New Social Security Rule Will Hurt Women by Eliminating Benefits Options

Posted on December 16, 2015 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Estate Planning, Lange’s Cascading Beneficiary Plan, Retire Secure!, Retirement Planning, Social Security, The Lange Money Hour, Video Resources and tagged beneficiary designation, Social Security.

James Lange, CPA/Attorney, Advises Married Couples Ages 62-70 to Apply and Suspend NOW. After April 29, 2016, it will be too late!

In early November, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law and the repercussions are devastating to the married women of our country.

Pittsburgh – December 16, 2015 – Married women, statistically the widows of the future, will pay a high price due to the changes that the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 has made to Social Security. Pittsburgh attorney and CPA James Lange takes action by releasing audio and video presentations as well as transcripts and a report that will help couples ages 62-70 navigate this new rule and protect their benefits while they still can!

SOCIAL SECURITY SURVIVOR BENEFITS ARE CRITICAL TO WOMEN

The financial well-being of widows is often dependent upon the choices that are made while their spouses are still alive. Spousal and survivor Social Security benefit choices can mean the difference between living comfortably in retirement and falling under the poverty line for women whose spouses leave them behind. Widows are commonly younger than their deceased husbands and the Social Security benefits they have earned, especially in the Boomer generation, are commonly less than that of their deceased husbands. This means that a widow will depend on collecting survivor benefits, often for many years, based on the benefits to which their deceased spouses were entitled.

“One of the best things a husband can do to protect his wife in widowhood is to maximize his own Social Security benefits. One technique that we use with our clients is apply & suspend.” James Lange of Pittsburgh-based, Lange Financial Group, LLC comments. “The law prior to the Bipartisan Act allowed the husband to apply for, and then suspend collection of his benefits, while allowing his wife to collect a spousal benefit. It was a win-win for our clients!”

This technique was used strategically to maximize the husband’s and wife’s long-term benefits. That, unfortunately, is coming to an end, with the exception of certain couples who take the appropriate action between now and April 29, 2016. For many couples, the income stream from spousal benefits in the previously allowed apply and suspend technique made it possible (or at least more palatable) for the husband to wait until age 70 to collect Social Security, thus maximizing their benefits.

“This new law cuts off that income stream, making it if not impossible, at least more difficult, for husbands to choose to delay collection of their benefits.” Lange warns, “Unfortunately, it is the widows of these husbands who cannot maximize their Social Security benefits who will be left in reduced circumstances for the rest of their lives.”

JIM LANGE’S ADVICE

DO NOT WAIT. Congress has eliminated one of the best Social Security maximization strategies. Fortunately, some recipients may be grandfathered already and others could be grandfathered if they act between now and April 29, 2016. Others will have to make do with the new laws. In either case, now is the time to review your options. We have posted a one hour audio with a written transcript explaining the old law, the new law and the transition rules. Readers can go to www.paytaxeslater.com to access this audio and transcript.

ABOUT JAMES LANGE

James Lange, CPA/Attorney is a nationally-known Roth IRA and retirement plan distribution expert. He’s also the best-selling author of three editions of Retire Secure! and The Roth Revolution: Pay Taxes Once and Never Again. He hosts a bi-weekly financial radio show, The Lange Money Hour, where he has welcomed numerous guests over the years including top experts in the fields of Social Security, IRAs, and investments.

With over 30 years of experience, Jim and his team have drafted over 2,000 wills and trusts with a focus on flexibility and meeting the unique needs of each client.

Jim’s recommendations have appeared 35 times in The Wall Street Journal, 23 times in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New York Times, Newsweek, Money magazine, Smart Money and Reader’s Digest. His articles have appeared in The Journal of Retirement Planning, Financial Planning, The Tax Adviser (AICPA), and other top publications. Most recently he has had two peer-reviewed articles published on Social Security maximization in the prestigious Trusts & Estates magazine.

To learn more, or sign up for their newsletter, visit www.paytaxeslater.com.

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Keeping Up with Your Kids and Grandchildren

Posted on July 20, 2015 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations and tagged family, grandchildren, James Lange, The Lange Financial Group.

An excerpt for the Lange Financial Group Newsletter:

Social media is a great way to keep in touch with family. I feel connected to a number of relatives and friends who live in different cities because I spend a few minutes on Facebook. In fact, recently I was able to tell my brother how his own daughter was doing because of something she posted on Facebook and he doesn’t use Facebook.

If you have young grandchildren, there’s a good chance photos are posted regularly. This way, you can see current photos of the little ones, and you don’t have to feel like you’re pestering your kids to send you physical copies. Of course, social media has its limits. Because sites are more public, probably too public, don’t expect to engage in detailed or private family matters over this medium.

Schedule a weekly phone or video call: Arranging a weekly call doesn’t have to be a struggle. A simple 15 minute call is time enough to catch up regularly. The more you and your kids do it, the easier and more routine it will become. However, if you’re more interested in receiving information, let your kids do the talking. Try to schedule a time that is mutually available for everyone, so the call is a treat and not a chore.

Share a monthly meal: For kids who are closer to home, make time once a month to eat a meal together. This is an easy way to get all your kids under one roof again. Just because your kids are grown up doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy a home-cooked meal every now and then.

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Life Insurance: Is It Right for Your Estate Plan?

Posted on May 21, 2015 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Estate Planning, Estate Tax, IRAs, Life Insurance, Retirement Planning and tagged Estate Planning, Estate Tax, Insurance, IRA, James Lange, Life Insurance, Retire Secure! A Guide to Getting the Most out of What You've Got, Retirement Planning.

Insurance salesmen are often maligned and are frequently the butt of some pretty bad jokes. At the risk of being categorized with those poor men and women, I’ll tell you that I don’t hesitate to recommend life insurance to many of my own clients after evaluating their estate planning needs. Why? Because when it is appropriate and structured properly, life insurance has a number of benefits that make it an excellent and possibly the best wealth transfer strategy.

If you read the earlier chapters, you learned that legislative changes since 2009 mean that federal estate tax is an issue for far fewer taxpayers than in the past. The IRS wasn’t feeling guilty about charging estate tax on your assets, they just gave more people a reason to worry about a completely different problem called federal income tax. Chapter 12 of Retire Secure! delves into some techniques that show how life insurance can be used to help minimize the damage to the estate caused by income taxes at death. It also discusses how life insurance can be used to provide liquidity for a number of estate settlement needs, and also how it can be used to benefit the estate if there is a disabled beneficiary. While life insurance can be extremely beneficial it is important to remember that in situations where taxes and other estate needs aren’t a concern, the cost of the life insurance – especially for a senior citizen – might not be worth it.

In earlier chapters, there are several references to the possibility that Congress may eliminate the benefits of the Stretch IRA. Chapter 12 introduces some new ideas regarding the inclusion of a Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT) in certain estate plans. How do you think your children would react if you named a charitable trust as the sole beneficiary of your retirement plan? They might react very favorably when they find out that, in the long run, they could end up with a lot more money.

This is a very complicated estate planning technique that is not appropriate for everyone. Under the right set of circumstances, though, life insurance can be a very effective addition to an estate plan – especially if the owner of the IRA has always supported charities. Would you like to endow a chair at your local university or symphony orchestra, or perhaps provide financial support for your favorite hospital or religious organization long after your death? Read Chapter 12 to learn the basics of this strategy, and how life insurance can play a key role.

Stop back soon for an update on some really big news about the possible death of the Stretch IRA.

Jim

Jim Lange, Retirement and Estate Planning A nationally recognized IRA, Roth IRA conversion, and 401(k) expert, he is a regular speaker to both consumers and professional organizations. Jim is the creator of the Lange Cascading Beneficiary Plan™, a benchmark in retirement planning with the flexibility and control it offers the surviving spouse, and the founder of The Roth IRA Institute, created to train and educate financial advisors.

Jim’s strategies have been endorsed by The Wall Street Journal (33 times), Newsweek, Money Magazine, Smart Money, Reader’s Digest, Bottom Line, and Kiplinger’s. His articles have appeared in Bottom Line, Trusts and Estates Magazine, Financial Planning, The Tax Adviser, Journal of Retirement Planning, and The Pennsylvania Lawyer magazine.

Jim is the best-selling author of Retire Secure! (Wiley, 2006 and 2009), endorsed by Charles Schwab, Larry King, Ed Slott, Jane Bryant Quinn, Roger Ibbotson and The Roth Revolution, Pay Taxes Once and Never Again endorsed by Ed Slott, Natalie Choate and Bob Keebler.

If you’d like to be reminded as to when the book is coming out please fill out the form below.

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Ways to Cut Taxes for the Next Generation – Consider Gifting Money to Children

Posted on May 14, 2015 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Estate Planning, Retire Secure!, Retirement Planning, Tax Law and tagged Gifting Money to Children, James Lange, Pittsburgh, Retire Secure Book, Retire Secure! A Guide to Getting the Most out of What You've Got, Retirement, Tax Planning, Taxes, Western Pennsylvania.

gifting money to children lange financial group In January of 2015, President Obama proposed eliminating the tax-free benefits of Section 529 college savings plans. Under his proposal, savings would grow tax-deferred, but withdrawals would be taxed as income to the beneficiary (usually the student). His belief was that taxpayers who save in 529 plans are families who can better afford the cost of college than everyone else. In reality, it is estimated that close to ten percent of 529 accounts are owned by households having income below $50,000, and over 70 percent are owned by households with income below $150,000. What isn’t surprising, though, is that the tax revenue realized by this action would have been significant, because as of the end of the 4^th quarter of 2014, the assets held in 529 and other college savings plans reached almost a quarter of a trillion dollars. How many students would have been forced to apply for loans if they had been required to pay tax on withdrawals from their college savings plans? Fortunately, the House of Representatives thought differently than the President and, in February of 2015, they passed HR 529. This bill not only maintains the tax-free status of 529 plans, but also makes them more flexible and easier to use. Hopefully the Senate will follow the House’s lead and pass a companion bill with similar provisions.

Do you have college savings plans established for your children or grandchildren and, if so, were you aware of this attack on their tax-free status?

Gifting money to children

Contributing to college savings plans for children and grandchildren is a form of gifting, which is a topic that I discuss in detail in Chapter 11 of Retire Secure!. Gifting money to children is an excellent way to minimize taxes at your death, and, depending on the amount gifted, can also provide the recipient with tax-free income. Unfortunately, strategies that reduce taxes frequently come under fire and it is critical that you stay on top of the rules. Also discussed in this chapter are the perils of gifting to relatives in an attempt to avoid seizure of your to pay for nursing home care. It’s a bad idea – don’t even think about it – but it is still beneficial to understand the laws on this subject.

Many couples are not aware that the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 introduced a concept called portability that makes estate taxes less of a concern for many individuals than in the past. If you have not had your estate plan reviewed since 2012, you should read Chapter 11 to learn about the potential pitfalls of what I call “The Cruelest Trap of All”. Since the passage of this act, many estate plans are outdated and could cause the surviving spouse to be disinherited at the first spouse’s death.

Gifting money to children strategies, and the tax implications of gifting, should be a critical part of every estate plan. Changes in legislation that were not anticipated at the time the plan was established, though, can make your plan ineffective and in some cases disastrous. As much has changed in this area; please read Chapter 11 thoroughly to see how you might be affected.

Stop back soon!

Jim

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Mistake 4: Immediately rolling over the money from the decedent’s IRA over to the spouse’s IRA.

Posted on February 25, 2013 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Estate Planning, IRAs, Tax Law.

This is not usually a good idea until the entire finances of the deceased and the beneficiaries are reviewed in detail. I always recommend contacting the client’s CPA and estate attorney in order to determine whether or not there are going to be any estate tax issues. For example, it is possible that the surviving spouse would actually want to disclaim some or all of the IRA in order to reduce any unnecessary estate taxes.

In addition to this, if you roll over your spouse’s money into your name and you are under age 59 ½, you may have to pay a penalty if you need to take a distribution before you turn 59 ½. This is called the “Spousal Rollover Trap.”

One of the options you could take in these circumstances is to utilize section 72(t) of the Internal Revenue code and take out the money before age 59 ½ without paying a penalty by using “substantially equal payments.” However, if you are many years away from this date and if you leave money in the decedent’s IRA, then you can take out money from the decedent’s IRA without any restrictions at all!

As you can see, a surviving spouse must be careful to investigate all options before rolling over the decedent’s IRA into their own name.

Adapted from MD Producer Materials

Don’t go through the hassle of revisions!

Posted on September 11, 2012 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Video Resources.

From watches to pianos- find out the best way to transfer your “stuff” to beneficiaries and avoid probate!

Jim Lange in Kiplinger’s

Posted on September 4, 2009 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Roth IRA, Roth IRA Conversions and tagged Kiplinger's Retirement Report, Roth IRA, Roth IRA Conversions.

Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions have been Jim Lange’s passion for the past decade and Jim is always happy to spread the word to the media. Jim’s latest appearance in print can be found in this month’s (September 2009) Kiplinger’s Retirement Report (Leave Your Kids a Tax-free Legacy on page 18).

To show the wealth-building potential of a Roth IRA conversion, Jim gives an example involving two 65-year old fathers. They are both in the 28% tax bracket and both have IRAs valued at $100,000. To simplify the example, both dads also have $28,000 in a taxable account.

The first dad decides to make a Roth IRA conversion and pays $28,000 in taxes up front. The second dad decides to stick to his traditional IRA and will pay taxes upon withdrawal. In Jim’s example, both dads live another 20 years and leave their IRAs to their children.

Thirty years after their parents die, the Roth IRA child has $1.8 million in future dollars. The traditional IRA child only has $980,000. Why the big difference? For starters, the Roth parent never had to take required minimum distributions and the entire amount was able to grow tax-free for all of those years. The traditional dad had to take an RMD starting at age 70 1/2 resulting in the parent and child paying taxes on the RMD every year.

This analysis really becomes powerful when you realize that a tax-law change starting on January 1, 2010 will make all taxpayers eligible for a Roth IRA conversion, regardless of income. Considering that many wealthy taxpayers will be able to convert much more than the $100,000 in the example, the potential benefits of a Roth IRA conversion could be even more dramatic.

In the same Kiplinger’s article, Jim also stresses the importance of the beneficiary designation of your IRA. If you hope to have your heirs stretch this tax-free shalter for their lifetimes, it’s important to get the wording correct. Non-spouse heirs cannot roll an inherited IRA into their own Roth IRA. Instead, they must set up an inherited IRA and the name of the deceased must remain on the account. Jim advises using language along the order of “inherited IRA of Joe Sr. for the benefit of Joe Jr.”. The money must then be transferred directly into the new IRA.

Remember – we are less than four months away from the big tax-law change. Make sure that you’re up-to-speed on the benefits of Roth IRAs and Roth IRA conversions. For a more detailed comparison between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, we offer another of Jim’s articles on this website. Go to the homepage, click on articles and then click on Roth: Four Little Letters Lead to Long-term Financial Security.

As always, our excellent professional staff is available to help you with a complete Roth IRA analysis. Get more details by calling our office at 800-387-1129.