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 new law set the estate-tax exemption at $15 million per person for 2026
Starting in 2026, an individual can pass up to $15 million to heirs before the federal estate tax applies, the result of a new law...
A qualified charitable distribution lets those 70½ and older give from an IRA and skip the tax on it
A qualified charitable distribution is one of the few moves in the tax code that lets money leave a retirement account without ever being taxed....
A spousal IRA lets a non-working spouse keep saving for retirement on the earner’s income
The tax code normally requires earned income to fund an individual retirement account, which would seem to lock out any spouse who does not draw...
A lump-sum pension buyout swaps a lifetime monthly check for one cash payout
A lump-sum pension buyout puts a single decision in front of a retiree: trade a monthly check that lasts a lifetime for one large cash...
About $2.1 trillion sits in 31.9 million forgotten 401(k)s, and a free federal Lost and Found can reunite you with yours
An estimated $2.1 trillion is sitting in roughly 31.9 million forgotten 401(k) accounts left behind at former employers, according to 2025 research from the retirement-account...
Amazon is cutting about 16,000 corporate jobs in 2026, and a severance check can roll into an IRA to defer taxes
Amazon told employees in early 2026 that it would eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs, part of a restructuring that has cut close to 30,000 white-collar...
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...