Case Studies in Estate Planning for Retirement Benefits 

This presentation explains the problems of integrating retirement benefit assets into the estate plan in several typical client situations, particularly funding credit shelter trusts and QTIP trusts with retirement benefits, and looks at the advantages and disadvantages of various possible solutions.
It is common for an estate planning client to have a significant portion of his or her assets in IRAs, 401(k) plans, or other retirement plans. Because these assets have very different characteristics from investment assets held outside the retirement plan, they pose unique estate planning problems. The professional advisor's failure to recognize and properly deal with the unique characteristics of retirement benefits can cause financial losses to a client and his or her beneficiaries.

 

Death and Taxes: The Inherited Retirement Plan

This presentation reviews some planning and compliance issues and options facing the participant's survivors: the executor, trustee, or beneficiary who has inherited an IRA or other retirement plan.
As more and more retirement plan owners die leaving significant plan benefits to heirs, the question of how to advise the survivors (including fiduciaries) grows in importance. Advisors and plan administrators have tended to focus on the plan owner, and encounter a major knowledge gap when the account passes to the chosen beneficiaries. This seminar fills that gap by explaining issues that must be considered and providing practical answers to the problems that arise.

 

These presentations are beneficial for any professional who advises (1) clients who hold assets in IRAs, 401(k) plans or other retirement plans (2) regarding estate planning, retirement planning or investment issues.