Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the Roth IRA income limits do not apply to 529-to-Roth rollovers. A graduate earning far past the MAGI phase-out — who cannot contribute to a Roth directly — can still receive the full annual rollover from a seasoned 529. For high-earning young professionals it is […]
529-to-Roth Rollovers Have No Income Limit – Use That Read More »
Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the 529 must have been open 15 years before any Roth rollover — and the question every family asks next has no official answer: does changing the beneficiary restart the clock? The IRS has not issued guidance. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and
The 529-to-Roth 15-Year Rule – and the Question the IRS Hasn’t Answered Read More »
Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the 529-to-Roth rollover does not get its own bucket — it shares the beneficiary’s annual IRA limit. For 2026 that limit is $7,500 (under 50): if your daughter contributes $7,500 to her own Roth in March, the 529 can send her $0 that year; if
The 529-to-Roth Annual Limit Trap: It Shares the Kid’s IRA Limit Read More »
Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the $35,000 lifetime 529-to-Roth rollover is real, but it is a multi-year project with four separate caps, and the one everybody misses is this: the annual rollover shares the beneficiary’s regular IRA limit — every dollar they contribute to their own IRA or Roth that
529-to-Roth Rollover Calculator: All Four Caps, Applied Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: 35 of 51 U.S. jurisdictions (states plus D.C.) currently authorize a transfer-on-death deed for real property. If you have read a different number — 27, 29, 32 — the article was written before the newest enactments: Georgia (effective July 1, 2024) and Delaware (effective December
Transfer-on-Death Deed States: The Verified 2026 List (It’s 35, Not 27) Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the TOD deed’s tax profile is its best feature, and it is three sentences long. Recording one is not a taxable gift — the transfer is revocable, so nothing complete has been given. At your death the beneficiary takes a full step-up in basis to
Transfer-on-Death Deed Taxes: No Gift Now, Full Step-Up Later Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: adding a child to your deed as joint tenant — the folk remedy for probate — is an immediate gift of half your house. A TOD deed achieves the same probate avoidance while giving away nothing: you keep full ownership, full control, and full revocability
TOD Deed vs Adding Your Child to the Deed: One Is a Gift Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: they solve the same problem with different machinery, and articles constantly conflate them. A TOD deed is a statutory instrument: record it, and the property passes at death; the beneficiary has no interest whatsoever while you live. A Lady Bird deed (enhanced life estate deed)
Lady Bird Deed vs TOD Deed: Different Machines, Same Job Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: yes — for that one property. A properly recorded TOD deed passes the home outside probate entirely: no court, no personal-representative commission on it, no months of waiting. What it does NOT do is keep the rest of the estate out of probate, and it
Does a TOD Deed Avoid Probate? Yes – For That Asset Only Read More »
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: TOD deeds fail at the edges, not in the concept. The five failure modes that actually happen: a beneficiary who dies first (no contingency → probate anyway), co-beneficiaries inheriting as co-owners with no exit plan, the mortgage and liens riding along, Medicaid estate recovery in
Transfer-on-Death Deed Problems: The Five Failure Modes Read More »
