CGN Advisors

Inherited an IRA recently? The rules have changed.

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries are now required to fully distribute an inherited IRA within 10 years. And if the original account owner had already started taking required minimum distributions, beneficiaries may also owe annual distributions during those 10 years.

Missing those distributions comes with a penalty.

If you inherited an IRA in the last few years, make sure you’ve reviewed your distribution schedule.

When's the right time to claim Social Security?

Our answer is one that a lot of people don’t like to hear: it depends.

A few considerations:

-> Every year you wait past full retirement age adds roughly 8% to your monthly benefit, up to age 70.
-> If you're married, the higher earner delaying as long as possible often produces better lifetime household income and a stronger survivor benefit
-> Up to 85% of your Social Security benefit can be taxable depending on your other income that year. How you sequence withdrawals from other accounts directly affects that number.
-> Claiming at 62 locks in a permanently reduced benefit. That reduction doesn't go away.

The right claiming age depends on a number of factors. If you're within five years of retirement and haven't modeled your Social Security options yet, that's something we can help you work through.

One of the hardest conversations we have with families involves elder financial abuse.

The warning signs are often subtle: behavioral changes around money, new people involved in financial decisions, or a sense of urgency around requests are all red flags that something might not be right.

Having the right structure in place before anything goes wrong makes all the difference. Things like reviewing account titling, keeping powers of attorney current, and having a trusted third party involved in major financial decisions can go a long way toward shielding the people you care about.

5 Tips to Avoid Elder Financial Abuse These 5 tips highlight what seniors and adult children should watch for to avoid elder financial abuse, and the steps families can take together to reduce risk before small issues turn into bigger problems.