Here is a summary of your four options for this money:
1. Leave the money in the old employer’s plan.
401(k)s [and 403(b) plans for nonprofits] almost always have limited investment choices and often both investment and advisor expenses. You can access the fee disclosures, but most never do. If your old plan is under an insurance company, those fees are likely to be higher, as employers typically don’t subsidize fees under these providers.
If you reached age 55 in your last year with the company, you’re eligible to access funds without early withdrawal penalties. Consider leaving an amount you might need to withdraw before age 59 ½, which is the penalty-free age for IRA’s.
2. Move the balance to a current employer plan.
This is usually not the most beneficial move, as you are likely to still have double fees and limited investment choices. However, it could enable you to take a loan from the new plan. If this is something that you want to consider, ask your employer for the details.
3. Take a taxable distribution.
This option may only net you about 55% after taxes and penalties. Remember that retirement plan distributions are taxed as ordinary income, which means it is treated the same as payroll earnings for that year. Unless you need all of it, you’re much better off moving it to an IRA, with the goals of growing it for retirement and the ability to take distributions gradually over years.
4. “Rollover” the money to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)
This is usually your best option. It’s not a taxable event; you’re likely to have much broader investment flexibility, and you could have lower overall fees. Like most discount brokerage firms, look for IRA account “custodians” without annual fees or trading commissions. Plus, if you have multiple former employer plans, you can consolidate them into one or more Rollover IRAs.
Remember, if you’re between 55 & 59 ½, to leave an amount you might use, as penalties on IRA’s are incurred prior to 59 ½.
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) take effect the year an IRA owner turns 73, so the government can start collecting taxes. This is payback for making tax-deductible retirement contributions while working. A few years ago, Congress enabled retirees to give any portion of RMDs tax-free charitably!
The Qualified Charitable Distribution option allows for gifting to recognized charities, which counts towards satisfying the RMD. This avoids income tax regardless of whether you are eligible to itemize.
For example, if you typically give $10,000 a year to your favorite charities, you’re probably paying taxes on this money first. So, it costs you $12,200 or more, including taxes. If you make gifts straight from your IRA, you keep more than $2,000 (plus any state tax) in your bank account!
The recipient must be a recognized 501(c)(3) charity (which is typical of religious, education, or community service organizations). Your IRA custodian may have a minimum amount per gift and will have their own paperwork to complete. You can gift as much or to as many charities as you wish, up to the total amount of your RMD.
This is just one of the tax management strategies we employ at Integras Partners. For ideas on how we might help you invest intelligently, nurture your communities, and enjoy financial peace, schedule a call with us!
So, enjoy today and tomorrow, and let us do the worrying!
In an ongoing University of Michigan survey, older Americans recently expressed less confidence about having a comfortable retirement.[1]
Inflation is the likely driver of this worry (both inflation itself and the affect it has had on the stock market). To top it off, the inflation that retirees actually experience is typically higher than the headline numbers. This is because retirees spend more on services, such as healthcare and housing, which tend to have a higher inflation rate than goods.
Integras Partners developed investment strategies with retirees in mind. Investment risks needed for growth are limited to longer timeframes. So, money for short-term needs is shielded from market risk. Each client’s unique portfolio allocation is driven by our financial planning process, which accounts for anticipated spending and ongoing inflation.
The big question for investors now is where to be invested going forward. With the overall market trading at 20x earnings and first half gains concentrated into only a select few stocks, most of the market has been left behind. With the valuations of the high-fliers now in excessive territory, the rest of the market looks much more attractive. Value stocks and cyclicals such as financials, energy, materials and consumer staples are a relative bargain and beginning to see some traction. We have maintained value exposure in all of our strategies, seeing better risk/reward near-term than in large growth. Yet the best longer-term risk/reward is in areas not much investor attention has been paid to in several years.
We see potential in sectors and industries left behind in this tech-centric advance. The relative weaker performance of small cap companies to large caps appears to have begun unwinding. We have meaningfully added to small caps in recent months. Today, foreign markets are most attractive as they are generally at lower P/E ratios, and with virtually all regions (except Europe and Japan) growing faster, they offer better value. Plus, when the Fed stops hiking rates, the U.S. Dollar should weaken relative to foreign currencies, which enhances foreign markets’ performance in dollar terms.
We stay focused on what we can control and seek the best longer-term opportunities for growth. The impact and mistakes made during and after the pandemic continue working themselves out. This is a perfect example of the cyclical dangers we work to avoid with our time-appropriate strategies. For our clients with current income needs, we maintain a sufficient level of conservative assets to withstand periods of market weakness until the tide ultimately turns higher. With shorter-term needs funded, longer-term capital can remain invested for growth, and fund future goals. This is part of each client’s personalized investment structure. We like to tell our clients to go live and enjoy life, because we’ve got their backs!
The S&P 500® Index (S&P) is up 16% YTD after posting back-to-back 8% quarterly returns. In the face of a deteriorating economic backdrop and expectations for even higher interest rates, this exceeded even the most optimistic expectations.However, not all is rosy with this advance. 75% of the gain was due to only 7 mega-cap stocks, and 95% due to the largest 30 companies as the hype around Artificial Intelligence sparked near mania for anything related to the technology. The rest of the market advanced less than 1% – not the healthy advance of a broad rally. To signal a healthier investment environment, there must be broader participation across sectors and market caps. (For the record, as of this writing we are pleased to be beginning to see just that).
While surprising gains are welcome, they point to potential repercussions for the rest of the year. The S&P is now expensive, trading at a 20x price-to-earnings ratio (P/E). It seems rather optimistic that earnings can grow quickly enough to sustain these prices, in the context of a Fed predicting two more rate hikes this year, multiple signs of a weakening economy (outside of housing and employment), and the previous rate hikes having yet to fully impact the broader economy. Despite many signals to the contrary, markets appear to have ruled out not only recession, but slower earnings in a weakening economy.
Economic growth remains but is slowing. Spending in the travel, dining and other service sectors remains strong, but cash accumulations and consumer confidence are waning. The manufacturing economy is weakening as spending on goods is slowing. Credit card and auto loan delinquencies are rising while banks tighten lending to only the most credit worthy. As the summer travel season tapers off, we expect households to reassess spending and consumer demand to slow this Fall.
While much of the economy is contracting, some parts continue to grow (technology, travel-related industries, construction, etc.). The housing market remains strong due to a severe supply imbalance and continuing job growth. Assuming no widespread credit defaults, banking crises or liquidity issues, we may very well escape true recession and end up calling this period a rolling recession, where economic sectors phase through recessionary cycles at different times. This is what the market is currently signaling it believes is happening.
We are near the end of the Fed tightening cycle. Consensus views are for two more rate hikes of 0.25%. The drivers for these additional hikes are continued inflation in housing and services. Then, we will see how much demand destruction, credit constriction and confidence erosion has occurred and whether the economy can continue growth in the face of a 5.5% Fed funds rate. The narrative will be a slow moving and ever-changing picture.
Continue reading to hear how Integras Partners is navigating the current market.
