Retirement Planning
401(k), IRA, Roth accounts, pension plans, withdrawal strategies, required minimum distributions, and how much you need to retire.
Latest in Retirement Planning
A national registry tracks down forgotten 401(k) money from old jobs
Roughly $1.65 trillion in retirement savings is sitting in 401(k) and pension accounts that their owners have lost track of, scattered across former employers who...
A free federal search finds old pensions from employers that closed
Millions of dollars in earned pension benefits sit unclaimed because the people owed them lost track of a job, moved without leaving a forwarding address,...
A pension from a failed company is insured by the federal PBGC up to a yearly maximum
When a company collapses and its pension plan folds with it, retirees do not simply lose the checks they were promised. A federal agency, the...
An inherited Roth IRA passes to heirs completely tax-free, unlike a traditional inherited IRA
Two heirs can inherit the same dollar amount in retirement accounts and face wildly different tax bills, and the reason comes down to which letter...
Medicaid cannot take your home to recover care costs while a disabled or caregiver child lives there
For many retirees the house is the largest thing they will leave behind, and the fear that a state Medicaid program will seize it to...
A continuing-care retirement community bundles independent living with future nursing care for one fee
For many older adults, the hardest question in retirement is not how to spend the early years but what happens when health declines and living...
A transfer-on-death title lets a car pass to an heir without probate in many states
A car is often one of the more valuable possessions a person leaves behind, and without planning it can be dragged into probate — the...
The Labor Department’s new Lost and Found helps workers track down old 401(k) money
Billions of dollars in retirement savings sit stranded in accounts their owners have forgotten — 401(k) balances left behind when a worker changed jobs, and...
A pension’s survivor option lowers your monthly check but protects a spouse for life
At retirement, a worker with a traditional pension usually faces one irreversible decision that shapes a spouse’s finances for decades: take the largest possible monthly...
A Roth IRA never forces withdrawals during the owner’s lifetime
Every year, millions of retirees are forced to pull money out of their traditional IRAs and 401(k)s whether they need it or not, because the...
Medicaid’s home-care waivers can pay for help at home instead of a nursing facility
The cost gap between a nursing home and staying put is enormous — institutional long-term care can run several thousand dollars a month, and for...
A financial power of attorney lets someone manage your money if you can’t
A financial power of attorney is the document that decides who pays the bills when illness or injury leaves a person unable to manage money...
The Saver’s Credit hands lower-income workers up to $1,000 for retirement contributions
The Saver’s Credit can return as much as $1,000 to a lower-income worker’s federal tax bill, or up to $2,000 for a married couple, in...
A new law set the estate-tax exemption at $15 million, so almost no family owes the tax
The federal estate-tax exemption climbed to $15 million per person on January 1, 2026, and a married couple can now shield $30 million from the...
A beneficiary form on your account overrides whatever your will says
A will is often treated as the master document of an estate, but for a large share of a typical retiree’s wealth it is overruled...
Retirees 70½ and older can give straight from an IRA and skip the tax
There is a rarely used move that lets older IRA owners support a cause and trim their tax bill in one step. Anyone age 70½...
Most heirs must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, and the tax bill can be steep
The long-standing strategy of stretching an inherited IRA across a lifetime is gone for most heirs. Under rules that took hold after the SECURE Act,...
Required minimum withdrawals from an IRA now start at 73 and rise to 75 in 2033
The age at which retirement savers must begin pulling taxable money out of a traditional IRA has shifted again, and the change gives many people...
Seniors can deduct out-of-pocket medical costs above 7.5% of income, including long-term-care premiums
The federal tax code lets a taxpayer deduct unreimbursed medical and dental expenses, but only the portion that exceeds 7.5% of adjusted gross income. For...
High earners over about $145,000 must make 401(k) catch-up contributions as Roth in 2027
A change written into federal retirement law will take away a choice that higher-paid savers have long had over their 401(k) catch-up contributions. Beginning in...