The Slott Report

A "Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees" (SIMPLE), is a retirement plan for small businesses that uses a special IRA (called a SIMPLE IRA) as the funding vehicle. November 1, 2012 is the deadline for employers who are continuing to offer a SIMPLE IRA plan for next year to send you a notification.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag comes LIVE from The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as we get ready for Ed Slott's 2-Day IRA Workshop this Saturday and Sunday. We answered questions on Roth conversions, the Roth IRA 5-year rules, and where an IRA goes at your death.

If your employer offers a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) plan, it's very similar to a profit sharing plan, except that contributions are placed into your designated SEP IRA. Once the funds are in your IRA, you own and control your own money. Your employer does not control the money after it's been deposited in your SEP IRA.

The Slott Report is going on the road this week to Las Vegas, Nevada for Ed Slott's 2-Day IRA Workshop, Instant IRA Success, on Saturday, September 29 and Sunday, September 30 at The Cosmopolitan. There is still time to join us LIVE this weekend in Las Vegas. If you can't make it to Las Vegas this weekend, there are still ways to share in the experience.

An IRA account owner is trying to keep things simple or just does not get around to changing a beneficiary form. Only one person ends up being named on the beneficiary form. The account owner exacts a promise from that person that they will make sure that the account is split between all the children, or all the grandchildren, or all the siblings or whoever is important to the account owner. The unwitting beneficiary agrees to this since, after all, it is only fair that the account be split.

As crisp temperatures and autumn colors cascade through our neighborhoods, people start eying year-end IRA and tax planning. We saw it in this week's Slott Report Mailbag with questions about a Roth conversion and paying the tax associated with it, distributions from inherited IRAs and the rules regarding what you can and can't do with RMDs (required minimum distributions).

Retirement planning is a serious issue, a technical issue, one that involves very intricate terminology and an advanced, educated financial team to make sense of it all. But, sometimes, the basics can be broken down in interesting ways, hence The Slott Report's IRA, retirement and tax planning limericks.

Hurricane Isaac, which began on August 26, 2012, did considerable flooding and wind damage to parts of the U.S., especially Louisiana and Mississippi. Some areas in those states were declared federal disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

If you're like the majority of people - including financial advisors and accountants - here's something you probably don't know. IRA does NOT technically stand for individual retirement account. Instead, the IRA stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement. If you don't believe me, just check out IRS Publication 590. It's right there on the cover. With that said, let's discuss what each of these three little words means in a little more detail.

IRAs are not only different, but the rules governing them can be difficult. The Slott Report Mailbag is here to wade through the intricate details and help consumers make the right choices for their retirement plans, and steer them to able, educated financial advisors who can help them fill in the blanks. This week we received questions on the once-per-year rollover rule, buying a building with your IRA, and what qualifies has a hardship distribution.