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...what should you buy? The current array of devices--cell phones, PDAs, beepers and more--bewilders even the experts. "Every few months there's a slew of new products that have more features, perform better and are priced lower," marvels Ira Brodsky, an analyst with Datacomm Research. But you've already got plenty of choices. A cell phone is a good bet if most of your wireless connectivity is going to be done by voice. These "smart phones" have the added advantage of being less expensive than a PDA. It's not hard to find a cellular service that will...
...Radcliffe lightweights, five-time national champions, will try to win another title next weekend in Camden, N.J., at the IRA Regatta...
First, make sure you've designated a beneficiary on every IRA account. That's not enough, though. Keep copies. You can't rely on a financial institution to have documents 20 or 30 years after an account was opened. Decades of bank mergers have resulted in lousy financial records throughout the system. If you fail to name a beneficiary or if no one can prove that you did, your IRA may be liquidated and taxed. Then the proceeds can be added to the estate and taxed again--as in our opening example...
...also want to make certain that heirs have the means to pay the estate tax without taking an IRA distribution. If the estate does not include enough liquid assets to cover the tax bill, consider a life-insurance policy that pays when the second spouse dies. That's when the bulk of your estate gets handed down. Such a policy should be put in the heir's name and funded through annual tax-free gifts...
Elementary, of course, is that married couples should take full advantage of the lifetime exemption--that one-time $675,000 exclusion from estate taxes mentioned above. For non-IRA assets, you may need a credit shelter trust to divide assets. But if the bulk of your estate is IRA savings, simply divide the IRA money into two accounts--one for the full value of the lifetime exemption and the other for what remains. Generally, you should let the smaller IRA pass to heirs at the death of the first spouse, using that spouse's lifetime exemption. When the surviving spouse...