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On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act") was signed into law. The CARES Act provides emergency assistance to individuals, families, and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act is divided into two divisions: Division A includes programs to benefit individuals, companies, and the health care system affected by COVID-19; and Division B describes the supplemental appropriations to help the government respond to COVID-19. A summary of the CARES Act outlines and details the assistance available.

In this Part Four of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act), we take a look at the use of qualified charitable distributions (OCDs) that impacts estate planning.

While today’s health, economic, and market concerns have created a challenging environment, there is a silver lining for wealth and estate planning opportunities. Compelling opportunities include gifting assets with depreciated value; using the low interest rate environment to your advantage through vehicles such as grantor retained annuity trusts, intrafamily loans, and sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts; converting a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) to a Roth IRA; and tax loss harvesting.

After the death of a retirement plan participant or IRA owner, non-eligible designated beneficiaries of a retirement account (other than a Roth) will experience an acceleration of taxable income and the loss of tax-deferred growth that was available before the enacted SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement).

The IRS recently released the April 2020 interest rates used for estate planning purposes. As expected based on recent market conditions, these rates are at or near all-time lows. These low rates, combined with potentially-depressed asset prices and temporarily-high estate and gift tax exemptions (currently over $23 million for a married couple, but scheduled to sunset after 2025), make the economics of current estate planning transactions very attractive.

By leveraging the power of your investment portfolio through securities-based lending, you can free up available cash by using a portion of your eligible portfolio holdings as collateral. While there are potential risks in borrowing against your portfolio, they can be managed for a host of needs, ranging from asset purchases to wealth planning to tax payments.

The SECURE Act contains many changes for individuals with retirement plans as well as small businesses with retirement plans. Changes include distribution provisions of an inherited IRA, planning with trusts, a later start for required minimum distributions, and incentives for small business owners and employees. There are also other non-retirement planning changes and updates provided in the Act. Learn how some of the more significant changes will impact you and the planning strategies to consider.

In periods of elevated volatility such as the fourth quarter of 2018—when we saw the largest quarterly decline in the U.S. market, as measured by the S&P 500, since the third quarter of 2011—investors have many opportunities to harvest losses. Preserving tax benefits by avoiding wash-sale violations becomes even more important during these periods. However, there are occasional circumstances that make wash sales unavoidable. It's important to understand why they occur and why they aren't necessarily a negative.

Families often find it challenging to talk about long-term plans and wishes of their aging parents. But it’s never a good idea to wait until there’s a crisis to rally family members together on a plan that will address mom or dad’s needs and wishes regarding healthcare, living arrangements, and long-term financial care. Knowing how to get the conversation started and having helpful resources available can make the process an easier transition.

As covered in the first part of the SECURE Act series, one of the key provisions of the Act is the partial elimination of the “stretch” or “life expectancy payout” for beneficiaries of retirement plans. In this second part in the series, a closer look is taken to see how that may affect your estate planning and the updates that may be needed.