After completing this course, you will be able to:

Chapter 1

• Recognize the importance of personal retirement maps to suit client objectives & lifestyles and summarize the basic guidelines of retirement planning, including common pitfalls and misconceptions of retirement;
• Determine retirement using the major levels of retirement and key questions that have financial and personal ramifications;
• Identify retirement costs and income needs of clients cased on their current budget, recognize tax savings strategies, and identify guidelines when purchasing investment assets.

Chapter 2

• Determine how Social Security funds are assessed and then paid, specify the system’s mechanics, and select qualified Social Security participants determining their benefit;
• Identify the requirements to receive Social Security retirement benefits, and determine clients’ retirement benefits following a multi-step calculation process;
• Recognize Social Security taxes, their tax rates, and covered earnings allowing better retirement planning;
• Specify the eligibility requirements of Social Security disability benefits and survivors’ benefits, and determine what constitutes Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B recognizing their qualifications.

Chapter 3

• Determine how Social Security funds are assessed and then paid, specify the system’s mechanics, and select qualified Social Security participants determining their benefit;
• Identify the requirements to receive Social Security retirement benefits, and determine clients’ retirement benefits following a multi-step calculation process;
• Recognize Social Security taxes, their tax rates, and covered earnings allowing better retirement planning;
• Specify the eligibility requirements of Social Security disability benefits and survivors’ benefits, and determine what constitutes Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B recognizing their qualifications.

Chapter 4

• Identify popular ways to receive distributions from a retirement plan or an IRA, specify types of annuities citing their effect on how and when participants receive payments, and determine the tax on annuity payments under the general rule or the simplified general rule;
• Determine what constitutes a lump-sum distribution permitting clients to receive special tax treatment on such distributions;
• Recognize the key components of rollovers that can be used to reinvest cash or other assets without including the amount in income;
• Specify the tax consequences of taking premature distributions stating how to avoid the 10% penalty;
• Identify the minimum distribution rules and ways to avoid the 50% penalty associated with either taking smaller distributions than required or with taking distributions after the required beginning date for minimum distributions.

Chapter 5

• Recognize the postponement of income with a nonqualified plan by:
  • Identifying nonqualified plan advantages including ways to design the plans and specifying the IRS’s position on such arrangements stating the impact of constructive receipt and economic benefit concepts;
• Specifying deferred compensation patterns set forth in R.R. 60-31 citing the taxability of each;
• Determining unfunded and funded plans stating the use of company assets or bookkeeping accounts to avoid employee taxation;
• Identify the set up of a segregated asset plan where the account is not subject to the claims of the employer’s creditors and still avoids employee taxation and specify the tax consequences of establishing a nonqualified plan.

Chapter 6

• Specify reasons to purchase life insurance and the parties with rights in a life insurance policy;
• Recognize the tax treatment of life insurance proceeds by:
  • Identifying the tax treatment of premiums and lifetime benefits stating several exceptions to the transfer for value rule and specifying variables that influence whether life insurance is taxable for federal estate tax purposes;
• Determining the gift tax associated with transfers of life insurance policies;
• Identify the pros and cons of types of life insurance policies to help clients choose a suitable policy;
• Specify the reasons for using an irrevocable life insurance trust in an estate plan identifying trust considerations and the differences between deferred and private annuities;
• Determine what constitutes entity purchase and cross-purchase buy-sell agreements recognizing tax and legal advantages.

Chapter 7

• Determine the relationship between home sales and the capital gains rates and specify the rate “baskets” created by the capital gain provisions stating the tax treatment of capital assets in each category;
• Recognize the key elements and application of the §121 home sale exclusion and identify safe harbor regulations associated with the home sale exclusion;
• Identify when a taxpayer meets distance and time tests for pre-2018 deductible moving expenses under §217.

Chapter 8

• Determine what constitutes estate planning for clients by:
  • Identifying elements of estate tax planning that have remained unchanged by recent legislation;
• Recognizing the unlimited marital deduction and its effect on the gross estate of the value of property;
• Specifying the applicable exclusion amounts for various years of death;
• Identify the concepts of “stepped-up basis” and “modified carryover basis” for estate tax purposes;
• Specify basic estate planning goals, and recognize the benefits and drawbacks of the primary dispositive plans; and
• Identify various types of estate trusts and family documents that every taxpayer should consider, and determine the advantages and disadvantages of the former private annuity format.