Illinois Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

You can withdraw your original contributions to a Roth at any time. But you must wait five years to avoid paying the tax on earnings on regular contributions.

If you inherit a Roth from your spouse, the taxable period ends either five years after the account was opened by your spouse or five years after the surviving spouse opened his own Roth, whichever is earlier.

A surviving suppose can name his children as equal beneficiaries of the same Roth. It is in the children’s interest to do so. Any heir other than a spouse who treats the Roth account as his own must take the required distributions from the Roth beginning by December 31st of the year after the year of the previous owner’s death. If the children keep the account intact and they want to stretch the withdrawals as long as possible, they are restricted to using the oldest child’s age. However, if they split the account, each sibling can stretch the distributions across his own lifetime. This means younger siblings can spread withdrawals over more years, leaving more assets in the account for a longer time and most likely realizing more tax-free earnings.

Continue reading "Inheriting a Roth IRA and Your Estate Plan" »

The components of Medicare are:

1) Part A, mainly hospital coverage;
2) Part B, outpatient coverage; and
3) Part D, drug coverage.

Medigap coverage pays the uncovered portions of most Medicare bills.

There is also Medicare Advantage coverage which provides most of the coverages in items 1), 2), 3) and Medigap coverage combined in one package. When creating your estate plan, medical bills and their coverage by insurance needs to be addressed.

Medigap coverage is important because Medicare is not enough coverage for people with average to above-average medical costs.

Continue reading "Illinois Medicap Coverage In Estate Planning" »

Effective January 1, 2010, the income tax limit for transferring assets from a traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to a Roth IRA is permanently dropped. These conversions will be subject to income tax, but future withdrawals (that meet holding requirements) will be tax free.

There are three options for paying income taxes throughout the year and thereby avoiding penalty and interest for underpayment of income tax when the conversion is made:

1) Pay 100% of last year’s tax (110% if your Adjusted Gross Income was over $150,000). Then pay any income tax for a 2010 Roth conversion as part of the 2010 tax return.

2) Pay 90% of the current year’s tax. If a large amount is being converted to a Roth in 2010, this is a way to have less to pay quarterly or have withheld from your paycheck in 2011.

3) Estimate your income each quarter and pay tax on it for that quarter. You can have the tax withheld from your paycheck, make quarterly payments or a combination of both.

Roth IRA conversion will also affect your Illinois Income Tax Return.

Continue reading "Roth IRA Conversions for Estate Plans" »