Creating a self-directed IRA is relatively straightforward. It is not a creation of the tax code, but rather stems from the investment policies of the custodian that administers the IRA account. The agreement will allow you to diversify your IRA assets across a wide range of investments that you choose. However, when investing self-directed IRA assets, it is important that you and your advisor understand the types of transactions to avoid. These transactions, called “prohibited transactions,” can lead to serious tax consequences, including the disqualification of your IRA assets.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag answers reader questions about delaying RMDs from an employer plan and IRA rollovers.

If you have an IRA, you should realize that what goes in must come out. In other words, your tax deferral will not last forever. Eventually, Uncle Sam will want his share. When you reach retirement age, required minimum distributions (RMDs) will kick in. Are you prepared? Take our RMD quiz and see how well you understand the basic RMD rules.

Roth IRAs become 20 years old in January of 2018 and now hold more than $660 billion in retirement wealth, reports the Investment Company Institute. Yet while Roth IRAs have become very popular among individuals who make annual contributions to IRAs, they are near totally avoided by persons who roll over big-dollar distributions from company retirement plans into their IRAs, with these funds going overwhelmingly into Traditional IRAs.

While there is a lot of focus on the proposed tax law changes that have a target effective date of 2018, there is something we can count on for 2018, the inflation adjusted retirement account limits. There are currently no proposed changes to the following limits.