Tax & estate planning: archive
Every Tax & estate planning story in Advisors, newest first. 189 stories
1 story
Social Security's 'free' lump sum is a permanent benefit cut
Advisors who run the numbers out to the second death can protect a younger spouse's survivor income floor from a $160-a-month reduction.
7 stories
Two Social Security tax fixes: $400,000 donut hole and a health-benefit tax
A Tax Foundation guide compares payroll-tax designs that would change the math for high earners and for employees with company coverage.
Schwab and Fidelity tighten the door on the $150 billion tax trade
The custodians behind tax-aware long-short accounts are closing off access, and advisers need to reprice the risk in their own books.
The last mile of retirement is a planning gap advisors can close
A new IRIC report lays out the behavioral biases that stall decumulation and the nudges advisors can use to turn a savings conversation into a spending plan.
Appeals court lets NYC pied-à-terre tax proceed; Sept. 18 deadline holds
The September 18 exemption deadline stands while the tax's legality is litigated. Owners who want to avoid the surcharge must act by then.
A will is only as good as its last review
A celebrity estate fight and a teacher's 403(b) show what a stale plan costs.
Two Roth IRAs, one bucket, and a $50,000 ordering rule
Ed Slott's IRAHelp explainer: contributions come out of the consolidated Roth IRA before a cent of conversion basis does.
LPL's RMD estimator brings age-73 rules to the client meeting
The tool applies the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, so the higher starting age and fresh life expectancy tables show up as one withdrawal figure clients can plan around.
21 stories
A 530A starts retirement savings years before a first paycheck
Ed Slott's compounding math shows why the new account is worth opening years before earned income arrives.
Ed Slott: 60-day Roth conversion bypasses one-rollover rule
A second IRA distribution can be converted to a Roth instead of rolled back, as long as the receiving custodian's Form 5498 codes it as a conversion.
Look-through trust rules set the payout clock for inherited IRAs
The IRS's look-through test decides whether an inherited IRA in a trust gets 10 years or five, and a single non-person beneficiary can scuttle even a qualifying trust.
Retirement creditor protection starts with ERISA, ends with state law
The same retirement dollar can be fully shielded from one creditor and exposed to another, depending on the plan and the state.
A spouse's 401(k) can quietly end the IRA deduction
In 2026, the traditional IRA deduction for an uncovered spouse phases out between $242,000 and $252,000 of modified adjusted gross income. Box 13 on the W-2 decides who qualifies.
Inherited Roth IRAs face the same 10-year clock
The SECURE Act deadline applies to Roth accounts, and trusts do not make the transfer simpler.
Kiddie tax on Trump accounts opens at 18; plan the window
Taxable Trump account withdrawals and conversions can trigger the kiddie tax from age 18, so advisors should start modeling the exposure.
Two five-year clocks run on every Roth conversion
Ed Slott's mailbag walks through the per-conversion penalty clock and the shared earnings clock, then applies the same distinction to Trump accounts at 18.
Solo 401(k) owners can't claim the still-working RMD exception
Solo 401(k) plans miss the still-working break. One beneficiary's withdrawal can settle a mother's final RMD.
Mega-IRA bill would cap retirement balances at $10 million
A Neal-Wyden proposal would cut off new IRA contributions above $10 million in combined balances and eventually force minimum distributions from the largest accounts.
Treasury plan could speed rollovers and reduce paper checks
A voluntary electronic process under SECURE 2.0 would move retirement money straight to the receiving plan.
Postponed retirement changes the income plan and the family timeline
Advisors should price the extra working year as a chance to fix cash flow, cut sequence risk, and reset next-generation expectations.
Prop 40's wealth tax has a property-tax problem
The Tax Foundation's constitutional analysis gives advisors a specific legal risk to discuss with clients before the November vote.
Proposed rules map employer contributions to Trump Accounts
Advisors get their first concrete look at how employers can contribute — and where the plan can go wrong.
Mark Cuban and Ro Khanna spar over wealth-tax loans
The dispute gives advisors a concrete opening to raise liquidity and domicile questions with founder clients who are wealthy on paper.
The out-spouse is a planning client, not a bystander
The great wealth transfer will be won in the couple meeting, where the out-spouse often sits quietly.
Medicare's $50 GLP-1 bridge lands in the retirement budget
Roughly 4 million Part D beneficiaries qualify for Medicare-covered weight-loss drugs at $50 a month. The program ends in 2027.
Beneficiary forms and titles trump the will
The will says who gets what. The beneficiary form says who actually gets it. When they disagree, the form wins.
Four retirement paths beyond the full-time countdown
Introduce financial independence, sabbaticals, Coast FIRE, and semi-retirement early, and the default exit date becomes a deliberate choice.
The client's gut is financial data
Kitces & Carl episode 196: feelings belong in the plan, not just the spreadsheet.
Why the client who agrees to sell still won't sell
A Kitces.com guest post separates the endowment effect into loss aversion, identity, and anchoring. Logic won't cure any of them.