Avoid These 6 Costly Retirement Planning Mistakes - 53

Joe Anderson, CFP® & Alan Clopine, CPA share common retirement mistakes they’ve seen for years. These mistakes that could cost you thousands, if not more, can easily be avoided if you learn how. Original publish date August 6, 2016 (hour 1). Note that content may be outdated as rules and regulations have changed. 

00:00 - Intro

02:27 - “What we have found with a lot of you is that potentially you’re not going to be in a lower tax bracket.”

05:37 - “The people we work with have assets in retirement accounts, and in most cases they will be in the same tax bracket or higher because most people that will come into our office want to at least maintain their same lifestyle.”

09:32 - “You have to put a plan together to take a look at a forward-looking strategy.”

13:37 - “The first one (mistake) seems so obvious but we see it over and over again – it’s not having beneficiaries on your retirement plan or IRA or having the wrong ones on your IRA.”

17:34 - “As a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) for over 30 years, it does amaze me how many people fail to get the message about tax planning and strategies until they make a mistake that costs them thousands of dollars.”

22:57 - “There are a lot of different requirements to name the trust as the beneficiary.”

25:49 - “There is good justification for actually having a separate trust; it’s called an IRA trust which has nothing to do with your living trust and you set that trust up in such a way that when you pass away, your beneficiaries become sub-trusts and you can actually have the RMD (required minimum distribution) based upon each individual beneficiary.”

28:02 - “This isn’t so much a mistake but an underutilized strategy because a lot of people don’t really know about it. It’s called net unrealized appreciation (NUA).”

30:55 - “If you keep your tax bracket low enough, you can avoid the capital gains tax so you can get those assets out tax-free to you.”

34:46 - “Interest rates are at all-time lows, markets are volatile, we’re living a lot longer and healthcare costs – the list goes on and on.”