Jim and Chris discuss listener emails on Social Security benefits for a family with a disabled adult child, survivor benefits, ERISA vs. non-ERISA 403(b) protections, a listener PSA on Monte Carlo simulations, special needs trusts, and how a revocable living trust handles a primary home transfer.

(5:00) A listener asks whether her husband’s early Social Security filing while still working would suspend her child-in-care benefits, and whether his benefit would be recalculated to his Full Retirement Age amount once the earnings limit no longer applies.

(20:20) George wonders whether survivor benefits for his wife would be based on his age-70 amount or her Full Retirement Age amount.

(25:15) Jim and Chris take a question about the differences between ERISA and non-ERISA 403(b) protections, and whether state IRA protections offer comparable coverage.

(39:45) The guys share a listener PSA pointing them to a recent Retirement Answer Man episode on Monte Carlo simulations.

(44:00) Georgette enquires which assets belong in a special needs trust and how to structure it tax-efficiently.

(54:45) A listener asks how a primary home transfers to children through a revocable living trust and what the selling process looks like.

The post Social Security, ERISA, Trusts: Q&A #2616 appeared first on The Retirement and IRA Show.

Chris’s Summary
Jim and I are joined by Jake as we discuss tax rules and mistakes through two tax-focused PSAs before moving into listener emails. Jake covers a denied non-cash charitable deduction due to an incomplete Form 8283 and missing contemporaneous documentation, then walks through how estimated tax payments and safe harbor rules are calculated from prior-year tax liability. We then address listener emails on establishing home basis after a spouse’s death, how the senior deduction is reduced for married couples, and comparing IRA versus Roth withdrawal strategies.

Jim’s “Pithy” Summary
Chris and I are joined by Jake as we spend some time on two tax-focused PSAs from Jake before getting into listener emails. Jake walks through a tax court case where a non-cash charitable donation was denied because Form 8283 wasn’t completed correctly and the required documentation wasn’t done at the time—even though the donation itself was valid. This highlights how strict tax rules and mistakes around them can cost you. He also breaks down estimated tax payments—those quarterly amounts that show up on your return after you’ve already paid what you owed—and how they’re calculated off the prior year to get you into the safe harbor.

We then get into a situation involving a home purchased in the early 1970s, no improvements over the years, a spouse passing in a community property state, and now the question of what the basis actually is and how to determine it years later without anything documented at the time, which is more common than you’d think. There’s also a question on the senior deduction where the reduction ends up applying to each spouse, which changes the expected result. Finally, we look at two different withdrawal approaches using traditional IRA and Roth accounts over the next few years, and how those choices shift balances and taxes depending on how the income is sourced and what you’re actually trying to accomplish with it.

The post Tax Rules and Mistakes: EDU #2615 appeared first on The Retirement and IRA Show.

Jim and Chris discuss listener emails on Social Security claiming strategies, financial education electives for a college student, a listener PSA on podcast word counts, inheritance planning, and SEP IRA conversions.

(11:15) A listener planning to delay Social Security to 70 asks whether proposed benefit caps should change that strategy. He also asks Chris for financial education course recommendations for his son at CSU.

(35:45) The guys address a question from someone who discovered SSA shows zero earnings on their work record for a year they actually worked, following an overpayment dispute, and whether submitting a W-2 can correct the record and trigger retroactive back pay.

(43:45) Jim and Chris share a PSA on podcast word counts, with a speaker-by-speaker breakdown to crown the King and Prince of Word Count.

(49:30) A listener wants to create four separate Roth IRA accounts, each with one of their four adult children named as beneficiary, with the idea that any lifetime gifts to that child come out of their future inherited share. They ask whether this approach is more complicated than it needs to be.

(1:09:30) George asks whether the money his son placed in a traditional SEP IRA can be converted to Roth, and how the IRS would treat it.

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