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Retirement FAQs

  1. Are 401(k) loans taxed?

  2. What pension benefits are available to military personnel?

  3. What should you do when you're five years from retiring?

  4. What are the differences between a 401K and an IRA?

  5. How do I retire?

  6. What are Government Pension Offsets, and who is subject to them?

  7. How do you plan for retirement if you have multiple employers? Can you combine retirement plans from multiple employers?

  8. My daughter would like to use some of her Roth IRA to pay for some current tuition fees and loans. Can she do this without a penalty?

  9. I have a 403(b) from a old employer. I would like to convert it to a 401(k). How can I do that?

  10. Our broker switched firms in the middle of 2011. As a result we lost track of our required minimum distribution (RMD) amounts and ended up withdrawing much more than our RMD. Is there a way to defer some of the withdrawal to 2012 to avoid the tax liabilit

  11. What happens during the consolidation phase of an investor's life cycle?

  12. How can I start an IRA for my child?

  13. What is the difference between qualified and non-qualified plans?

  14. The reason why ERISA qualified plans should have an investment policy statement is to:

  15. How do 401(k) loans work?

  16. What are the exceptions to the premature withdrawal penalty rules for IRA accounts?

  17. Can I refuse a gift by providing a "Qualified Disclaimer," and what does this entail?

  18. I have a profit-sharing plan with my former employer. I am now trying to buy a home. Can I use my profit-sharing money to put a down payment on a house?

  19. How does an employer benefit from a 401(k) matching plan?

  20. Should I collect early Social Security?

  21. What is the "stretch IRA" concept?

  22. What are the pros/cons of naming a trust as the beneficiary of a retirement account?

  23. Does it make sense to convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth when the market’s down?

  24. What is the difference between early retirement and full retirement as it applies to Social Security retirement benefits?

  25. When is the best time to purchase long-term care insurance?

  26. Which of the following accounts does ERISA cover?

  27. What is the "three-legged stool"?

  28. What is pension maximization?

  29. Is it wise to put an IRA account into a fixed or variable annuity?

  30. Which statement(s) is/are FALSE about market risk?

  31. What is long-term care?

  32. What are activities of daily living (ADL)?

  33. Why should I invest in the market when I can buy and sell houses or cars?

  34. A lot of retirement projections seem to assume an 8% rate of return. Is this realistic?

  35. Should a Canadian citizen who lives and works in the U.S. continue to contribute to a RRSP account?

  36. I overcontributed to my Roth, then lost half of this money to the market. Does the 6% penalty apply to my original contribution, or only what's left of it?

  37. What is cliff vesting?

  38. How do I use a conduit IRA?

  39. We are in a 401(k) at work. Can we also do a Roth each year? If we can, can it also be deducted from our taxes?

  40. Do I still have to pay penalties and taxes on money that I don't roll over from a DROP fund?

  41. Is a person an active participant in an employer-sponsored retirement plan if he or she was only active for a short time?

  42. What are the penalties for withdrawing from my Traditional IRA less than a year after acquisition?

  43. Am I entitled to any of my ex-spouse's retirement plan benefits?

  44. What happens when someone is given the golden boot?

  45. Can I, without tax penalties, use the IRA I inherited from my father to buy a home that I will live in? He was 72 and had started taking small payouts on it.

  46. My Traditional IRA has been converted to a Roth IRA. Can I still make a qualified withdrawal as a first-time home buyer?

  47. Can a person who is retired continue to fund an IRA?

  48. My certificate of deposit (CD) has just matured and I plan to contribute $10,000 of it to my current Roth IRA account. The person doing my taxes can't tell me why I can't make such a large contribution except for my low income - I am a disabled veteran on

  49. Can I roll over my IRA assets to a sheltered Canadian plan?

  50. What are the tax consequences of a Roth IRA distribution if the IRA holder is younger than 59.5?

  51. Are the deferred earnings in a SIMPLE IRA subject to FICA taxes?

  52. I have just been laid off. Can I use my 401(k) for living expenses now and report it as income next year?

  53. Are my IRAs secure against possible liens?

  54. How can I budget for both short-term expenses and long-term goals?

  55. I want to close my IRA account. What percentage will I lose to tax?

  56. Can I roll my 401(k) and/or IRA funds into a more liquid investment fund without penalty?

  57. I am considering taking a loan from my qualified retirement plan. What is the definition of a "reasonable interest rate"?

  58. Is my 403(b) account owned by me or by the institution?

  59. When should I take my Canadian Pension Plan distributions?

  60. My husband has become eligible for a 401(k) plan (with no matching contribution) at work. How do we get back the $9,000 that we already contributed to our IRA for 2005 without a penalty? My husband earns $144,000/year and we're both over 50 years old.

  61. Can I fund a Traditional IRA, a 403(b) or a Roth IRA using pension money? I'm 56 years old. What limits apply if I can?

  62. I earn more than the income limit for both a Roth and Traditional IRA deduction. Should I contribute anyway?

  63. I just learned that my 2004 and 2005 Roth IRA contributions are not allowed because my income exceeds the limits. Can I just withdraw the contributions plus earnings without penalty?

  64. If a company undergoes an acquisition can an employee withdraw 401(k) funds tax free?

  65. Can I still set up an SEP if one of my employees refuses to participate?

  66. Why should I bother creating a budget?

  67. What's the best kind of IRA for a 20-something?

  68. As a temporary resident of the US, can I withdraw funds from my Traditional IRA without penalty when I leave the country?

  69. My old company offers a 401(k) plan and my new employer only offers a 403(b) plan. Can I roll over the money in the 401(k) plan to this new 403(b) plan?

  70. Are the distribution rules for 401(k) and 403(b) plans the same as those for IRA plans?

  71. I am a first-time home buyer. If I take a distribution from my 401(k) to purchase land and a house, will I have to pay a penalty on this distribution? Also, what kind of form will I need to file with my taxes, showing the IRS that $10,000 went toward a ho

  72. I converted a Traditional IRA to a Roth. The conversion was a stock equity with a cost basis of $19,000 in the Traditional IRA. The day of conversion, the value was $34,000. Which amount should the brokerage house use for the 1099-R?

  73. I am retiree, drawing from my 403(b) annuity. I am the sole employee of my own business. Do I qualify for a SIMPLE IRA account? I want to defer some of my income from taxes.

  74. I am only 17 years old. I don't have a job or pay taxes. Can I contribute to an IRA?

  75. I am 61 years old and would like to contribute to my employer's 401(k) plan. Is there an age limit?

  76. Can I contribute to my company-sponsored 401(k) after the company's year-end but before its tax-filing date?

  77. Is my non-qualified Roth IRA distribution subject to taxes or early distribution penalties?

  78. How does online banking assist with budgeting?

  79. I have several CDs in my IRA with different maturities. Can I roll them over to another institution with a better rate as they mature?

  80. Can I establish more than one IRA?

  81. I recently and accidentally established a Roth IRA for my spouse instead of myself and contributed additional monies. What should I do?

  82. If I am entitled according to my divorce decree to a percentage of my ex-husband's IRA, how can I receive the assets due to me into my own IRA without being taxed? Will he be taxed when he makes the transfer? Will the money he may have to pay in taxes the

  83. I've heard that workers who don't roll over their 401(k)s after retiring face some problems related to estate planning. I was told it was some type of final 2002 government regulation. Is this true?

  84. My uncle died recently. He designated my mother and father as his beneficiaries in 1997, after his divorce, and did not make any changes after he remarried in 2000. My uncle's current spouse is now fighting for money from the plan. Does she have a leg t

  85. How can I make sure that past IRS errors have been corrected?

  86. Can I add my higher income spouse's name to my Roth IRA in order to raise our contribution limits?

  87. Can an IRA beneficiary roll the IRA over into another account and designate another beneficiary?

  88. Can my spouse and I combine our Traditional IRAs?

  89. Can I return funds to my Roth IRA after I have taken it as a distribution?

  90. Can a creditor seize my retirement savings?

  91. Can either a SEP IRA or a SIMPLE IRA be attached in a bankruptcy or malpractice action, or are they safe from any financial judgments like these?

  92. I will be receiving monies from a QDRO executed pursuant to my divorce. I would like to take a portion of the money as a distribution to pay for a new home. What are the tax implications of doing this?

  93. Does the five-year rule apply if a non-spouse inherits an IRA after the required beginning date and the required minimum distribution is not satisfied in the year of death?

  94. My husband has a 401(k) account which is 100% vested with an $8,000 balance. We are in foreclosure and need a hardship withdrawal. The investment management company which handles my husband's account says we can't withdraw anything because we have not con

  95. What is a good book on creating a trust that would qualify as the beneficiary for an IRA?

  96. Can IRAs be held jointly by spouses?

  97. My spouse and I now earn more than the dual-income limit specified by our IRAs. What will happen to our previous contributions?

  98. I have some stocks in a taxable account. Can I use them to fund my Roth IRA instead of using cash?

  99. What will happen to my SEP IRA if I leave my current employer?

  100. Are there special benefits for U.S. armed forces personnel?

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Last Questions Asked:
  1.

    Are 401(k) loans taxed?

  2. What pension benefits are available to military personnel?

  3. What should you do when you're five years from retiring?

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