EquiTrust – Certainty Select Rate Increase
Certainty Select Rate Increase! Multi-Year Guarantee Annuity Effective for Apps Received on or After Tuesday, July 21, 2015| 8 Years | 3.00% |
| 10 Years | 3.15% |
| 3 Years | 1.80% |
| 5 Years | 2.60% |
| 6 Years | 2.75% |
Three Sales Ideas in a Minute
By David Corwin
Ten Things You Should Know About Roth IRAs
By Rich Mangiameli Thanks to the tax benefits, Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs) can be a great way to save for retirement. Here is what you need to know.- You (or your spouse) must have earned income to contribute to a Roth IRA.
- Roth IRA contributions are not tax deductible. You can withdraw your contributions at any time, without taxes or penalties.
- Earnings may be withdrawn tax free as long as the distribution is qualified. A Roth IRA distribution is qualified if it is made after five-tax years period beginning with the first tax year for which a contribution was made to a Roth IRA set up for your benefit and you’re at least age 59 ½.
- As long as you have earnings and meet the Roth IRA income limits, you can make contributions of up to $5,500 for 2015 or $6,500 if you are age 50 or older. The contribution limit applies to all IRA contributions (Roth and traditional) for the year, excluding rollover contributions.
- To make a Roth IRA contribution for 2015, your modified adjusted gross income (AGI) must be less than $131,000 if you’re single or $192,000 if you’re married filing jointly. The maximum contribution is gradually reduced once you have modified AGI of $116,000 (single) or $183,000 (married filing jointly).
- If you’re eligible, you can contribute to a Roth IRA and participate in your employer’s retirement plan at work.
- Another way you can fund a Roth IRA is by rolling over assets from a designated Roth Account in a qualified retirement plan such as a 401(k). Check your plan’s provisions for details.
- If you take a nonqualified distribution from a Roth IRA (e.g. it doesn’t satisfy IRS requirements), regular contributions are distributed first and are not taxable.
- Unlike a traditional IRA, you can continue contributing to a Roth IRA after age 70 1/2, assuming you have earnings.
- You’re required to start withdrawing money at age 70 ½ from most other retirement accounts. But not Roth IRAs. If you don’t need the money, you can let your Roth IRA continue to grow tax free for the rest of your life.
Get the Facts
Presented by David Corwin The other day I was doing some landscaping in my front yard and my neighbor (works at a tree farm and has an opinion on everything that grows) proceeds to tell me what I’m doing wrong and the reasons why I should be doing it a different way. By the time he finished, I realized that he just debunked everything I had just learned on YouTube! I was, in fact, learning from an actual expert on the subject matter and what a big difference that makes. It works no differently in financial services, but this is much more important than helping your clients do yard work! When I talk with agents that are successful, and I mean really successful, the main difference is that within the sales process they have developed a way to gather facts from the client and can then translate those facts into a solution that fits their unique needs. The opposite of that is transactional selling, also known as order taking, which seems like a great temporary solution but may actually do more harm than good in the future. If an agent is an expert in their field and does proper fact finding and planning, the client’s world is a better place. If not, the client deserves for it to be that way. These simple steps will help: A) be an expert in your field; B) find out all the facts you can about your client; C) provide solutions that are more than the next transaction and D) you’ll have a client for life! If you need fact finding worksheets and other materials that can help guide you, please contact me at 800-397-9999. I can help!