Description
The U.S. retirement market is roughly $30 trillion, and more than half of those assets are held in IRAs and similar defined contribution plans. Much of that wealth rests in the hands of an aging Baby Boomer generation, and financial advisors will play a critical role in passing these assets along to clients’ beneficiaries as intended, and as tax efficiently as possible. Sometimes, that may require using a trust as an IRA beneficiary. But while these tools can be incredibly effective at protecting and preserving wealth, they can also add considerable cost and complexity to a plan. In this session, attendees will learn about some of the biggest pros and cons of leaving an IRA to a trust, as well as the critical IRA trust rules they must know in order to properly guide clients.
Learning Objectives
- LO #1: Understand the difference between the treatment of see-through trusts and non-see-through trusts.
- LO #2: Review the requirements of a see-through trust
- LO #3: Discover the different types of see-through trusts and how they impact the calculation and taxation of distributions
- LO #4: Explore the “life cycle” of an IRA Trust
- LO #5: Identify common mistakes made when trusts are named as a beneficiary
- LO #6: Analyze different alternatives to naming a trust as a beneficiary