mcbreck

When my 2024 software was installed, they unchecked the MFA requirement box. I'm guessing Drake doesn't require it or they wouldn't offer that option within the software.

I check my numbers as soon as I'm done getting my hours for the year to make sure we match. I print off the certificates, staple them, write my total at the top and put it in a file. On the outside of the file is my yearly total and how many I need to reach my 3 year requirement. I know I need 16 for 2025. Your CPE hours have been on the IRS site for many years. A couple of years ago I did my hours with a firm and they didn't submit to the IRS right away. I called and they asked if I needed them expedited and I said no. Their reply was that they only submit 1x per month but would expedite it for anyone that needed it done really quickly for whatever reason. Everyone else has always done it right then. I've never given the IRS copies of proof of CPE as far as I can remember.

I use a reseller. Guessing they'll want to install on my computer tomorrow or Wednesday.

Has anyone received word on the release of the initial product?

Our condo association just handed this to me to take care of it.

Don't think it works with my client base but just wondering how common it is in the market. (I'm talking refund bank products) Met with a guy 2 years ago who offered them and it was a $50 fee which is an amazing interest rate for most people.

Get an investment account somewhere. With the ability to do an ACH into your checking account in an emergency, the fund doesn't have to be at your bank. Just monitor if the account has a yearly fee and ACH fees. IPPXX has a 7 day yield of 4.86% but has a $1k minimum. Fidelity MMs are around 4.35% and no minimum. ACH is next day.

For the past few years, interest rates were so low you were getting essentially 0% interest on savings accounts and money markets. If a client doesn't take steps, they get .3% at our firm. You can get 4.66% by sweeping into a money market. When I got into investments in 1992 it was very common to find people who had never owned a stock. Today it is very common to find someone who has never owned a bond or CD.

The median for 55-64 year olds is a retirement plan balance of $185k. 30% is probably pretty correct. People learn their saving and spending habits from their parents and grandparents. We need to ramp up the education in that department because if the job isn't being done at home, they need to be educated on it in school or at work.

Thanks for starting this for me. My basic recommendation for conversions is that it makes sense if you expect to have more income in retirement than you do while working. That's rarely the case but for people with substantial savings, inheritance and pensions, that is possible. I have a retired teacher who inherited about $1.5m and has two pensions which means he's paying a LOT in taxes. A roth while working would have been good for him but he actually has next to nothing in IRAs. I simply don't understand people wanting to avoid RMDs. I'd guess 97% of the public will need those withdrawals. Their withdrawals might be a little less if there wasn't an RMD figure late in life but they still need a lot of it. I don't see that as a major factor for most people. I have a client with $6m in her IRA and complains every year about her IRA distribution but in reality needs about 75% of it because that's what she lives on (she has a lot of expenses in life).

I'm leaving today for vacation! New Zealand.

We could also have a thread on whether moving from a trad to a roth ira makes sense and to who it makes sense. I've run the numbers a bunch of times and I just never see a significant advantage. I know some financial advisors push it because it produces activity but us 99%ers will need our IRAs to afford to retire so avoiding the RMD isn't really all that important.

People had pensions back then and those invested in the stock market also. In surveys, people with pensions don't think they own stock but they do indirectly. There are tons of factors for why the market moves including an increase in leverage, fed moving money into the economy, interest rates, participation rate (as you mention), savings rate and asset allocation. The earnings yield on the S&P500 is 3.35% and that is historically VERY low. That's an inversion of the PE ratio so you can compare it to bond yields. The 10 year risk free bond is 4.08% so that yield of the market needs to come up.

There were 2 stretches where Dow Jones Industrial Average didn't really do much at all for about 15 years each. The first was the great depression and the second was from the late 1960s until the early 1980's? The S&P 500 went up 6% from 1961 to 1974. That's not 6% per year, that's 6% total. Multpl.com has some good charts showing how the current market is historically VERY expensive.

An equity indexed annuity is a branch of the fixed side of annuities versus the variable side. It's not so much for growth, it's a product for safety with a "touch" of growth. I have no clue the commission rate on these as I haven't sold an annuity since 1991 but variable annuities are the highest commission product a financial advisor can sell you. MANY financial advisors literally make 90% of their sales via annuities for this reason. When I took my series 6 exam (1991) and was licensed to sell annuities (life insurance also) my manager said NEVER put an annuity in an IRA. I took a class to pass my series 7 licensing exam (1992) and the instructor told us that you should NEVER sell a client an annuity and put it into an IRA. By about 1994 the insurance industry had spent a boatload of money and it was deemed reasonable to have an annuity within an IRA. The argument was that the life insurance component and lifetime payment made it worthwhile to be inside of an annuity even though the tax deferred portion was meaningless. You might argue the life insurance is tax free also but you are supposed to ignore that.

Those auto withdrawals add stress to my life. The people who really need it are also the people who will never monitor that the payments were made properly or won't make sure the money is in the account when payments are due. I love the idea but honestly they add stress to my life.

I had an unknown lady call and leave a message that she wanted me to call her back - she called on Monday evening. I ignored the call as I was busy, the caller ID just said it was a wireless number, every other word was garbled on her message and I thought it was a scam. She called yesterday late afternoon and acted all high and mighty that I hadn't returned her call promptly.

Is this supposed to be a joke?

She can roll to an IRA without penalty or tax (most likely). She could keep the money in the 401k. I've never seen a firm require you move money from your 401k to an IRA. Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SEPP) can be set up to avoid the 10% penalty but she'll still owe taxes. She MUST set up the SEPP with the firm and can't just take a distribution. The 1099 gets coded to avoid the penalty if you set it up officially. At a 40 year retirement and a 75% stocks / 25% fixed income portfolio and a 5% withdrawal rate, historically speaking she has a 36% chance of running out of money. (if adjusting the $50k for inflation each year) If you don't adjust for inflation you aren't being honest. I have no clue if she qualifies for SS at 62 and if so how much. That would need to be considered. Medical insurance is going to be a major cost she likely isn't including in her financial needs. Everyone needs to adjust their expectations and timeline based upon their health situation and life expectancy. As an example a friend of my mine retired at 55 because he's about 100 lbs overweight, exceptionally high blood pressure, uncontrolled cholesterol, has had cancer 2x and is diabetic. The odds of him living to be 65 are slim. He retired at 55 and is going to have it all spent by the time he's 70.

As I wrote, no marital issues to deal with as the spouse died 20 years ago. I think after having a few meetings, everyone will agree to just document the valuations and ignore the return but we'll see.

Estate has a value of about $11m, well below the $13.6m threshold for it being taxable but very substantial. I'm told there were no previous gifts to lower that threshold, no generation skipping and no marital issues to deal with. Everything is in a trust, an IRA and some real estate - non-rental. Would you file an estate tax return? I don't think it has to be filed but the executor is interested in doing so and it is going to generate a substantial bill for he, me and the attorney (there would likely be multiple hours of billable meetings as we've already had a few). Thoughts?

Which phone company doesn't collect user information? When we had a landline, Southwestern Bell would send us a monthly bill showing all of the people we called long distance, when we called them and the duration of the call. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they had all that data on local calls and didn't disclose it since they didn't bill for it. Your cell phone company knows when and where you ping off any cell tower in the country / world. We had a guy locally who was convicted because his car kept track of everywhere it was driven, speeds driven, when it was driven and sent to the manufacturer. The police used it to figure out where he buried his wife.

I love that one also - being able to make calls over the internet for my cell phone. It allows me to get text messages when I'm out of the country. I also get text messages over RingCentral which is nice. Can't imagine going back to the old phone services of the 80's.

Don't have a problem with the 2106. Have a new client who hadn't filed in 2 years, did an OIC on her fed a few years ago and needs to do one for the state (no clue why they didn't do it back then). She's broke, does contract work and will owe $7k in federal taxes on her 2 returns because of all the SS and MEDA. She has no way to get caught up. I'm expecting a meltdown when she comes into the office.

I use RingCentral and have no complaints. RingCentral costs a little more than Google Voice / Business but not so much I'm worried about it. It's the taxes that jack up your fees.