A few years ago during a prior Congress and prior presidential administration, a federal law known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement or SECURE Act, became effective on Jan.

It's yet another form in that seemingly endless pile of paperwork needed to complete the application. It's usually only one page and while most clients don't seem to think about it too much, others ...

Beneficiary designations are among the most important legacy decisions you will make. A variety of financial accounts, including retirement plans and life insurance policies, allow you to designate ...

Making sure affairs are in order and checking in from time to time is key when it comes to protecting loved ones. Ensuring your beneficiary information is updated is one way to help your loved ones ...

Who really benefits? You may be surprised! If you participate in a 401(k) or other retirement plan, have one or more IRA accounts, or life insurance policies, you need to designate beneficiaries to ...

IF YOU HAVE an individual retirement account, do you recall filling out a beneficiary designation form? That’s the document that allows you to direct the IRA custodian to transfer your IRA to people ...

Everyone makes mistakes, including advisers. But there’s one blunder every planner should take extra precautions to avoid: being careless about ensuring that their clients’ IRA beneficiary forms are ...

IRAs have become a core part of the retirement system in the United States with over $18 trillion in assets not as of 2025. While retirement accounts are there for retirement, they can also become ...

The RMD (required minimum distribution) rules for IRA and plan beneficiaries have gone through so many recent changes that it’s not surprising that advisors have lots of questions on which RMD rules ...

The calculation of required minimum distributions for beneficiaries has always been uniquely complicated because of confusing tax rules that differ depending on the type of beneficiary, when they ...