Preserving Retirement Assets

Keeping Your Assets in the Family

Strategies for Transferring IRAs and Investments to Survivors

In the event of your death, you want to know that your retirement assets will roll over to your spouse or children with the least administrative hassle and taxation. Armor Trust Attorneys of Raleigh, North Carolina, can help you achieve this goal through advance planning.

Our estate planning and asset protection attorneys are experienced in asset preservation, the efficient transfer of wealth, helping clients avoid probate and distribute assets directly to their heirs. We serve a broad client base in Wake, Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties. Contact us at (919) 571-4398 for an in depth discussion of retirement asset protection.

Asset Transfer Tools

We enable your beneficiaries to avoid tax penalties in the transfer of tax-deferred assets:

Individual Retirement Account (IRA)
401(k) retirement funds
403(b) deferred compensation plans
Stock option plans

One method of transfer is beneficiary designation for those assets that will not be controlled by a will or a trust. The other strategy is to create a special IRA management trust or IRA preservation trust. Both bypass the probate process and offer retirement asset protection to the receiving heir.

Stretch IRA

A stretch IRA is an IRA that is established to extend the period of tax-deferred earnings. For example, a surviving wife can "stretch" the IRA, taking the required minimum distribution and rolling over the remainder into her own IRA, where it will continue to accumulate (tax-deferred) income. Children named as beneficiaries can also stretch the inheritance, but with additional restrictions.

Our lawyers, Walt Sheffield or Erica Wehner, can help you navigate the complex requirements to set up IRAs and trusts properly. This assures that those assets will be available to your children or grandchildren when they retire.

For more information about protection of your retirement assets, please schedule your consultation by contacting us online or calling (919) 571-4398 for an appointment at our Raleigh offices.