This workshop is similar to the one I give to financial planners, CPAs and attorneys all over the country.

Accumulation Planning

• New contribution limits to existing retirement plans give working employees the ability to tax shelter and defer more funds than ever.  Learn what is allowed and what you should do.

Retirement Planning

• Retirement Plan Distribution Options: Many retirees misunderstand or are unfamiliar with their retirement options.  This section will focus on what your retirement plan is likely to allow and our recommended response.
• IRS Minimum Required Distributions Rules: This section covers what the IRS requires you to withdraw from your retirement plan during your lifetime, and your heirs after your lifetime.  We also address how to handle minimum required distributions.
• I also address the final regulations passed in April 2002 which lower minimum required distributions both during your life and after your death.

Estate Planning

• After the new law passed, we developed what we think is the best estate planning strategy for  IRA and retirement plan owners: Lange's Cascading Beneficiary Plan.  Our idea won the praise of Jane Bryant Quinn, Kiplinger's Retirement Report and others.  We published the idea in the top peer reviewed tax and financial planning journals.  The workshop addresses both traditional approaches and Lange's Cascading Beneficiary Plan.

Many individuals and retirees will enjoy substantial benefits from a Roth IRA conversion. If you assume you will not benefit from a Roth IRA conversion, you have never seen an objective analysis of the numbers.  Our objective analysis proves that for many individuals, a Roth IRA conversion provides  a tremendous benefit.  Unlike other estate planning techniques, the Roth IRA conversion is both good for you and great for your heirs.  We show you how and why.  After explaining the economics, we cover two additional original ideas that could easily result in thousands, perhaps millions of dollars to your family.

• The more important of the two ideas examines a unique strategy of converting funds from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.  After the conversion, depending on how your investments do, you can consider “recharacterizing” or unconverting a portion or all of your Roth IRA.  If the investment goes up, you win and no recharacterizing is necessary.  If the investment goes down, you “unconvert” and are no worse off than if you had never converted.  The point is that it may pay to be extremely aggressive in determining how much to convert knowing that you can recharacterize or “unconvert” as long as you meet the time requirements specified by the IRS.  This idea has been published in my articles in Financial Planning magazine, Journal of Retirement Planning and others. I was also quoted on this subject in the Wall Street Journal Online.
   
• The second idea demonstrates the advantages of converting nondeductible IRAs and nondeductible portions of your retirement plan to a Roth IRA with no resulting income tax liability. This idea also appeared in CCH's peer reviewed Journal of Retirement Planning.

Let's try to keep things simple.  Section 529 saving plans are the best way for wealthy taxpayers to save for college.  Even for taxpayers of moderate means, the 529 Plans provide enormous opportunities.  Within limits and subject to qualification, Section 529 Plans:

• Provide income tax-free growth.

• Give you the freedom to change beneficiaries within the family, including first cousins.
• Offer substantial control over the asset allocation of the investment.
• Allow you to divert the fund from the beneficiary back to the contributor and use the proceeds for non-qualifying purposes (subject to a 10% penalty). 
• Are excluded from the estate of the contributor.
• Can have extremely low costs.

These six factors make the decision to invest in a 529 Plan compelling, particularly for wealthy grandparents.  Learn details during this workshop.  We also examine the downside of 529 Plans.

Tom's workshop was also so well attended in the fall that we had to open additional sessions.  We are pleased Tom is returning for our winter workshops.

If you wait until you need long-term care to think about how to pay for it, you have waited too long.  Don't put yourself in the position of having to make critical decisions in a crisis.  Tom will discuss the alternatives for funding the expense of long-term care (LTC).  There are three options to evaluate: Medicaid, paying for it privately and buying insurance.

• Medicaid: There are a limited number of actions you can take to conserve non-exempt assets if you need long-term care through Medicaid. Tom will present an overview of Medicaid qualifications, how they assess your resources, which assets are exempt and which are non-exempt, as well as other rules and regulations imposed by the federal government.
   

• Paying for Long-Term Care Privately: This is ultimately a very expensive proposition.  The drain on your finances can severely compromise your spouse's standard of living.  Tom will discuss the average cost of care in the Pittsburgh area in comparison to the cost of care in other areas of the country.
   

• Buying Insurance: Tom will examine how the structure of coverage can substantially affect the cost of LTC insurance.  He provides a cost/benefit grid for coverage purchased at different ages, and he compares and contrasts the key policy provisions among the major LTC insurers.

Common to All Workshops

All the speakers use PowerPoint presentations and distribute a hard copy of the slides as well as other supplemental material.  We use an excellent sound system so you will be able to hear us clearly.  Refreshments will be served.