Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits Treatise

An Estate Planner’s Guide to Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits (4th ed.) by Louis A. Mezzullo was recently published by the American Bar Association.

Here is a description of this book:

This clearly written guide, now completely revised and updated, provides comprehensive, practical advice for the non-ERISA specialist on how to structure benefits from qualified retirement plans and IRAs to achieve maximum benefits for your client. This new edition reflects changes made by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the final regulations issued in April 2002 dealing with the required minimum distribution rules under Code § 401(a)(9), as well as many administrative pronouncements made since publication of the previous edition. The new edition also includes the appendices on an accompanying CD-ROM.

Written by nationally known author and speaker Louis A. Mezzullo, An Estate Planner’s Guide to Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits consistently relates key distribution issues to current estate planning practices. Mezzullo clarifies the current options available for distribution, alerts you to the dangers of some traditional estate planning techniques, and helps you meet clients’ interests and needs. Along with summarizing defined benefit and defined contribution plans and the rules that affect each type of plan, it also discusses tax laws, rules, and regulations as well as the penalties related to these distributions. Income taxation of benefits, transfer tax issues and spousal rights are covered in detail. Where appropriate the author notes relevant estate and trust administration issues.

A final chapter details practical planning strategies based on three key objectives:

• Achieving the client’s personal goals when making decisions about benefits while considering restrictions in the plan that may limit the form and timing of the distributions
• Avoiding the 10 percent penalty and the 50 percent excise tax that may apply to distributions
• Incurring the lowest possible income tax on the distribution

Appendices include an illustration of tax consequences and hypothetical retirement plan scenarios, forms, tables and charts for estate planning purposes, and tables of cases, revenue rulings, private letter rulings, and IRS news releases, notices, and revenue procedures.