Without the proper tax planning, your heirs could stand to lose 70% due to the combined income and estate taxes. If you are fortunate enough that the annual minimum required IRA distributions are not your only source of income, hence you are leaving a bulk of the account intact each year for future growth, you could be doing a disservice to your children or grandchildren. Read Ed Slot's book.
Even your favorite charity could receive less than you expected. Read Ed Slott's book.
And by the way, whether your hard earned retirement savings is in an IRA, 401K or other similar deferred account, you should be reading Ed Slott's book.
I am a practicing CPA and I have read Ed Slott's book.
Highly recommended!
Joel P. BruckensteinCo-author of Virtual Office Tools for a High Margin PracticeMuch Good Advice This book is a great resource for those who need this information. But much of it is concerned with "misconceptions" that border on attempts at fraud and showing that you just can't get away with it. The main theme of the book although the author does not point this out is KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. That way you can understand it. Also the sections on minimum distributions are useful. I will leave it up to the individual, as it should be, to determine the usefulness of insuring the estate tax portion of a retirement plan. All in all a rather useful tome but I am not sure it required all that so to speak. As others have pointed out the "humor" in the book is distracting and does not add much. Ed Slott makes the error of writing pretty much exactly like he speaks at his seminars and it can grind at times. Great for seminars, not so good for books. Worth having on the ole bookshelf.
