Thinking of retiring outside the United States? If so, you are certainly not alone. The ex-pat communities throughout the world are numerous, and growing larger every year. Living abroad during your “Golden Years” can certainly be enjoyable; however, to make sure it is safe and economical you need to do your homework well ahead of time. To help you, the retirement planning attorneys at Hedeker Law, Ltd. discuss the top five retirement destinations for ex-pats, according to International Living magazine. The Global Retirement Index While there is certainly no shortage of opinions when it comes to the best countries in [Read more…]

As employer-sponsored pensions started to go by the wayside in the latter half of the 20th century, workers started to craft their own retirement plans. Often, those plans included an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). If the owner of an IRA dies, the person(s) designated as the beneficiary inherits the funds held in the account. If you are that beneficiary, you undoubtedly want to know if an inherited IRA is taxable to the beneficiary. What Happens to an IRA When the Account Owner Dies? When a participant in a retirement plan dies, benefits the participant would have been entitled to are [Read more…]

There was a time in the United States, not all that long ago, when a worker could count on an employer-sponsored pension coupled with Social Security retirement benefits to fund a comfortable retirement. Those days, however, are gone. Social security retirement benefits have failed to keep pace with inflation and lifetime employment is now a rarity, forcing most workers to fund their own retirement. Consequently, many people have at least one retirement account. If you have one, you may be wondering exactly what happens to your retirement account when you die. Retirement Account Basics Faced with the need to plan [Read more…]

Ideally, retirement planning is something everyone should start shortly after they enter the workforce to ensure that they will have the financial resources to live comfortably during their retirement years. If you are getting close to your retirement years at this point, you will need to make some fairly important decisions relating to your retirement plans. At the top of that list is deciding where to retire.  Some people have their bags packed and the movers on standby months before their retirement date while others adamantly refuse to relocate when they retire. If you are considering relocation when you reach [Read more…]