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
Medicaid’s five-year look-back can delay nursing-home coverage over recent gifts of money or property
Medicaid’s five-year look-back is the rule that quietly decides whether a nursing-home stay is covered from the first day or billed to a family for...
A new federal account, TrumpIRA.gov, will match up to $1,000 a year for workers without a retirement plan starting in 2027
A new federal website, TrumpIRA.gov, is scheduled to open in 2027 as an online marketplace connecting workers without a workplace retirement plan to savings accounts,...
Selling a home after a spouse dies still allows the full $500,000 profit exclusion if you sell within two years
Losing a spouse often forces a decision about the family home, and the timing of that sale carries a tax consequence few grieving households anticipate....
A health savings account gives a triple tax break and, after 65, works like an IRA for any expense
Most retirement accounts offer one or two tax advantages, forcing a choice between a deduction now and tax-free income later. A health savings account refuses...
A free national search can turn up a lost pension from an employer that merged or shut down decades ago
A pension earned in the 1980s or 1990s does not disappear when the company behind it does. When a traditional pension plan shuts down, the...
Required retirement withdrawals now begin at 73, and missing one brings a steep penalty
For decades the government let retirement savings grow untouched only up to a point, then demanded a share back through required minimum distributions. Recent law...
Your heirs inherit your home and investments at their value on the day you die, erasing tax on a lifetime of gains
One of the most valuable provisions in the tax code is also one of the least understood by the families it benefits: when a person...
Each Roth conversion starts its own five-year clock before penalty-free withdrawals
Moving money from a traditional IRA into a Roth is one of the most common retirement tax maneuvers, and one of the most misunderstood. Savers...
Heirs must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, and many now owe a yearly withdrawal along the way
Inheriting a parent’s individual retirement account once meant a lifetime of small, tax-advantaged withdrawals stretched across decades. That option is gone for most heirs. Under...
After a senior dies, Medicaid can bill the estate for nursing-home care, though a surviving spouse or disabled child can block a claim on the home
When a parent who spent their final years in a nursing home dies, the family often braces for a letter from the state Medicaid program...
A Trump executive order clears the way for private equity and crypto inside 401(k) plans holding $12 trillion
A single executive order has reopened one of the longest-running fights in retirement policy: whether ordinary 401(k) savers should be steered toward private equity, cryptocurrency...
A transfer-on-death deed passes your home to heirs without going through probate
A transfer-on-death deed lets a homeowner name who inherits the house and then hand it over at death without the property ever passing through probate....
About $2.1 trillion sits in lost retirement accounts, and a free federal database helps reunite you with yours
An estimated $2.1 trillion in retirement savings has been left behind in old employer plans, forgotten by the workers who earned it and waiting in...
Rolling a 401(k) straight into an IRA avoids the automatic 20% tax withholding a payout check triggers
The moment a departing employee asks for a 401(k) balance to be paid out as a check, the government takes a cut before the money...
About 205,000 workers have been laid off in 2026, and a severance check can be rolled into an IRA to defer taxes
With roughly 205,000 American workers laid off in 2026 as automation reshapes office work, a severance check has become a rare planning opportunity as much...
A cash-value life insurance policy can be borrowed against tax-free while you are still alive
A permanent life insurance policy that has built up cash value can be tapped through a loan without generating a tax bill, a feature that...
Borrowing from a 401(k) skips taxes and penalties, but leaving your job can make the whole loan due fast
A worker who borrows from a 401(k) can pull out tens of thousands of dollars without triggering income tax or the 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty,...
Treasury bills can pay retirees more than a big-bank savings account, with no state tax
A retiree parking cash in a savings account at one of the biggest national banks is likely earning almost nothing, often a fraction of a...
Retiring before 59½? Equal periodic payments under IRS rule 72(t) let you tap an IRA without the 10% penalty
Reaching money locked in a retirement account before age 59½ usually means paying a 10% penalty on top of ordinary income tax, a toll designed...
High earners barred from a Roth IRA can still get one through the backdoor
The Roth individual retirement account comes with an income ceiling that shuts out many higher earners, yet the tax code leaves a side entrance open....