Income for retirement can come from the sale of a business, personal savings, social security, and a private retirement plan. Private qualified retirement plans were established by the government specifically to enable businesses to create retirement benefits for employees. A qualified retirement plan meets the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and, as a result, comes with tax advantages and security unavailable in other strategies.

Money accumulated in a qualified plan or IRA is income taxable at the maximum tax rate when it is distributed, whether during your life or upon your death. Required minimum distributions at age 73 make sure that you cannot defer taxation indefinitely, and even an inherited Roth IRA must be liquidated within 10 years, denying lifetime protected benefits. The tax treatment cannot be changed. However, there is a unique strategy, endorsed as a safe harbor by the IRS, that combines pension rules together with the one-and-only asset for which the IRS provides preferential tax treatment when distributing from a qualified plan to reduce taxes, increase benefits, avoid all mandatory liquidation rules, and reduce risk.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate the long-term impact of retirement/qualified accounts


• Recognize the overlooked taxation of qualified money at distribution and death


• Identify and compare retirement options and risks, and learn how to plan for retirement account distributions


• Determine how to help clients minimize taxes and maximize their retirement and estate benefits


• Express awareness of distribution alternatives to control the tax impact


• Define recent legislative changes affecting qualified plans


• Give examples of how to have a more meaningful conversation with your clients about planning for using their retirement accounts