Via U.S. News By Maryalene LaPonsie RETIREMENT IS WHEN everything changes. Seniors may end up with new schedules, new hobbies and even new homes. In the midst of all these exciting changes, don’t overlook the mundane: your insurance coverage. With a new season of life at hand, old policies may no longer meet your needs. However, seniors should be cautious about canceling their policies. You need … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): The Only Insurance Policies You Need After Retirement

Via InvestmentNews By Mary Beth Franklin Widows and widowers have more flexibility than other Social Security beneficiaries when it comes to claiming strategies because retirement benefits and survivor benefits represent two different pots of money. A surviving spouse or an eligible surviving divorced spouse can choose one type of benefit first and switch to the other benefit later if it results in a larger monthly … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): Social Security and survivor benefits

Via nerdwallet By Andrea Coombes Short answer: Yes, you can contribute to both a 401(k) and an IRA, but if your income exceeds the IRS limits, you might lose out on one of the tax benefits of the traditional IRA. How it works: One of the benefits of a traditional IRA is that you can get a tax deduction for your contributions each year. If … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): Can I Have a 401(k) and an IRA?

Via Kitces By Jeffrey Levine In December 2019, the retirement planning community was rocked when the Setting Up Every Community for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which seemed destined to remain stuck in Washington gridlock indefinitely, was whisked back to life and attached to a year-end appropriations package that ‘had’ to be passed to keep the Federal government funded. Within a matter of days, the bill passed the … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): The (Partial) Death Of The Stretch IRA: How The SECURE Act Impacts Inherited Retirement Accounts

Via ThinkAdvisor By Ginger Szala Social Security can be complicated, which is why an individual needs an advisor to walk them through salient points, and advisors need to be up to speed on the program. A majority of people don’t know the standard benefits they could be receiving, according to a SimplyWise survey that found less than one in eight Americans aged 60 to 70 … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Right Project): 5 Common Blind Spots on Social Security

Via CNBC By David Robinson New federal rules for individual retirement accounts greatly increase the tax burden for some heirs by telescoping the allowable period for withdrawals. Yet this pain can be greatly reduced by converting regular IRAs to Roth IRAs before bequeathing them. Previously, all heirs had their entire life expectancy to take withdrawals from inherited IRAs, so they were able to stretch out … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): Here’s a way to beat the tax burden for IRA heirs

Via MarketWatch By Shawn Langlois Have you and your 401(k) plan ridden this relentless bull market into glorious millionaire territory? If so, congratulations! Well done. Etc. Now here’s the bad news: ‘The new rule of thumb is $3 million.’ That is financial planner Thomas Balcom explaining to Fortune why the long-held goal of a million bucks in retirement savings isn’t cutting it these days. Another adviser in … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): Retirement dreams: $3 million is the new $1 million — here’s how to get there

Via MarketWatch By Brett Arends The lights have been green for the baby boomers all their lives. They were born just after World War II, between 1946 and 1964, and raised during the biggest, most sustained economic boom in human history. They were sent to college, and grad school, by their doting parents when it was still cheap — or nearly free. And then, when … Continue reading (Mid-America Pension Rights Project): Baby boomers commit the ‘7 deadly sins’ of retirement planning