You may be tempted to do it – but do you really want to?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkXu3LnxD-E

While you might be able to borrow from a 401(k), that doesn’t mean you should. Yes, we are in a recession. Yes, times are tough. But borrowing from your 401(k) could prove highly detrimental to your financial health.

Some 401(k) plans will not even allow you to take a loan. Those that do commonly permit you to borrow up to 50% of your vested account balance or $50,000, whichever is less.¹ How do you pay the money back? You pay it back (with interest) from future paychecks. How long have you got to pay it back? Usually, up to 5 years. If you use what you borrow to buy a home that will be your primary residence, you may be given longer to pay back the money.²

But again, this doesn’t mean you should. Here’s why this idea belongs in the category of “last resort”.

It could pressure you to reduce your 401(k) contributions. You’ll repay the loan out of your paychecks. Can you do that and continue to contribute to your 401(k)? If you have to lessen or cease 401(k) contributions as a consequence of this move, it could further hurt your retirement savings potential, especially if your company offers you a match on contributions.

If you can’t repay the loan, it becomes a distribution. If you can’t pay the money back within the time period allowed, it is considered a distribution, subject to federal and state income taxes. If you are younger than age 59½, you will face the usual 10% penalty for making a premature withdrawal from your retirement account on top of that.¹

If you lose your job, guess what: in most cases, you have to pay the loan back within 60 days, or it becomes a taxable distribution. Ow.³

The money isn’t tax-sheltered after you borrow it. Nor is the loan tax-deductible.¹

It works against the time value of money. In other words, compounding. One of the key tenets of investing is that money available to you now is worth more than money available to you in the future. Any money you put in a bank account or tax-advantaged investment account now has potential earning capacity – the capacity to grow and compound over time.

This is why we would all prefer to have, say, $20,000 to invest today rather than $20,000 to invest 30 years from now. If you wait 30 years to invest it, you will lose 30 years of time value. Additionally, that idle $20,000 will be worth less 30 years from now due to inflation.

If you borrow from your 401(k), you are working against the time value of money and the power of compounding. By removing assets from that tax-advantaged account, you are hindering its potential earning capacity.

Every 401(k) plan loan carries an opportunity cost. Years from now, you may have to reckon with some sobering questions – how much could those funds have earned if they were left inside the 401(k), and how much did they earn for you when you took them out of the 401(k)? Did the money you borrowed earn you a dime? Did you take on another debt using the money you borrowed?

Are you paying yourself interest? Think again. As you pay back a 401(k) plan loan, the 401(k) program puts the principal and interest back into your 401(k) account. So it looks like you are paying yourself interest. Technically, you are. But to pay that interest, you need to earn money (a salary) and pay income tax on what you’ve earned. You pay the interest on your loan with post-tax dollars. Guess what: when you withdraw those dollars from your 401(k) at retirement, they’re taxed again (as taxable income). So in essence, those dollars are being taxed twice. (It must be noted that specific tax rules apply to Roth 401(k) contributions.)²

Why harm your retirement fund? Borrowing from your 401(k) could amount to an injurious financial mistake, one that could haunt you for years. If the thought has crossed your mind, talk to your financial or tax advisor – there may be other ways to find the money you need.

401(k)-to-Roth rollovers are now possible before age 59½.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfkZrzReE8c

There is a  new possibility in the world of the 401k. Sometimes employees want to pull money out of a 401(k) before they retire. It isn’t always because of an emergency. Some workers want to make an in-service non-hardship withdrawal just to roll their 401(k) assets into an IRA. Why? Often times they see substantial lower account fees and in almost every case, IRAs provide greater investment choices ahead.

As a result of the Tax Increase Prevention Reconciliation Act (or TIPRA), tax laws now permit in-service non-hardship withdrawals from 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans to traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs before age 59½. Of course, the 401k plan has to allow for the employee to take a distribution from the plan, and the funds have to be eligible for a direct IRA rollover.¹

This option may be very interesting to highly compensated employees who want the tax benefits of a Roth IRA. The income limits that prevented them from having a Roth IRA have been repealed, and they may have sizable 401(k) account balances. With this option, they can take part or all of their sizeable 401k funds and move it into a Roth IRA.

So does your plan allow for the withdrawal? Good question. If a company’s 401(k) plan has been customized, it may allow an in-service withdrawal for an IRA rollover. If the plan is pretty boilerplate, it may not.

The five-year/two-year rule also has to be satisfied. IRS Revenue Ruling 68-24 says that for an in-service withdrawal from a qualified retirement plan to take place, an employee has to have been a plan participant for five years or the funds have to have been in the plan for two years.²

Does the Summary Plan Description (or SPD) on your company’s 401(k) plan allow non-hardship withdrawals? If it doesn’t, it may need to be customized to do so. This year, plan administrators nationwide are fielding employee questions about rollovers to Roth IRAs.

401(k) plan participants need to make sure the plan permits this. An Request a copy of the SPD. If you ask and no one seems to know where it is, then call the toll-free number on your monthly 401(k) statement and ask a live person if in-service, non-hardship withdrawal distributions are an option. In some 401(k)s, an in-service non-hardship withdrawal will prevent you from further participation; be sure to check on that as well.

If this is permissible and you want to make the move, you better make an IRA rollover with the assets withdrawn. If you don’t, that distribution out of your qualified retirement plan will be slapped with a 20% federal withholding tax and you still have to pay federal and state income taxes. Oh yes, you will also incur the 10% early withdrawal penalty if you are younger than age 59½. Additionally, if you have taken a loan from your 401(k), any in-service withdrawal might cause it to be characterized as a taxable distribution in the eyes of the IRS.³

Obviously, this IRA rollover possibility is not a big hit with the national and regional retirement plan providers, who would like to see you keep participating in their 401(k) programs rather than partly or fully bail out. But many employees would like a broader and more diverse range of investment options -- and some would like the chance to direct their money into vehicles designed to produce future income streams.

Plan administrators and participants should talk to a financial consultant that understands the unique changes that have recently transpired in the 401k arena. If you don’t know who to turn to, I respectfully suggest me. Give me a call or shoot me over an email.

Citations.

¹ articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-08-16/business/0908140293_1_roth-ira-roth-conversions-simple-ira [8/16/09]

² smbhr.benefitnews.com/news/rolling-the-dice-with-a-roth-ira-rollover-2682826-1.html [1/22/10]

³ macpa.org/Content/22372.aspx [2/1/10]

 These conservative investments have become a popular alternative to bonds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrupQKSW5VE

Fixed indexed annuities can be very useful investments. As the name implies, FIAs are fixed annuities linked to the performance of a stock market index (often the S&P 500). Because of this stock market exposure, they can sometimes bring conservative investors very nice returns – often, considerably better returns than CDs, bonds, or money market accounts. They really aren’t designed to outperform the stock markets; they are designed to outperform the fixed markets.

During the accumulation phase of an FIA, you have the opportunity to benefit from stock market gains while your principal is protected against stock market losses. The annuity contract usually guarantees you a minimum rate of interest on your purchase payments while the annuity is growing; the insurance company involved will credit you with either the minimum return stated in the contract or a return based on the performance of the linked index.¹

If you are skittish about stock market investment, you can potentially realize the benefits of stock market participation through this comparatively low-risk investment.

Now each FIA has a particular participation rate. The participation rate signifies the percentage of the invested assets within the annuity keyed to the linked index.

Let’s say you have an FIA linked to the S&P 500 and the participation rate is 60%. That means is the S&P finishes positive you will receive 60% of that gain. If the S&P 500 gains 10% across a year, this means your annuity gives you a 6% return for the year. Compare that 6% potential return to so many CDs and money market accounts which generate a pittance of interest.

Some FIAs measure an index’s gain on an annual basis, others over the entire term of the annuity. Sometimes there are “ceilings” on just how high a return you can realize. From time to time, participation rates may be reset by the insurance company. Occasionally, a margin or “spread” determines the index-linked interest rate instead of a participation rate. In this case, if your annuity gains 10% and the spread is 2.5%, your credited gain is 7.5%.²

Most FIAs give you all the features of a fixed annuity: your earnings are not taxed, and when the distribution phase of your annuity starts, you can receive periodic (usually monthly) income payments. (Sometimes you can take the entire value of your annuity as a lump sum at the end of the contract term. It is your withdrawals of any gains that are taxed.) There is often a guaranteed minimum death benefit payable to your beneficiary when you pass away.

Another Key Feature is there is no annual contribution limit. If you need to put away more retirement savings NOW, the contribution limits on IRAs and 401(k)s can be frustrating. Would you rather have a retirement account you can only put $5,000 or $6,000 in annually, or an account to which you can contribute as much as you want? FIAs (and other types of annuities) have no contribution ceiling, and there are no IRS-imposed income limits above which you cannot contribute.³

But make no mistake, these are long-term investments. Many of these annuity contracts are 7-10 years or longer. If you need to withdraw your money from the annuity in the accumulation phase, there is usually a considerable penalty. Fixed indexed annuities do require a long-term outlook and a long-term commitment. No to mention that the IRS says that if you take a distribution from an annuity prior to age 59 ½, you face the same 10% federal tax penalty.

Would you like to learn more? If you are planning to maintain or improve your quality of life in retirement, maybe you would like to see how fixed indexed annuities can potentially help you. If that’s the case, then give me a call or send me an email and I’d be happy to look at your situation with you.

Citations.

¹ sec.gov/answers/annuity.htm          [7/19/05]

² newsobserver.com/293/story/222312.html    [10/23/05]

A way to reinvest the lump sum you’ve saved for retirement.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=anWJAu84VeU

As retirement approaches … money decisions become increasingly major. One big decision concerns what to do with the money in your company retirement plan.

… Consider a direct rollover. For most people, the most attractive option is an IRA rollover. In other words, you transfer the money from your 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plan into an IRA. It is not hard to accomplish, provided you have the guidance of a qualified financial advisor.

Here are the basic steps. When you leave a company, you usually have three options with your retirement plan: you can leave the money in the plan, roll it over into a new plan (if you elect to keep working for a new employer), or do a direct rollover into an IRA.

A direct rollover is not the same thing as a direct payment to you. Yes, your employer can actually write you a check for the full amount of your 401(k) account, but 20% of that money will be withheld for taxes.  Keep in mind that they 20% that they withhold may not be enough to cover all the taxes you owe.

If you want to avoid that 20% withholding, a direct rollover is the solution. It is a “trustee to trustee” rollover, which works like this: your employer writes a lump sum check not to you, but in the name of the trustee or custodian of the IRA that you are creating to hold the funds. You then let your company’s retirement plan administrator know that you’ll be doing a direct rollover. (There is almost always a form to be filled out, on which you can state the specific instructions for the distribution check.)

Your company sends you the check payable to the IRA trustee, with no withholding, and you have 60 days to deposit it in the IRA; day 1 is the day after you get the check. (Sometimes a wire transfer of assets occurs instead, between one investment custodian and another.) If you don’t complete the direct rollover in 60 days, you will pay tax on the entire amount. (There’s no grace period for weekends or holidays.)

If you want to leave work before age 59½ or you own shares of company stock, you should consider the tax implications created by those circumstances before attempting any kind of rollover.

Let’s talk about what you can and can’t do. You can make unlimited direct rollovers of your retirement account assets, and you can add the money in your retirement plan to an IRA you already have, if you don’t intend to go back to work and put those assets into a new employer plan. Once your retirement plan assets are in an IRA, you can invest them in practically any way you choose – in mutual funds, CDs, stocks, money market funds, annuities, and even more possibilities. You can also set up your IRA to make systematic payments to you.

You can’t roll over the assets from your retirement plan directly into a Roth IRA. You have to put them in a Traditional IRA first, and then convert to a Roth IRA by paying tax on the assets you want to convert before you can realize that tax-free growth.

Is it time to roll over your retirement money? If that time is here or getting closer, you need to be very careful with what could possibly be the largest lump sum you ever receive. Be sure to ask a qualified financial advisor about your IRA rollover options today.

Investment advice is offered through Pete Mitchell, Inc. a registered investment advisor in California.