Top IRA Questions from Ascend

Every year industry professionals gather with Ascensus trainers at the Ascend conference. Not only do they get to continue their education and refine their expertise in retirement, health, and education savings plans, but they get to submit questions to our highly-qualified trainers. Here are the top questions asked and answered over the week.

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More Changes for RMDs

In 2019, the SECURE Act made several changes to the rules for retirement plans and IRAs, including raising the applicable RMD age from 70½ to 72. In 2022, the IRS released proposed regulations that revised long-standing RMD rules and provided guidance on certain SECURE Act provisions. Congress also passed the SECURE 2.0 Act, which increased the applicable RMD age again from age 72 to age 73 in 2023, and then to age 75 in 2033 (or the year of retirement, if later, for certain plan participants who are not five percent owners).

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New RMD Rule Could Affect Spouse Beneficiaries, Hypothetically

The new RMD regulations are not without at least one limitation for spouse beneficiaries, in the form of the “hypothetical RMD.” This could affect a spouse beneficiary who inherits an IRA or qualified retirement plan account before the deceased’s RMDs are required to begin—generally age 73—and who elects the new 10-year beneficiary payout rule in order to delay the onset of required distributions.

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Navigating a Break-in-vesting Service? What You Need to Know About Your Qualified Retirement Plan

Unlike breaks-in-eligibility service that can delay an employee’s ability to participate in an employer’s retirement plan, breaks-in-vesting service can delay or even prevent a participant’s ability to fully vest and become entitled to employer contributions if she is subject to a vesting schedule.

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HSAs and Medicare

It is not turning age 65 that makes people ineligible to contribute to HSAs, but rather enrollment in Medicare that prevents HSA owners from making further contributions. And while most people do enroll in Medicare when they turn 65, it is not necessarily required.

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New Guidance Released on Matching Contributions for Qualified Student Loan Payments

Recent legislation passed by Congress includes several provisions that enhance the ability of workers to increase their retirement savings. One of these provisions, Section 110 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0), also enhances the ability of employers that sponsor a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b), or a SIMPLE IRA plan to supplement workers’ retirement savings by providing matching contributions to employees who make qualified student loan payments (QSLPs) in 2024 and later plan years.

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Employee Breaks-in-Eligibility Service Are Inevitable. Here's How to Handle Them.

Just as important  for an employer choosing plan service requirements  is considering when an employee will experience a break in eligibility service.  Breaks in service—leaving that employer, in other words—can potentially delay when an employee becomes a participant, or resumes participation if he or she was an eligible participant before incurring breaks in service.

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