For Immediate Release – February 1st, 2012- AdvantaIRA Trust, LLC is excited to announce the expansion and opening of their newest office in the Miami area. AdvantaIRA specializes in Self Directed IRAs specifically real estate IRAs and private lending in IRAs. Advanta has been in business in Florida for over 9 years with offices in [...]
Section 1031 is a valuable tax tool for the real estate investor’s toolbox. Prior to recent rulings, an investor could purchase an investment property, rent it out for a few years, and then convert the property to their primary home. Should they decide to sell it after the 5 year minimum holding period, they could [...]
In our changing economic times, it is more important than ever to focus on our retirement planning and financial futures. For most of us, we have never seen the wild ride that the financial markets have shown us the last few years. Just as we check our calories, blood pressure and weight on a regular [...]
Many people have no idea that their retirement account (IRA, 401-k, etc) can invest in many different types of assets, many of which are not allowed by their current custodian. For instance, if you asked your typical custodian to buy real-estate, I’d bet that 99% of them would tell you no. The problem isn’t that the IRS prohibits real-estate. The problem is 99% of the custodians do not want to deal with property tax bills, deeds, and paperwork involved in a real-estate closing. They prefer transactions to be much more automated; transactions where they a button is pressed and you suddenly own stock. Investing in assets other than securities has been allowed since the Employee Retirement Act of 1974 (ERISA) was passed. You don’t need a special type of retirement plan. You need a special administrator.
We’ve got less than two months before the current Federal Estate Tax and Generation Skipping Transfer tax rules expire. That means that as of today we do not know what the estate tax rates will be after 2010 and with Congress on (another) break it looks less and less likely that the current Estate tax [...]
Does it seem like everytime you read recent financial headlines that governments are implementing stimulus packages or slashing interest rates? Central banks are working to reduce the value of their countries’ currencies everytime they print money. Investors have been recently seeking safe havens such as oil, gold, and other hard assets to protect them from fears of governments continuing to print money. Gold has reached record values in recent months due to weak jobs reports, slashing interest rates, and general currency fears.
So what are you doing now with regards to your Financial Life Plan? As Americans, we are terrible planners. Let me give you some statistics. Twenty percent of pre-retirees have spent no time actively planning for retirement. Sixty percent of pre-retirees have spent the same amount of time or more time on home improvement vs. financial planning. Thirty one percent said they would rather clean their bathroom or pay bills than plan for retirement. These statistics are from the Financial Planning Association.
Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) is not a subject that many investors are familiar with. Yet, many investors run the risk of being subject to UBIT. UBIT can be difficult to understand and even harder to calculate. Although UBIT is an added tax, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As an investor, if you are subject to UBIT, that means you are making money with your investment! This does not mean that all investments that make money are subject to UBIT. Only those investments that meet specific criteria could be subject to UBIT.
Did you know that you can trade in the Futures markets using your IRA? Most investors are unaware that this is an option because your Financial Advisor does not sell these types of investments. In fact, you can use your IRA funds to invest in the following types of Futures accounts: Self-Directed, broker-assisted, and CTA managed. Using a “Self-Directed” IRA, you can direct a portion of your retirement funds to invest in a Futures Trading Account.