Clint Eastwood playing “Dirty Harry” warns, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” This advice is particularly appropriate for financial planners and advisors who are giving advice beyond their expertise. Though I am biased because I have over 27 years of technical expertise in the IRA and retirement plan area, the lack of knowledge in this area can cost clients hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
I have seen financial planners without an adequate background in IRAs and retirement plans, acting without advice from counsel or even advice from other experts in the financial planning area, make enormously costly mistakes. That is costly to the clients, not the advisor. IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes That Can Accelerate Acceleration of Income Taxes and Can Cost You Up to a Million Dollars or More!
For example one advisor had both a father and son as clients. The father died leaving his IRA to his son. The advisor promptly transferred the IRA from the father’s name to the son’s name? Sounds o.k. to you? But it isn’t o.k. If you transfer an inherited IRA to a non-spouse beneficiary without a special designation like “inherited IRA of Dad for the benefit of Son” you cause immediate income tax acceleration for the IRA beneficiary. So rather than having the ability to stretch an IRA or defer taxes for forty years, the son had to pay the taxes on the entire IRA distribution the year after his father died. Using reasonable assumptions, this mistake cost the son one million dollars over his lifetime.
Another time, a 55 year old retires from his company with a million dollars in a retirement plan. The advisor recommends using an IRC Code 72(t) election for the entire million dollars. Only a fraction of that money was needed for cash flow between ages 55 and 59. The result of the faulty advice was unnecessary massive acceleration of income taxes between ages 55 and 59. The appropriate response would have been to make an IRC 72(t) election for part of the IRA, not all of it.
Neither of these advisors is a bad person. As far as I know they might be wonderful spouses and loving parents. In fact, they could even be excellent money managers or product experts who have given excellent investment advice to hundreds of their clients. Where they failed, however, is not taking the time to become educated about IRAs and retirement plans or not seeking any additional help when they were confronted with issues related to IRAs and retirement plans.
It also grieves me to say that these types of mistakes are all too common and that terrible advice regarding IRAs and retirement plans is routinely provided to millions of clients. Avoid These Costly IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes Do Your Research
If you are an advisor reading this, my suggestion, would be to read, study and attend some good seminars that will bring you up to speed on IRAs, Roth IRAs, and other retirement planswith good information you can really add value for your clients. Excellent sources for information include books by Seymour Goldberg, Ed Slott, Robert Keebler, Natalie Choate, Gregory Kolojeski, and of course my own book Retire Secure!.
If you are a client looking for an advisor and you have a significant IRA, I would suggest that you learn something about IRAs by reading a book by one of the authors mentioned above or conducting some other research. At a minimum, ask an advisor what expertise they have in IRAs and retirement plans. If the advisor’s answer is, “What do you want to know?” I would repeat the question, “What expertise do you have in IRAs and retirement plans?” If they provide some vague information, ask them what books they have read, seminars they have attended, or can they show you any credentials that would certify their expertise in the IRA or retirement planning area.
Lack of expertise in the IRA and retirement plan area could, in many cases, be of more consequence than an advisor’s ability to pick the appropriate investments.
Expert advice is particularly important during life’s significant transitions such as retirement and planning for your estate. Incidentally, important transitions are also a great time to have money transferred to a new money manager, one who hopefully is competent with IRA and retirement plan issues.

Clint Eastwood playing “Dirty Harry” warns, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” This advice is particularly appropriate for financial planners and advisors who are giving advice beyond their expertise. Though I am biased because I have over 27 years of technical expertise in the IRA and retirement plan area, the lack of knowledge in this area can cost clients hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
I have seen financial planners without an adequate background in IRAs and retirement plans, acting without advice from counsel or even advice from other experts in the financial planning area, make enormously costly mistakes. That is costly to the clients, not the advisor. IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes That Can Accelerate Acceleration of Income Taxes and Can Cost You Up to a Million Dollars or More!
For example one advisor had both a father and son as clients. The father died leaving his IRA to his son. The advisor promptly transferred the IRA from the father’s name to the son’s name? Sounds o.k. to you? But it isn’t o.k. If you transfer an inherited IRA to a non-spouse beneficiary without a special designation like “inherited IRA of Dad for the benefit of Son” you cause immediate income tax acceleration for the IRA beneficiary. So rather than having the ability to stretch an IRA or defer taxes for forty years, the son had to pay the taxes on the entire IRA distribution the year after his father died. Using reasonable assumptions, this mistake cost the son one million dollars over his lifetime.
Another time, a 55 year old retires from his company with a million dollars in a retirement plan. The advisor recommends using an IRC Code 72(t) election for the entire million dollars. Only a fraction of that money was needed for cash flow between ages 55 and 59. The result of the faulty advice was unnecessary massive acceleration of income taxes between ages 55 and 59. The appropriate response would have been to make an IRC 72(t) election for part of the IRA, not all of it.
Neither of these advisors is a bad person. As far as I know they might be wonderful spouses and loving parents. In fact, they could even be excellent money managers or product experts who have given excellent investment advice to hundreds of their clients. Where they failed, however, is not taking the time to become educated about IRAs and retirement plans or not seeking any additional help when they were confronted with issues related to IRAs and retirement plans.
It also grieves me to say that these types of mistakes are all too common and that terrible advice regarding IRAs and retirement plans is routinely provided to millions of clients. Avoid These Costly IRA & Retirement Planning Mistakes Do Your Research
If you are an advisor reading this, my suggestion, would be to read, study and attend some good seminars that will bring you up to speed on IRAs, Roth IRAs, and other retirement planswith good information you can really add value for your clients. Excellent sources for information include books by Seymour Goldberg, Ed Slott, Robert Keebler, Natalie Choate, Gregory Kolojeski, and of course my own book Retire Secure!.
If you are a client looking for an advisor and you have a significant IRA, I would suggest that you learn something about IRAs by reading a book by one of the authors mentioned above or conducting some other research. At a minimum, ask an advisor what expertise they have in IRAs and retirement plans. If the advisor’s answer is, “What do you want to know?” I would repeat the question, “What expertise do you have in IRAs and retirement plans?” If they provide some vague information, ask them what books they have read, seminars they have attended, or can they show you any credentials that would certify their expertise in the IRA or retirement planning area.
Lack of expertise in the IRA and retirement plan area could, in many cases, be of more consequence than an advisor’s ability to pick the appropriate investments.
Expert advice is particularly important during life’s significant transitions such as retirement and planning for your estate. Incidentally, important transitions are also a great time to have money transferred to a new money manager, one who hopefully is competent with IRA and retirement plan issues.

Many peopleperhaps youfeel they cannot afford to save for retirement. The truth is you may very well be able to afford to save, but you don’t realize it. That’s right. I am going to present a rationale to persuade you to contribute more than you think you can afford.
First, I am operating on assumption that you are following the cardinal rule of saving for retirement: If your employer offers a matching contribution to your retirement plan you are contributing whatever your employer is willing to matcheven if it is only a percentage of your contribution and not a dollar for dollar match.
Now, let’s assume you have been contributing only the portion that your employer is willing to match and yet you barely have enough money to get by week to week. Does it still make sense to make non-matched contributions or Roth IRA contributions assuming you do not want to reduce your spending? Maybe. (This article does not address Roth IRA contributions vs. non-matched 401(k) contributions and hereafter only refers to non-matched 401(k) contributions).If you have substantial savings and maximizing your retirement plan contributions causes your net payroll check to be insufficient to meet your expenses, you should maximize retirement plan contributions.
The shortfall for your living expenses from making increased pre-tax retirement plan contributions should be withdrawn from your savings (money that has already been taxed). Over time this process, i.e., increasing contributions to your retirement plan and funding the shortfall by making after-tax withdrawals from an after-tax account, transfers money from the after-tax environment to the pre-tax environment. Ultimately it results in more money for you and your heirs.
Another way to squeeze blood from a stone is to consider an interest only mortgage. The reduced mortgage payment (in contrast to what you would be paying on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage) is deductible as a home interest expense. The additional cash flow from the reduced payment could be used to pay credit card debt or fund one or more tax favored investments. You could open a Roth IRA, make additional retirement contributions, and/or purchase a tax-favored life insurance plan. In the long run, you could be better off, often by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course there are risks with this strategy.Another opportunity to shift savings from the after-tax environment to tax advantaged retirement savings might arise if you are the beneficiary of an inheritance.
Take this “Changing Your IRA and Retirement Plan Strategy after a Windfall or an Inheritance” mini case study for example:
Joe always had trouble making ends meet. He did, however, know enough to always contribute to his retirement plan the amount his employer was willing to match. Because he was barely making ends meet and had no savings in the after-tax environment, he never made a non-matching retirement plan contribution. Tragedy then struck Joe’s family. Joe’s mother died, leaving Joe with $100,000.
Should Joe change his retirement plan strategy? Yes.
If his housing situation is reasonable, he should not use the inherited money for a houseor even a down payment on a house. Many planners and people will disagree. Of course it depends on individual circumstances.
Instead, Joe should increase his retirement plan contribution to the maximum. In addition, he should start making Roth IRA contributions. Many of you who live in areas that have seen huge real estate appreciation think he should use the money to invest in real estate. You may have been right yesterday. You might even be right today. It is, however, a risky strategy, unsuitable for many if not most investors.
Assuming he maintains his pre-inheritance lifestyle, between his Roth IRA contribution and the increase in his retirement plan contribution, Joe will not have enough to make ends meet without eating into his inheritance. That’s okay. He should then cover the shortfall by making withdrawals from the inherited money. True, if that pattern continues long enough, Joe will eventually deplete his inheritance in its current form. But his retirement plan and Roth IRA will be so much better financed that in the long run, the tax-deferred and tax-free growth of these accounts will make Joe better off by thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
The only time this strategy would not make sense is if Joe needed the liquidity of the inherited money, or he preferred to use the inherited funds to improve his housing.
Now, do you think you can afford to make the maximum contribution to your retirement plan? The truth of the matter is you cannot afford to ignore my advice and not make the maximum contribution to your retirement plan.