciated securities etc? Have you prepared Crummey notices?
  4. Should you create lifetime trusts for your children? Have you given your trustees a limited power of appointment?
  5. What can you prepay? What should you prepay? Home, deductibles, medical expenses, major year-end purchases?
  6. Have you crossed any major milestones this year? Do you have children who turned 18 this year? Do the fiduciaries and guardians named in your documents still reflect your current wishes? Are your powers of attorney up to date?
  7. Have you made contributions to your family foundation and/or donated to charity?
  8. Are you over 70 ½? How to use Required Minimum Distribution to your advantage.
  9. Create GRATs or QPRTs. Given the current interest rates what should you consider?
  10. How should you consider harvesting capital gains, timing long-term losses?

Give us a call at 908-898-0100. We can help you identify which strategies you should implement now before the calendar rolls over to 2014.

Conference Call: Post-election Planning and the ‘Fiscal Cliff’

Now that the elections are over, Congress and the White House have the significant task of directing the country away from the impending “fiscal cliff.” Critical to these negotiations will be tax rates, exemption amounts and political ideologies.

During a conference call with clients, McManus & Associates Founding Principal John O. McManus identifies potential issues and ways to remain protected moving into 2013.

LISTEN HERE: “Post-election planning and the ‘Fiscal Cliff'”

Here’s what the discussion covers:

  1. What risks do the “Fiscal Cliff” negotiations present for estate and gift tax exemptions?
  2. Can compromise be achieved?
  3. What if no compromise is achieved by Dec 31, 2012?
  4. How does the composition of the House and Senate effect these discussions?
  5. What are some of the speculations for the compromise regarding gift tax/estate tax?
  6. How likely is it that a compromise, achieved later in the year, will be made retroactive to January 1, 2013?
  7. How does the emotional power of the argument to abolish the ‘death tax’ play into the debates?
  8. What new taxes will be levied? For example: 3.8% Medicare tax on capital gains, dividends and the top tax brackets.
  9. Estate tax on the ballot. How did it fair this election?
  10. Have you fully funded the trusts that we have set up for you and are all titles correctly named?

Please contact our office at (908) 898-0100 if we can help with any questions.