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
The federal pension insurer keeps a searchable list of unpaid benefits from ended plans
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is still holding retirement money that private-sector employers set aside for workers they lost track of when a pension plan...
A federal database now helps workers track down old, forgotten 401(k) money
A federal search tool now lets workers check whether a former employer’s 401(k) or pension plan still owes them money, using only a Social Security...
Low-income retirees can sell investments in the 0% capital-gains bracket and owe nothing
The federal tax code holds a bracket that surprises even longtime retirees: a 0% rate on long-term capital gains, and it isn’t a rounding trick...
The saver’s credit can hand lower-income workers back up to half of what they save for retirement
A federal tax break already lets lower-income workers recover as much as half of what they put into a retirement account, yet it remains one...
Your first required retirement withdrawal can wait until April 1, but doubling up can spike taxes
The IRS lets savers postpone their very first required minimum distribution past age 73, pushing the deadline to April 1 of the following year instead...
Skip a required retirement withdrawal after 73 and the penalty can reach 25%
Retirees who miss a required withdrawal from a traditional IRA, 401(k) or similar retirement account face one of the tax code’s steepest automatic penalties: an...
After a Medicaid recipient dies, the state can bill the estate and claim the family home
Since 1993, federal law has required every state Medicaid program to recover certain costs from the estates of enrollees who received long-term care before they...
A health savings account can quietly become a tax-free retirement fund for medical bills
The IRS confirmed this year that someone with self-only coverage can contribute up to $4,400 to a health savings account in 2026, and $8,750 for...
Adding an adult child as joint owner of your home can trigger a gift tax and expose it to their creditors
Parents who add a grown child to their home’s deed to simplify estate planning often trigger consequences they never intended: a taxable gift under IRS...
Converting some IRA money to a Roth before age 73 can shrink future required withdrawals and their tax
Required minimum distributions are not a suggestion — once a retiree turns 73, the IRS forces a taxable withdrawal from traditional IRA and retirement plan...
Contributing to a Roth IRA in retirement is allowed as long as you or a spouse still have earned income
Retirement does not automatically close the door on building tax-free savings. Federal law once barred anyone 70½ or older from contributing to a traditional IRA,...
Workers who earned more than $150,000 last year must now route 401(k) catch-up contributions into a Roth
A $150,000 line drawn in 2025 paychecks now decides how the Internal Revenue Service taxes retirement catch-up savings. As of the 2026 plan year, any...
The federal pension agency refreshed its unclaimed-benefits list on August 5
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation refreshed its national database of unclaimed pension benefits on August 5, the latest in a series of quarterly updates for...
About 31.9 million forgotten 401(k) accounts hold an estimated $2.1 trillion
Roughly 31.9 million 401(k) accounts across the country now sit forgotten by the people who own them, holding an estimated $2.1 trillion in retirement assets,...
An inventory of every account spares heirs from losing track of money
When an account holder dies, the money in bank, brokerage and insurance accounts does not automatically find its way to the family. Heirs can only...
An irrevocable trust moves assets out of an estate to shield them from care costs
Medicaid pays for long-term nursing home care only after an applicant has spent down nearly all countable assets, and that spend-down is what can consume...
A step-up in basis erases the tax on a lifetime of gains when heirs inherit a home or investments
When someone inherits a house or a brokerage account, the tax code performs a quiet erasure. The asset’s cost basis — the figure used to...
A low-cost index fund’s tiny fee leaves far more in a retiree’s account than an active fund over time
Every mutual fund and exchange-traded fund charges an annual operating cost, expressed as a percentage of assets called the expense ratio, and it is deducted...
A bond ladder staggers maturities so a retiree never has to sell at a loss
A bond ladder answers a specific problem that surfaces whenever interest rates rise: a bond bought earlier at a lower rate loses market value, and...
A Miller trust can qualify someone over a state’s Medicaid income limit for coverage
In a set of states known as income-cap states, an applicant whose monthly income sits even a few dollars above the Medicaid long-term-care limit can...