Make sure you know what cracking that nest egg means

Your retirement nest egg is just that: Money “surrounded by an eggshell. It can only be broken open once,” says retirement expert Ed Slott.

Slott should know: He appears on PBS and conducts seminars nationally for financial advisers just on how to withdraw money from retirement accounts.

The laws are so complicated that his seminars last for days and include hundreds of pages of annual changes surrounding retirement-money rules.

What are some of the myriad mistakes retirees and their heirs make when cracking open that egg?

Slott lumps missteps into two categories: mistakes that can be fixed and what he terms “fatal errors” when taking money out of accounts such as IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and employer retirement plans.

“Any time money comes out of a retirement account, that money is subject to rules that no other money is subject to. Your retirement account is an eggshell. You break it, it’s over. And there are many advisers who don’t know the rules or don’t ask the right questions.”

Some common mistakes? Inherited IRAs and automatic roll-overs.

Let’s say your child or beneficiary inherits an individual retirement account worth $300,000 and doesn’t set up a properly titled inherited IRA.

That could be a costly omission. The rules are strict and complex because this money hasn’t been taxed yet – and the government wants its share.

Most companies offer a retirement option. When you leave a company, it may simply advise you to roll over that account into a personal IRA.

That, too, could be a mistake, Slott says.

“Let’s say you have creditor issues, you’ve been sued. If your money remains with the company in an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) plan, it’s creditor-protected. You lose that protection if you roll it over to an IRA, he says.

In a company retirement plan, you can own life insurance. But if you roll over that plan, you may not be allowed to own the insurance in a personal IRA.

“Most people never look at the beneficiary forms, so our advisers go through a life-event checklist. We ask clients if they’re aware of any births, deaths, divorces, new tax laws, any factor you relied on to name a beneficiary has to be looked at,” Slott adds.

P.S.: Beneficiary forms on retirement accounts trump a written will, he says.

If a retirement account ends up as part of your estate, the IRA or other account may have to be cashed out — and that means paying taxes.

“This tax-advantaged money is different than any other money and can’t be transported easily,” Slott says. “Other assets can transfer back and forth, but IRAs can’t — otherwise, that triggers taxes.”

Slott’s seminars include topics that most advisers haven’t thought of. For instance: What if a client who turns 70  1/2 becomes ill or disabled and can’t take the required minimum distribution?

“Sometimes, people take an RMD from one account and think it applies to all of them. It doesn’t,” he says.

Other mistakes are fatal: A beneficiary can’t be found, or the wrong person is named. A prenuptial agreement has confused the issue, or there are no spousal-consent forms.

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Make sure you know what cracking that nest egg means."