A
Stretch IRA is a wealth-transfer strategy that
allows you to extend the period of tax-deferred
earnings on the assets of a pre-existing, or newly
established IRA by passing your IRA assets to a
younger beneficiary. This allows the money
that would have been paid in taxes to work for
your heirs instead of Uncle Sam.
An article in Business Week, November 13, 1995, states an IRA
beneficiary
lost
over 90% of his IRA
due to immediate taxation. This could have
been avoided had a proactive advisor been
consulted. |
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Under IRS regulations issued
in 2002, any individual who
holds a traditional IRA can
change the beneficiary to "stretch" IRA distributions.
If you do not need to live
on your IRA assets and want
to benefit younger
generations, consider using
the Stretch IRA strategy.
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Provides tax-efficient wealth transfer
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The law requires that once you reach age
70½, you must withdraw a required amount
from your traditional IRA each year (RMD).
When you choose to withdraw no more than
those required distributions from your
IRA and designate a younger beneficiary,
you can extend the life of your IRA.
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Under the new IRS regulations, if you
have an individual designated
beneficiary, your beneficiary will not
be required to completely withdraw your
IRA assets either within five years of
your death or over your remaining life
expectancy. When a younger beneficiary
inherits an IRA, the remaining balance
can be paid out over the younger
person's single life expectancy,
effectively stretching out the length of
time that withdrawals can be taken from
that IRA. This extends the period of
tax-deferred earnings of assets within
an IRA beyond the lifetime of the person
who set up the IRA.
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Payments to beneficiaries are paid out
as income (RMD), which may not
be subject to the 10% penalty tax even for
a beneficiary under age 59½.
Retain
control of the IRA
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Most of the Stretch IRA planning is
revocable until death. So, for example, if your
financial situation changes and you need
more income in retirement, you can take
larger IRA distributions as needed.
However, once you reach age 70½, you
can't request a smaller amount than your
required minimum distributions.
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Similarly, if the beneficiary's
situation changes after the death of the
owner, he or she may take
distributions exceeding the required
minimum distributions.
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You can change your beneficiary at any
time until death. In most cases, such a change would
not affect the amount of required
minimum distributions during your
lifetime.
- It is
important to know that you can only do a
"Stretch IRA" if you have a willing
custodian. If you do not know whether
you have a "Stretch IRA" or not, you may
want to consider a new advisor.
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To receive a complimentary "Stretch
IRA" proposal, click on contact above..
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For information on how this great concept can benefit you, click on "contact" above. |
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