Knowledge Base
Tax strategy, healthcare before Medicare, the post-FIRE identity shift, and the financial decisions that get more complicated after you stop earning.
1054 articles — page 69 of 88
Yes, but the answer depends entirely on how your income is sourced and whether you qualify as a bona fide Puerto Rico resident under IRS rules. A Puerto Rico resident whose income is fully excluded under IRC Section 933 has zero qualifying compensation for Roth IRA purposes, making them completely i
Yes, but the backdoor Roth IRA for married couples filing separately works against you more often than it works for you. The mechanics are legal. The income limit on Roth conversions is zero regardless of filing status, per IRC Section 408A. The problem is everything surrounding the conversion: a pu
Fidelity & Guaranty's indexed universal life policies attract serious attention from high-net-worth buyers for legitimate reasons: tax-deferred accumulation, flexible death benefit structuring, and estate planning utility. But the standard F&G IUL reviews you'll find online are written for people bu
A max funded IUL (Indexed Universal Life insurance policy) is a permanent life insurance contract funded as close to the IRS-defined premium ceiling as possible without triggering Modified Endowment Contract status. The goal is to maximize the cash value component, which grows tax-deferred and can b
Roth IRA principal, meaning your direct contributions, can be withdrawn at any time, tax-free and penalty-free, because you already paid income tax on those dollars before they entered the account. That rule is straightforward. What gets expensive is misunderstanding what counts as "principal" onc
Class-action litigation against indexed universal life insurers has exposed a structural problem: retail buyers are frequently sold a tax-arbitrage narrative that only works at institutional pricing. If you hold an IUL policy or are evaluating one for estate planning, the lawsuit record tells you mo
FXAIX in a Roth IRA is a sound tax optimization move. At 0.015% expense ratio and near-perfect S&P 500 tracking, it is one of the most cost-efficient equity positions you can hold in a tax-free wrapper. But for anyone with $5M+ in net worth, the more important question is not whether FXAIX is a good
Yes, you can hold Fundrise investments inside a Roth IRA. The more useful question for anyone with a $5M+ net worth is whether you should, and whether the Roth IRA vehicle itself is even accessible to you through direct contributions. For 2024, the IRS phases out Roth IRA eligibility for married fil
The 401k to Roth IRA conversion is straightforward mechanically. The complexity is in the timing, the tax math, and the second-order effects that most generic advice ignores entirely. For anyone sitting on $2M+ in pre-tax retirement accounts, the window created by the 2025 TCJA sunset makes this one
A socially responsible Roth IRA combines ESG-screened investments with the tax-free compounding of a Roth account. For most FATFIRE investors, the more pressing question isn't whether to do it, but how to access the Roth structure at all given income limits, and whether the values premium in fund fe
Here is the short answer: Roth IRA contributions do not appear as a line item on Form 1040, and you cannot deduct them. Your IRA custodian reports them to the IRS on Form 5498. But if you earn above the income phase-out thresholds, which most FATFIRE-level earners do, the direct contribution route i
Roth 401(k) inheritance rules determine whether your heirs receive a decade of tax-free compounding or a forced lump-sum payout the plan administrator controls. The rules changed materially with SECURE 2.0 in 2024, and most estate plans written before that haven't caught up. Here's what matters now.