Our daily roundup of retirement news your clients may be thinking about.
Couples would be better off retiring at the same time, as they face major life changes together and leaving a career-driven spouse at home in retirement could have a disastrous effect on marriage, writes an expert for The Wall Street Journal. "Take something as simple as housework. When one spouse continues to work while the other retires, the working spouse may expect the latter to take on more responsibility for cleaning, running errands and cooking," explains the expert. "But the retired spouse may balk at suddenly becoming a full-time homemaker. Retiring together can help minimize such complications."
Some experts say that clients are better off developing a sustainable financial plan for retirement instead of using the 4% withdrawal rule to ensure that they won't run out of funds in the golden years, according to this article on CNBC. When creating a sound financial plan, clients should factor in their life expectancy, Social Security benefits, and taxes on income, including their required minimum distributions from retirement accounts.
Fresh college graduates who get a job for the first time should strike a balance between paying down their student debt loan and saving for retirement, according to Morningstar's Christine Benz. They should take advantage of their employer-sponsored retirement plan and consider contributing to a Roth IRA. "Many young investors know that they should have some sort of an emergency fund. ... But they also want to invest for the long term. A Roth IRA gives you the ability to do both."
Clients are allowed to roll over IRA assets they inherited from their deceased spouses into their own IRAs, according to this article from personal finance website Motley Fool. All IRA beneficiaries also have the option to take a lump-sum payout, and to use the five-year rule to delay the payments if the IRA owner died without taking required minimum distributions. Non-spouse beneficiaries can also spread the payments throughout their lifetime with the help of Stretch IRA strategies, but are not allowed to convert the inherited assets to a Roth account.
Many Americans have not saved enough for retirement, and the problem stems from them having no access to a workplace retirement plan, according to this article on MarketWatch. Several states have approved a state-run retirement program for workers who have no access to a 401(k) plan while others have pending legislation, but the Trump administration is not supportive of the idea. To help people improve their retirement prospects, the federal government should expand Social Security benefits and offer auto-IRA for workers with no access to a 401(k) plan, says an expert.
