S_Carver

Comments:

• I was thinking about this topic last week because a recent Clark Howard article on 401(k) safety (https://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/investing-retirement/is-a-401k-safer-than-an-ira/ ) reminded me to look into whether my 403(b) retirement accounts have ERISA protections like a 401(k) does. It ends up my 403(b) does not have ERISA protection. Apparently some 403(b) providers do meet the requirements for ERISA protection, and some don’t: https://www.standard.com/brokers-advisors/retirement/in-the-loop/erisa-vs-non-erisa-403b-plans-primer ; https://blakeharrislaw.com/blog/retirement-income-and-protection-plan . State protection of tIRA and Roth IRA assets from creditors varies with state, as Jonathan provided a table of. Putting this together, for my combination of tIRAs, Roth IRAs, inherited IRA, non-ERISA 403(b)s, and non-retirement accounts, for my particular state, I found that the majority of my savings is not protected from creditors. I have some creditor protection from a high level of auto liability insurance, plus the liability insurance within my homeowners policy. I also have an umbrella liability policy, for additional coverage.  But after reviewing my current numbers I realized I was far from adequately protected from creditors, so I tripled my umbrella liability coverage, largely to make up for the lack of ERISA protections on my 403(b)s. Fortunately, umbrella liability coverage is very cheap compared to many other insurance products.

  Post: When you retire, should you move your retirement savings to IRA or leave it in 401K plan?

  Link to comment from August 13, 2024

• Bill, Thank you for your time and detailed response. You have given me good specific things to ask the custodian, and an IRS pub to look at.

  Post: New Inherited IRA RMD final rules

  Link to comment from July 20, 2024

• William, Thank you for this information. With your knowledge, would you know the answer to the following question for inherited tIRA RMD rules? BACKGROUND: My wife’s mother passed 2.5 years ago, so her children all received an inherited tIRA.  My wife’s brother just passed recently. He was in his 50’s, well below the age of required beginning date (RBD), and he did not take any distributions in the 2.5 years since he had the inherited IRA. (The mother had taken her RMD in the year of her passing). Now the bother’s inherited IRA is to be passed to the next generation, who are all far below the age of RBD. QUESTION: for the next generation, does the 10-year clock start again with the date of the brother’s passing? Or do they have 10 years from the date of their grandmother’s passing, 2.5 years ago, so they only have 7.5 years to empty the account? Thanks.

  Post: New Inherited IRA RMD final rules

  Link to comment from July 20, 2024

• David, Rather than paying for a MS Office subscription, you could instead use the equivalent free open source LibreOffice <https://www.libreoffice.org/> , it works fine with MS office file formats, (or google docs is an option if you don’t mind web based software).

  Post: Shouting Out

  Link to comment from June 23, 2024

• Jackie, This article and your question motivated me to go back and reread a prior HD discussion of dividend paying funds: https://humbledollar.com/2023/01/death-to-dividends/. While the author of the article argues against dividend paying funds to generate income, the many comments discuss that and alternate views, and include other suggestions of dividend funds to consider, such as VIG Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vig, and VYM Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vym. I found the discussion on the “death to dividends” article very educational.

  Post: Foolishly Fixated

  Link to comment from July 9, 2023

• David, Thank you for the good planning advice. Re: "Jonathan wrote a nice article about his own health plan shopping experience which was helpful." I just tried to find this article by searching using keywords, and by attempting to scroll through the list of all the articles written Mr. Clements (my scrolling finger wore out before I reached the end of the list). The article you refer to would be very useful to me as I am starting to research health plans. Could you provide a link to the specific article? Thanks.

  Post: Kicking the Habit

  Link to comment from May 17, 2023

• rgscl: Thanks for the further information. I had read a mention of an annuity with LTC rider at the end of this HD article <https://humbledollar.com/money-guide/hybrid-insurance-policies/ >, plus I have carefully re-read this article and your related comments <https://humbledollar.com/2022/09/prepare-for-care/> . “dizzying” as you say there. I’ll look at the one you mentioned above. Thanks.

  Post: What I Don’t Own

  Link to comment from March 6, 2023

• mytimetotravel: Thanks for taking the time to respond. If I were single I would be shopping for a place to put a CCRC deposit, due to what I have learned of them from HD content including your previous postings, and other research done. I visited one several years ago when a student on mine was doing a summer internship there, and I left after a few hours thinking that once I can’t manage a home, that place would be great. I have some future discussions with my wife to see if she will agree. Also, thanks for the tech support help.

  Post: What I Don’t Own

  Link to comment from March 5, 2023

• James McGGlynn: Thanks for taking the time to respond. I did look at a hybrid Whole Life with LTC rider. I found that compared to a traditional LTC policy from the same company, the hybrid policy provided less LTC coverage for a higher premium, albeit a fixed premium, while adding life insurance I didn’t need.

  Post: What I Don’t Own

  Link to comment from March 5, 2023

• rgscl: Thanks for taking the time to respond. I don’t have an old whole life policy to convert to LTCI, so not an option for me.

  Post: What I Don’t Own

  Link to comment from March 5, 2023