Retirement Benefits & Deferred Compensation

Retirement Benefit Planning Should Be Integrated Into Your Estate Plan Carefully.

Especially in today’s world, in which substantial amounts of money are invested in qualified retirement benefits, a critical component of estate planning is to ensure that those benefits are integrated into the overall estate plan, which includes making appropriate beneficiary designations. Retirement benefits are subject to specific rules that make them a unique part of your overall estate plan. An understanding of those evolving rules will help to ensure that they are integrated into your estate plan effectively and that their tax law and creditor protection benefits are preserved for spouses and other heirs.

As part of this process, we assist individuals with qualified retirement benefits such as IRAs and 401(k)s, including rollovers, minimum required distributions, and customized beneficiary designations. We also advise clients with respect to non-qualified deferred compensation.  In particular, our attorneys are experts on planning for minimum required distributions, both under the old law and as modified by the requirements of the new SECURE Act. We are also very familiar with the many tax complexities of using trusts as beneficiaries of retirement benefits.

Our attorneys also prepare section 457(f) plans and split dollar agreements in connection with compensation for Credit Union executives, which includes planning under Internal Revenue Code section 409A.

Please meet our talented retirement benefit planning attorneys below.