If you do any amount of research online, you'll find financial advisors everywhere touting the benefits of the Roth retirement account. However, what is often less discussed are the differences between the Roth IRA and the Roth 401(k). What exactly are the differences, and how does this impact your retirement savings? There are pros and cons to each and they're not as similar as you might think.
Who does your advisor work for - you or their company? This question used to be muddled by brokers offering to be your ‘trusted advisor’, when in fact they were paid on commission by their company for selling you financial products (insurance, annuities, mutual funds). Well, the landscape just got even more muddled with new rulings by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.
In case you haven't heard, a new bill has passed through the House of Representatives called the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up For Retirement Enhancement). The Act attempts to tackle parts of the retirement savings crisis. Like most bills that come out of Congress, there are good parts and bad. How will this impact you? Here are the top things we think you should know about this bill.
In today's world, an individual's personal finances are ever changing and throughout each of our lifetimes we will have dozens of financial accounts. Think about how many times you may have changed banks, insurance companies, retirement plans, etc. Sometimes we create new accounts and forget about the old ones. Trying to track down old accounts doesn't have to be a nightmare because the internet makes it easier than ever to try and track down old accounts.
Star Wars. What an incredible franchise. Its movies have captivated audiences for decades, including financial advisors. Believe it or not, we do find some time between staring at spreadsheets and reading up on the latest change to the tax code to catch up on the important pieces of pop-culture. We can all enjoy these movies, but as financial advisors, we see things through a different lens, and Star Wars is no exception. Without further ado, we would like to present to you four financial lessons we can learn from Star Wars.
As more and more pensions have phased out, individuals have become increasingly reliant on other retirement savings vehicles, like a 401(k) or an IRA. We hear a lot about people not saving enough for retirement, but for those that do, it's likely they will end up passing their unspent savings to younger generations. This can leave the individual inheriting these accounts in tax situations they haven't come across before. While there are many options for transfers and distributions you have to make sure that you avoid making any mistakes that could lead to costly tax consequences.