Books on Pension Distribution Planning

J.K. Lasser's How to Protect Your Retirement Savings from the IRS

by Seymour Goldberg

There is a dearth of good consumer books on pension distribution planning. In fact, there is only one title of note: J.K. Lasser's How to Protect Your Retirement Savings from the IRS, 3rd Edition, by Seymour Goldberg, CPA, MBA, JD (MacMillan General Reference, 2000, ISBN 0471388335). Priced at $24.95 for a hardcover book, the author and publisher are to be commended for their reasonable pricing of such a book.

The author, Seymour Goldberg, is an attorney and an accountant. He is the senior partner in the law firm of Goldberg & Goldberg, P.C., in Garden City, New York. Mr. Goldberg is a frequent lecturer on the topic of retirement plan distribution planning and you will find him frequently quoted on such topics in The New York Times, Forbes, and elsewhere.

This 324 page book is an excellent book on retirement plan distribution planning. It uses a question and answer approach to lead the reader through the complicated rules governing retirement plan distributions.

Its Table of Contents is as follows:

Introduction
Chapter One: Tapping Your Retirement Plan Assets without Penalty Before Age 59½
Chapter Two: When Must You Begin Minimum Distributions From Your Retirement Plan?
Chapter Three: Choosing Your Spouse as Your Designated Beneficiary
Chapter Four: Selecting a Child, Grandchild, or Other Young Person as Your Designated Beneficiary
Chapter Five: Using a Custodial Account or Trust for a Designated Beneficiary Who Is a Minor
Chapter Six: If Your Beneficiary is Older or Is No More Than Ten Years Younger Than You
Chapter Seven: The Estate as Beneficiary of IRA or Qualified Plan
Chapter Eight: Distributions Options for Your Nonspouse Designated Beneficiaries
Chapter Nine: Estate Planning with Retirement Assets
Chapter Ten: The Roth IRA
Appendix
Index

Chapter Ten on the Roth IRA has the following topics:

The Roth IRA Created by Contributions
The Roth IRA Created by a Conversion
Tax Effects of a Conversion to a Roth IRA for the Calendar Year 1998
Tax Effects of a Conversion to a Roth IRA for Calendar Years After 1998
Modified Adjusted Gross Income and Roth IRAs
Distributions from Roth IRAs
Recharacterized Contributions

The Roth chapter of the book contains 109 questions with answers. Much of the rest of the book is pertinent to Roth IRAs as well.

As you can see from the above topics covered by the book, pension distribution planning is an area with very specific rules and its own jargon. But Mr. Goldberg handles a difficult topic with grace. His discussions are necessarily technical and carefully worded, but that comes with the territory. He has produced a very readable consumer-oriented book on a very difficult topic. It may just be there are no other consumer-oriented books on pension distributions because it can't be done any better than this.

This book may be purchased at most bookstores. This book may also be ordered at a significant discount from the list price from Amazon.com. See the link above.

To search for books on a topic or by a certain author, enter the information and click on Search: