Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Ask Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio network.
If you have an existing estate plan or in the
market for one, Todd Lutsky is here to answer your
questions and help you plan for later life. Ask Todd
is presented by Cushing and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New
England for more than thirty five years, helping families with
a state and tax planning, medicaid planning, and probate law.
(00:22):
Visit Cushingdolan dot com. Now Here's Todd Lutsky.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Todd A Lotsky from Cushigan Dolan joins us now for
Ask Todd. We got the phone lines open for your
estate planning questions. Eight eight eight to zero five two
two sixty three is the number again, That is eight
eight eight to zero five two two six three. We
can normally get through two to three calls, so make
(00:49):
sure that you get calling early in offense so you
can get in line to Ask Todd your estate planning questions.
That phone number is eight eight eight two zero five
two two six three. One more time it is eight
eight eight two zero five two two six three. Mister Lutsky,
how are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I am never better? And and how about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Doing well. Yeah, but I was looking at the news.
Are about the twenty twenty eight Olympics in Los Angeles?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, are we doing those? We are?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Did you see that Aladdin was banned from them? No,
banned from the Olympics performance enhancing rugs ah, I know,
it's a real problem, kind of sad. Let's talk a
little bit about IRA beneficiaries and kind of guidance as
it relates to, you know, estate planning and those bennies.
(01:42):
What's kind of been the long term conventional wisdom about
how you name IRA beneficiaries for you know, to coordinate
with your state plan.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah. So IRA is probably one of the more complicated
assets in a state planning. Remember state planning, we plan
for all your assets. But with an IRA, it's just
an added level of complexity because there's an income tax
component associated with the estate tax component. So many people
think that, oh, well it's an IRA, it's not you know,
(02:14):
it's not going to be a state taxable it's income taxable.
Well it's both. So even roths right, they're not income taxable,
but they're still included in your estate for state tax purposes,
so you kind of have to deal with them and
so you know, I think your question is what's the
common sort of approach to naming beneficiaries. And by the way,
there you could do like an eight hour seminar and
(02:35):
IRA beneficiary designations, but.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Let's not do that right now.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Let's not do that now. So so you know, common
approach would be surviving spouse generally should be the primary beneficiary,
and then the contingent beneficiary can be you know, children,
it's an option if you have children, or you might
(03:00):
name your estate planning trust, whether it be your revocable
family trust or your irrevocable trust if you've done perhaps
medicaid planning, so you could name a trust a beneficiary
after you die. So in other words, iras cannot go
into the trust while you're living without creating an adverse
(03:25):
income tax consequence. Right, let's face it. If I'm going
to take the IRA and put it in a trust,
it's an individual retirement account, which means it has to
be owned in your name. So in order to put
it into a trust, you would have to take the
assets out of it, which of course is a income
taxable event, and then put whatever's left after you pay
(03:46):
the tax into your trust. So we don't do that. However,
at death it can get there. So if you're naming
your children the beneficiaries, that's okay after your spouse. But
if you do that, you don't have any control over it,
no ability to protect it from future creditors, divorces how
they get it when they get it. But if you
(04:09):
name the trust the contingent beneficiary after the spouse, then
you give yourself a chance to say, all right, these
assets will now be held in a trust, protected from
future divorces of the kids, perhaps getting to a generation
below without a generation skipping tax applying. So there's benefits
(04:31):
to naming your trust as the beneficiary. That's the consensus generally.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Talking with Todd Lutski from the law firm of Cushing
and Dolan, we do have room on the phone lines
for you to ask your estate planning questions to Todd.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Right now live on air.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Number here is eight eight eight two zero five two
two six three again. We can usually only get through
two to three of these in any given show, so
make sure that you get your your call place that
you can chat with Todd right now again. E eight
to zero five two two sixty three is the number
to call We're gonna take a quick break here, but
(05:07):
when we return, we are going to get to your
questions for Todd again. That number is eight eight eight
to zero five two two six three.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Ask Todd with Todd Lutsky every Wednesday at ten thirty
only here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network. You're listening
to Ask Todd with Todd Lutsky on the Financial Exchange
Radio Network.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Still chatting with Todd Lutsky from the law firms Christandlan.
We do still have room on the phone lines at
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three.
You got questions for Todd about your estate plan, this
is your chance to ask them again. That number is
eight eight eight to zero five two two six three.
(06:03):
One more time. It's eight eight eight to zero five
two two six three.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Todd.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
We were talking beneficiaries for iras previously. Yeah, is there
anything that people can do as far as beneficiary designations
that may be able to help them from a qualifying
from medicaid perspective? Or is that kind of off the table.
There's nothing that you can really do there.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I think for the longest time the answer was there
was there was really nothing you could really do there. Uh,
you know, because again the idea of medicaid planning is
to set up irrevocable trusts and take as many of
your assets as you can now well you're healthy, and
put them in there, and after five years of them
(06:45):
being in there, they'd be protected from the nursing home.
That's kind of the objective. But with an IRA, as
we just explained, I can't take that money and put
it in there, So you're right. For the longest time,
it was like, what do I do? Not a lot? However,
now and I say now, meaning the Secure Act, remember
came out in I want to say Round two of
(07:07):
the Secure Act came out in twenty twenty two ish,
and that kind of changed the game. That changed the
rules a little. Now, you know, if you have attained
age seventy three, which I believe is the required beginning date,
they call it the RBD, it's the required beginning date
to take money from your IRA. So even though you
(07:30):
might retire at sixty five, you don't have to take
any money at that age. But when you reach seventy three,
you must start taking minimum distributions. So if you reach
that age, you can name the estate the beneficiary. Now
that sounds like a bad deal, but naming the estate
(07:51):
the beneficiary will force it through probate, which is only
one asset, one item, so it doesn't really matter, okay,
and then it goes into testamentary trust, so you always
have to do this coupled with a testamentary trust. And
then by putting it in that testamentary trust, what's going
to happen is it's going to be available for your
surviving spouse. This is if you die and never go
(08:11):
to a nursing home, which again is our goal right
when we do our planning, then that money would be
held for the benefit of the surviving spouse, who if
that spouse gets sick the next day or any time thereafter,
it's immediately protected from the nursing home for the kids.
So there's no five year waiting period. So it's really
(08:32):
a home run to do it. But there's a lot
of rules to understand when you're doing this, and that's
what this new guide for this month is all about.
And so it's you know, why name your estate and
ira beneficiary, right, that's the guide and it explains the
benefits of doing that from an income tax perspective and
(08:53):
estate tax perspective. It also shelters it from future estate taxes,
how it protects it from a nursing home, and again
most importantly, how it doesn't create any adverse income tax
consequences to the surviving spouse. So that is really, you know,
the game changer when it comes to doing these naming
(09:14):
the estate the beneficiary of an IRA in that regard,
you can also do this for life insurance so and
couple it with a testamentary trust. So those are the
things that are in there. Call and get the guide.
It's brand new for the month. It'll give you some
new ideas on a state planning for these tough to
plan for assets eight six six eight four eight five
(09:36):
six nine nine or Legal Exchange show dot com. You
can download it there again eight six six eight four
eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Top I get a question from Michelle in May and Michelle,
you're on with Todd Lutsky. What's your question?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
My significant others for one K, she's eight years older
than me upon his death, do I have to spend
that within ten years?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So you said, I think you beeped out on this part.
Just let me confirm you said you are a significant
other not married, correct, So that makes a great difference, right,
if you're not married, it changes the game a lot.
But let me ask you this. How old is your
significant other? Eighty eighty?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
How old are you seventy two?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Seventy two? So this is why when I explain this,
the age is going to matter. Right. So in this case,
first of all, do you know he's naming you as
a beneficiary?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Okay, because that would be the first you got to
get over that hurdle. So if he names you as
a beneficiary, there's rules that say, if it's going to
a child, it must come out over ten years. And
that's what you're asking me. Well, Todd, I'm not a child,
I'm a significant other. Well, there happens to be another
(11:06):
rule there. That's the general rule. So most of the time,
when you're not naming a spouse, most of the time
the assets need to be paid out over ten years.
So forget your life expectancy anymore. If you were a spouse.
Interestingly enough, in your situation, if he died tomorrow, you
(11:27):
would be able to delay taking minimum distributions until you
reach seventy three. Granted it's only one year but you
could delay for that year and then you could take
it out over your life expectancy, which would be what
longer than his because he's eighty, So that's a win
(11:49):
and likely longer than ten years. So that's a win,
you know, from an income tax perspective for everybody else listening.
Why that matters is the faster you take money out
of an IRA to hire the income tax bracket you
could be in. Right, So think about a lot of
children who have to take it out over ten years.
(12:10):
What if there's a million dollars sitting in an IRA
and you're an only child, right, Well, you could be
fifty when your parent dies. You might be making a
couple hundred thousand dollars a year. Well, now I'm going
to have to pull another one hundred thousand dollars a
year plus out, pushing me into an even higher income
tax bracket. I don't know where you are in this situation, Michelle,
(12:30):
but that's the idea for everybody else. Now back to you, Okay,
Well I'm not married, so I don't get that bonus.
What do I get? There happens to be one other exception. Well,
there's about four exceptions to the ten year rule. One
of the exceptions is if you happen to be a
minor child or a disabled child, then you can take
(12:54):
it out or over your lifetime. You don't have to
wait ten years or this. We said that was one
and here's the final one that you might fit into.
If you are the designated beneficiary and you are less
than ten years or less than younger than the participant,
(13:17):
so you are you're within that ten year window. Okay,
So you then would have the ability to take it
out over your life expectancy. So that's really a home
run for you. So you could take it out because
you're within that ten year window. You can take it
out over your life expectancy. That's good. But remember you
(13:37):
might need to do some planning for him because you
never know. Not being married, you have no rights if
he got sick and went to the nursing home. You know,
there's not being a spouse. You don't get to avail
yourself of any of the spousal rights in terms of
protecting these assets from the cost of long term care.
Long winded answer, I know, But folks, when you're dealing
(13:59):
with an IRA, that's what happens. Iras have problems.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Todd any final thoughts on beneficiaries and estate planning, just
that you want to mention here.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, I know we were talking about iras a lot
and trying to do last minute planning protecting assets from
the nursing home. Think about it also with a life
insurance policy, folks, if you have a life insurance policy
and you're trying to protect it from the nursing home,
likely if you're making premium payments, you're not going to
be able to put that into an irrevocable trust while
you're living. And so when you die, if you're married,
(14:31):
you can name the estate the beneficiary, just like we
were talking about doing with an IRA, and that way
it would flow into this testamentary trust and again be
sheltered from a state taxes be available for the surviving
spouse to enjoy those dollars from that life insurance policy.
(14:52):
And again, because it flowed through probate to get to
this item, to get to this trust, the s viving
spouse can get sick the next day and there's no
five year waiting period and those assets in there would
be not only protect they'd be protected from the nursing
home for the for the kids. So that's that's a thought.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Mister Lutski, Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Always a pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
This has been Asked Odd on the Financial Exchange Radio
network Ask Todd with Todd. Lutsky has been presented by
Cushing and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and New England for more
than thirty years, helping families with the state and tax planning,
Medicaid planning, and probate law. Call eight hundred and three
nine three four thousand and one or visit Cushingdolan dot com.
The views expressed in this segment are solely those of
(15:36):
Cushing and Dolan Armstrong advisor. He does not provide any
legal or tax advice. Please consult with your legal or
tax advisor on such matters. Cushing and Armstrong do not
endorse each other and are not affiliated.