In one of Suze Orman's PBS specials about estate planning documents, she made a comment that I found very intriguing at the time, something to the effect of "planning for death is easy, its incapacity situations that can be hard." It is important to make sure that future incapacity situations are properly prepared for and understood by relevant family stakeholders, whether the guiding document is a revocable living trust or power of attorney.
Thanks for the explanation. A technical clarification would be that Treasury Direct won't send out a 1099-INT, but rather you would log into your account and pull the tax form. The menu flow is "Manage Direct", "Manage My Taxes" and look for the correct year. There will be a form link if there were any taxable transactions for the year.
In a sort of reverse scenario, I suppose I could have my adult daughter gift me an amount every year up to the annual gift limit. I would invest those funds in a separate brokerage account with her as the beneficiary. She would get the account at my passing with a step-up in basis. No taxes for her even though she was the original source of the funding.
Of course, this would need to be funds earmarked for the appropriate time horizon.
I agree that allowing these private asset investments in 401(k) plans is not a great idea, certainly without any investment limits. I'm not overly concerned that many plan participants will explore these investment options. My past experience managing 401(k) plans with self-directed brokerage account portals is that less than 1% of plan participants bothered to explore that option. I suppose modern social media mania might goad some people to blindly stumble into making bad decisions in this area, but perhaps plan participant inertia will continue to rule the day.
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In one of Suze Orman's PBS specials about estate planning documents, she made a comment that I found very intriguing at the time, something to the effect of "planning for death is easy, its incapacity situations that can be hard." It is important to make sure that future incapacity situations are properly prepared for and understood by relevant family stakeholders, whether the guiding document is a revocable living trust or power of attorney.
Post: The Financial Stress a Simple Document Could Have Prevented
Link to comment from May 31, 2026
Thanks for the explanation. A technical clarification would be that Treasury Direct won't send out a 1099-INT, but rather you would log into your account and pull the tax form. The menu flow is "Manage Direct", "Manage My Taxes" and look for the correct year. There will be a form link if there were any taxable transactions for the year.
Post: Treasury Tax Reporting
Link to comment from March 28, 2026
In a sort of reverse scenario, I suppose I could have my adult daughter gift me an amount every year up to the annual gift limit. I would invest those funds in a separate brokerage account with her as the beneficiary. She would get the account at my passing with a step-up in basis. No taxes for her even though she was the original source of the funding. Of course, this would need to be funds earmarked for the appropriate time horizon.
Post: Capital Gains Planning
Link to comment from January 15, 2026
I agree that allowing these private asset investments in 401(k) plans is not a great idea, certainly without any investment limits. I'm not overly concerned that many plan participants will explore these investment options. My past experience managing 401(k) plans with self-directed brokerage account portals is that less than 1% of plan participants bothered to explore that option. I suppose modern social media mania might goad some people to blindly stumble into making bad decisions in this area, but perhaps plan participant inertia will continue to rule the day.
Post: Hedge funds, venture capital. private equity, etc. in a 401k. BAD IDEA!
Link to comment from August 9, 2025