William Perry

Comments

• Yesterday's post on Can I Retire Yet? titled What to do with a Windfall and a current baker's dozen comments addresses many of the same concerns you ask about in this HD forum post. You may find David Champion's post interesting. The what for and when funds will be used seem to be key and would be particular to the specific decisions each of us each of us makes with a windfall of cash. I expect liability matching and liquidity will be key to my decisions along with having a sufficient cash cushion for when my planning turns out wrong.

  Post: Should I Lock in CD Rates Now or Stay in Money Market?

  Link to comment from July 7, 2026

• The major factor I am concerned with is future unexpected inflation so my decision is to build out a rolling 10 years Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) ladder for a large part of the fixed asset portion of my retirement portfolio while keeping a money market balance for our primary emergency / annual known lumpy expenditures fund and keeping a mostly unused large HELOC I could draw if needed. I am 18 months out of having the TIPS ladder built and will roll the ladder rungs into our Roth accounts as circumstances make sense tax wise.

  Post: Should I Lock in CD Rates Now or Stay in Money Market?

  Link to comment from July 6, 2026

• Treasury updates through 7/6/2026 on IRC 530A accounts - On the IRS website the Treasury announced the official opening of the IRC 530A accounts on 7/4/2026, You can link to that press release here. Two of the key elements recently announced IRC 530A rules were -

  1. the initial lineups of investments that are eligible to be held. You can find a link to that article in the above link.
  2. The exception from the donor having to file a gift tax return for certain gifts that are deemed to be a future interest caused by the inability to withdraw from the 530A until the beneficiary is age 18.
  Initial Investment Options - At launch, all contributions to Trump Accounts will be invested in the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) Additionally Treasury has also selected the following additional low-cost index ETFs for the Trump Accounts investment lineup:
  • iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
  • State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM)
  • iShares Core S&P total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT)
  Gift Tax filing safe harbor - Rev. Proc. - 2026-25 The IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2026-25 which provides a gift tax reporting safe harbor for individual donors who make one or more contributions to Trump accounts under Sec. 530A and satisfy certain conditions. Key elements from the Rev. Proc. - SECTION 4. SCOPE .01 In general. The safe harbor described in section 5 of this revenue procedure applies for a particular calendar year only if all of the requirements of section 4.02 of this revenue procedure are met. .02 Requirements. (1) Taxpayer is an individual; (2) The only taxable gifts made by the taxpayer during the calendar year are cash contributions (in the form of cash, check, money order, or electronic funds transfer) to one or more Trump accounts, each made before the calendar year in which the account beneficiary attains age 18; (3) The taxpayer’s total gifts during the calendar year to each individual who is an account beneficiary, including contributions to that account beneficiary’s Trump account, do not exceed the annual exclusion amount under section 2503(b) ($19,000 for 2026); (4) Such contributions to Trump accounts made during the calendar year do not generate for that calendar year either a gift or GST tax liability, after application of the taxpayer’s remaining applicable credit amount against the gift tax, or remaining GST exemption; and (5) Disregarding the Trump account contributions described in section 4.02(2) of this revenue procedure, no gift tax return is required to be filed, and no gift tax return is otherwise filed, for that calendar year by or on behalf of the taxpayer, whether for GST tax, portability, or other purposes. SECTION 5. SAFE HARBOR If each of the requirements specified in section 4.02 of this revenue procedure is met for a calendar year in which a taxpayer makes contributions to one or more Trump accounts, each Trump account contribution made by the taxpayer during that calendar year will be treated as a completed gift to the account beneficiary that is not a future interest in property and to which the annual exclusion applies for purposes of gift tax, GST tax and gift tax reporting. As a result, taxpayers within the scope of section 4 of this revenue procedure will not be required to file a gift tax return reporting such contributions. No individual wants to take on the obligation to have to file a gift tax return every year they make any contribution to a 530A account and the IRS certainly does not want to process huge numbers of meaningless form 709 tax returns. This Rev. Proc. eliminates the need to file IRS form 709 for the vast majority of anyone who is choosing to make 530A contributions. This is an example of a good work around in my opinion.

  Post: IRS Notice 2025-68 – I’m trying to understand an aspect of the new tax law

  Link to comment from July 6, 2026

• I feel a similar disappointment in my state laws in that real property deeds in my state cannot provide for transfer at death where some US states do. A work around to avoid probate and still get step up in basis is transferring the property to a revocable living trust (RLT). I do not know if a RLT gambit is available in the UK for your stock but if I had stock from a demutualization that I wanted to be split among numerous heirs in the US I would consider a RLT to accomplish my intent as an alternative to the TOD. I wonder how difficult the probate is perceived in the UK.

  Post: Independence Day

  Link to comment from June 30, 2026

• Your heirs should get a stepped up basis on such stock to the fair market value on the date of your death and thus a quick post DOD sale will likely result in neither a taxable gain or loss or only a small immaterial gain/loss. While the gain/loss should be small or zero your heirs may prefer a transfer on death direct to them rather than the headache of the shares passing through probate.

  Post: Independence Day

  Link to comment from June 29, 2026

• Your statement - "Furthermore, closing the brokerage account simplifies my family’s financial footprint, making things easier for my spouse if something should happen to me." is a major financial decision filter for me except it is likely to be "when" rather than "if". Happy 4th D.J.

  Post: Independence Day

  Link to comment from June 29, 2026

• Mark Higgins writes in his 2024 book Investing in U.S. Financial History about Joseph Kennedy and the stock tip story about the shoeshine boy and in a footnote describes the tale as a "urban legend". As Mr. Higgins writes in his book that Mr. Kennedy was a banker who had made a fortune before the stock market crash by participating in "pool operations" in the 1920's which was one of the market manipulations that was subsequently banned by the SEC Act of 1934. President Roosevelt nominated Kennedy to be the first chairman of the SEC which Kennedy became and the SEC was later able to eliminate many of the Wall Street abuses that previously existed. I am enjoying reading Mr. Higgins book. It is almost 600 pages and I am about half way through.

  Post: Investment Wisdom

  Link to comment from June 27, 2026

• My guess is they are being proactive with their compliance with regulatory ownership caps and trying to head off potential future litigation for not meeting such disclosures. As they may have the right to sell most everywhere in the world they may be trying to meet not only US and EU requirements but every country and state that has regulatory requirements that they have to abide by. I received a similar notice. I hope someone can offer a reference to authoritative guidance.

  Post: Does Vanguard Know Something?

  Link to comment from June 26, 2026

• I also watched that YouTube video from the Bogleheads 2025 conference. The recommendation about adding TIPS was a one word reply, "yes", from both during the Q&A period.

  Post: What’s in your portfolio ?

  Link to comment from June 26, 2026

• Like Warren Buffett’s "too hard pile" where he discarded investment opportunities that were overly complex or outside his circle of competence I think the best professionals, either by choice or chance, narrow the areas they become expert in and where they practice.

  Post: Lessons Learned Along the Way

  Link to comment from June 26, 2026