Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 1, participants will able to:
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.
2. Determine retirement using the
major levels of retirement and key questions that have financial and personal
ramifications.
3. Identify retirement costs and
income needs of clients based on their current budget, recognize tax savings
strategies and identify guidelines when purchasing investment assets.
Chapter 2 Social Security Benefits &
Retirement Planning
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 2, participants will able to:
1. Determine how Social Security
funds are assessed and then paid, specify the system’s mechanics, and select
qualified Social Security participants determining their benefit eligibility.
2. Identify the requirements to
receive Social Security retirement benefits, and determine clients’ retirement
benefits following a multi-step calculation process.
3. Recognize Social Security taxes,
their tax rates, and covered earnings
allowing better retirement planning.
4. 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 Retirement Plans
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 3, participants will able to:
1. Identify nonqualified and
qualified deferred compensation plans specifying their benefits and
contributions limits and recognize the current and deferred advantages and
disadvantages of corporate plans including fiduciary responsibilities and prohibited
transactions.
2. Specify the requirements of the
basic forms of qualified pension plans.
3. Determine the differences between
defined contribution and defined benefit retirement plans and specify several
types of defined contribution plans recognizing their impact on retirement
benefits.
4. Recognize self-employed plans from
qualified plans for other business types and owners.
5. Identify the requirements of IRAs,
SEPs, and SIMPLEs and tax-free Roth IRA distributions specifying strategies to
maximize plan benefits.
Chapter 4 Distributions from Retirement Plans
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 4, participants will able to:
1. 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.
2. Determine what constitutes a
lump-sum distribution permitting clients to receive special tax treatment on
such distributions.
3. Recognize the key components of
rollovers that can be used to reinvest cash or other assets without including
the amount in income.
4. Specify the tax consequences of
taking premature distributions stating how to avoid the 10% penalty.
5. 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 Nonqualified Plans
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 5, participants will able to:
1. Recognize the postponement of
income with a nonqualified plan by:
a. 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;
b. Specifying deferred compensation
patterns set forth in R.R. 60-31 citing the taxability of each; and
c. Determining unfunded and funded
plans stating the use of company assets or bookkeeping accounts to avoid
employee taxation.
2. 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 Life Insurance, Annuities &
Buy-sell Agreement
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 6, participants will able to:
1. Specify reasons to purchase life
insurance and the parties with rights in a life insurance policy.
2. Recognize the tax treatment of
life insurance proceeds by:
a. 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; and
b. Determining the gift tax
associated with transfers of life insurance policies.
3. Identify the pros and cons of
types of life insurance policies to help clients choose a suitable policy.
4. 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.
5. Determine what constitutes entity
purchase and cross purchase buy-sell agreements recognizing tax and legal
advantages.
Chapter 7 Home Sales & Moving Expenses
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 7, participants will able to:
1. 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.
2. Recognize the key elements and
application of the §121 home sale exclusion and identify safe harbor
regulations associated with the home sale exclusion.
3. Identify when a taxpayer meets
distance and time tests for pre-2018 deductible moving expenses under §217.
Chapter 8 Estate Planning
Learning
Objectives
After
reading Chapter 8, participants will able to:
1. Determine what constitutes estate
planning for clients by:
a. Identifying elements of estate tax
planning that have remained unchanged by recent legislation;
b. Recognizing the unlimited marital
deduction and its effect on the gross estate of the value of property; and
c. Specifying the applicable
exclusion amounts for various years of death.
2. Identify the concepts of
“stepped-up basis” and “modified carryover basis” for estate tax purposes.
3. Specify basic estate-planning
goals, and recognize the benefits and drawbacks of the primary dispositive
plans.
4. 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.