When a spouse dies, most often the surviving spouse simply rolls the decedents IRA into their own. This works great if you are over 59.5 yrs. old. Recently, I met with a widow who is only 57 and needs income. She told me she wanted to receive her husband’s IRA as an inherited IRA; I have never seen this done by a spousal beneficiary before. Generally, inherited IRA accounts are opened when a non-spousal beneficiary receives an IRA due to death of the owner.
It turns out that a spouse can open an inherited IRA also, take withdrawals immediately, and avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
I love learning new things – don’t you?

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http://cflwomensjournal.com/nancy-hecht-certified-financial-group-inc

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Here is the article I was interviewed for.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102695798

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When kids graduate from high school or college a lot changes in a family. With high school graduation, you may have more expenses associated with college; with a college graduation, it may become “empty nest” time. These are big changes for the parents as well as the students. We see an increase in divorce, as well as downsizing, at graduation time.
I always feel that change is good and moving is often one of the biggest changes. If you are moving due to divorce, there is much more to consider than downsizing. Your family will now be maintaining two homes and, obviously, this will cost more. You must also consider how to divide furniture, family keepsakes, and how to maintain a place for your kids when they come home. When downsizing, the changes are often easier, as well as less stressful.
In either case, please talk to your kids about what keepsakes they want, where you plan to live, and who will live where (or have a spare room), when home on breaks or for a visit.
Selling your family home is a big deal and big change for everyone in the family

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You have finally reached your finish line – congratulations! While retirement means different things to different people, there are a few points that can mess up everyone’s retirement. Please don’t make these mistakes:

Underestimate your medical costs.
We are living longer – this may be good – maybe it isn’t. Medical care is an expense that you need to overestimate. The average 65 yr. old couple can spend up to $260,000 in health care costs over their lifetime, many exceeding $570,000 when you factor in long term care needs.

Claiming Social Security too soon.
If you retire at age 62 and claim your social security at that time, you will take a permanent 25% cut in benefits. As mentioned above, we are living longer. If you can wait until your full retirement age or longer, you will be much better off. For each year beyond full retirement age that you defer your social security payment, you will receive an 8% increase in monthly income. You can defer up to age 70, increasing your social security by as much as 32% for most recipients.

Only thinking about your numbers.
You’ve looked at your social security and pension options, paid off your home, made peace with your taxes, now what? Economically, your retirement is set. What are you going to do with your time? You need to have a reason to get up every day – planning for this is just as important as planning the numbers. Will you work part time? Volunteer? Take classes? Babysit your grandkids? You need to plan your retirement lifestyle now, before you retire.

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Most of us have finished with our taxes for 2014; it is time to start thinking about this year. How often do you review your non-retirement portfolio? You may have some stocks or mutual funds that are winners, others may be lemons.
By selling off the lemons and matching those sales with taking some of your gains off of the table, you may be able to make those gains tax free. Remember, you have to match short term to short term, and long term to long term. If you do not have enough in gains to offset your losses, you may use up to $3000/year or carry the excess forward.

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I was listening to a competitors’ radio show over the weekend and was not very happy with what I was hearing. They kept talking about a “new asset class” of investment that is, in my opinion, anything but that. The hook is you can have all of the upside of investing but no risk to your principal + lifetime income. Another point they made was the investor did not have to pay any fees or commissions. What were they talking about? Fixed index annuities.
I have been in business for 32yrs and annuities have been around longer than that. Index annuities of any type need to be reviewed with a fine tooth comb. There are many different features and rules written into all of them. As far as paying an agent goes, true, you may not directly pay a fee or commission, but believe me, they are well compensated. Many annuities have 10yrs. or more of large surrender charges – I am not a fan of this at all. The formulas used to calculate how you are credited gains often times are very confusing.
If you are considering investing in an index annuity, read everything and ask a lot of questions. This, like any investment you choose, should be easy for you to explain to a 5yr old. Be an informed investor.

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