The Slott Report

Horror stories are tough to hear. Below we share a story from someone given poor advice by his financial advisor. We also answer two other questions in this week's installment of The Slott Report Mailbag.

Do you have a Required Minimum Distribution in 2011? These questions come up at the beginning of each year. When do I have to take my first distribution? What age do I use? Do I have to wait until I actually turn 70 ½? Click to read the answers to these questions.

As part of Morningstar.com's IRA Improvement Week, Ed Slott talked to Christine Benz about the pressing IRA issues facing YOU on a daily basis. Below is the interview broken down into 4 separate videos.

An interesting article from TheStreet (www.thestreet.com) talked about a review of Bank of America's year-end business in Roth IRA conversions. Click to read the findings from this article.

Divorce can often take an emotional and financial toll on a family. But far too often, the financial toll is made worse by poor decision making, foolish actions or simply, just poor advice. Below is a brief overview of the procedures that should generally be followed when splitting retirement accounts pursuant to a divorce so that you can avoid many of the common mistakes.

Here is Ed Slott's interview with Tracey Byrnes on the Willis Report, talking about Roth Conversion Planning. The interview is from late December, but still applies if you decided to do a 2010 Roth Conversion. Click to watch the video.

If you did a Roth conversion in 2010, you will need to file Form 8606 with your 2010 tax return. There is no escaping this unless you do a total recharacterization of your Roth conversion. Click to read more about Form 8606.

A 10% early withdrawal penalty applies to taxable funds withdrawn from a traditional IRA before the account owner attains age 59 ½ unless an exception applies. The same penalty (with its own set of exceptions) also applies on distributions made from most employer-sponsored retirement plans, unless the payment is due to the participant’s separation from service in a year in which he or she attains age 55 or older. Click to read about two tax traps that will trip up an unsuspecting consumer and trigger the 10% penalty.

With the signing of the 2010 Tax Act last week, qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs have been extended for 2010 and 2011 – with a twist.

We have begun to receive the official numbers behind the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 President Obama will sign into law likely later today. Click to read the IRS Notice.