The rules and regulations governing IRAs, HSAs, and other tax favored savings accounts are constantly evolving, and can be challenging to keep up with. Rely on our industry experts to bring you up to date on recently proposed legislation and regulatory updates that may affect your organization and your clients.

Learn the how, why, and when of IRA amendments! In this session we'll discuss what is required to be included in an IRA document and what you can change within a document. We'll also review the differences in the types of documents, such as model agreements and prototypes, as well as why a prototype document would be used. Join us to find out these rules and the latest guidance on the required amendment.

The SECURE Act made significant changes to IRA legislation, consequently adding a level of complexity to beneficiary payout rules. Moreover, the IRS has come out with proposed RMD regulations providing guidance with respect to beneficiary options considering the changes brought about by the SECURE Act. This class is part one of a two-part comprehensive course covering in-depth aspects of Traditional and Roth IRA beneficiary options addressing all the changes resulting from the SECURE Act and proposed RMD regulations, as well as essential topics such as beneficiary election deadlines, distribution rules and restrictions, and reporting requirements.

Diving deeper into the beneficiary options covered in IRA Beneficiary Distributions – Part 1, in this session you will take a more hands-on approach into handling certain year-of-death requirements, beneficiary portability, separate accounting rules, the beneficiary determination deadline, and beneficiary reporting requirements. For a deeper dive into advanced beneficiary issues, see IRAs: Handling Complex Death Claims and IRA Trust Beneficiary Issues and How to Handle Them.

To prepare you for the often-hectic IRA contribution season, this course delivers necessary understanding of Traditional and Roth IRA contribution issues such as deadlines, limits, possible tax credits, certain extensions, and Traditional IRA deductibility rules.

This course is a must if you are new to IRAs to help build a foundation of the most common IRA transactions and rules. Learn the fundamentals of Traditional and Roth IRAs from contributions and distributions to portability— including the rules associated with rollovers between employer plans and IRAs.

With IRA reporting requirements constantly changing, it is vital for your financial organization to stay up to date on the latest requirements. This course provides an in-depth review of key IRA reporting topics, including required minimum distribution statements, fair market value statements, account statements, and IRS Forms 1099-R and 5498. Our experts also review the electronic reporting requirements, beneficiary reporting requirements, procedures for requesting extensions, and IRS penalties for improper reporting.

RMD rules changed recently resulting from the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, and most recently the new life expectancy tables. RMDs make up a large part of most financial organizations’ IRA administration services and will continue to increase as baby boomers age. Attend this course to ensure that your organization is handling RMDs according to the most current rules. Course topics include RMD calculations, excess accumulation penalty taxes, financial organization responsibilities, and reporting.

Retirement plan portability is one of the most popular topics fielded on our consulting lines. Attending this course will help ensure that you are handling these transactions properly. You will learn the difference between transfers and rollovers, and direct and indirect rollovers, as well as acquire an understanding of Roth retirement plan assets and portability with Roth IRAs.

Are you confident that you’re adhering to all federal and state withholding rules? Compliance reviews frequently performed by Ascensus show that not all financial organizations understand IRA withholding rules. The SECURE Act significantly increased penalties for improper withholding notifications, and the IRS has also recently changed withholding notices and requirements depending on the type of IRA distribution (are you using the right form today?) This course covers the requirements for both federal and state withholding, how to properly notify IRA owners of their withholding rights, what to do with the withheld assets, how to handle withholding requirements for foreign individuals, and what the potential penalties are for improperly following the withholding rules.

For the first time in about 20 years, due to the SECURE Act, the IRS is requiring all IRAs to be amended. The last time an amendment was required was in 2002, and possibly in 2007 and 2010 for financial organizations using prototype documents. Are you familiar with the amendment requirements and the process for amending your documents? To avoid IRS penalties, financial organizations must use the correct and properly amended IRA opening documents. This course provides information on how to properly establish Traditional and Roth IRAs and how to amend them.

Financial organizations are frequently faced with handling beneficiary death claims and may wonder how to resolve some of their more complex beneficiary issues where there may be no or limited regulatory guidance. This comprehensive course covers in-depth aspects of Traditional and Roth IRA beneficiary issues and best practices on how to handle death claims while mitigating risk. The course covers advanced aspects of IRA disclaimers, distributions to trust beneficiaries, reporting issues, disputes, minors as beneficiaries, and other compliance concerns.

Ascensus conducts countless compliance audits for financial organizations across the U.S., oftentimes finding issues that could result in substantial IRS penalties due to non-compliance with IRS requirements. In this course, find out about the most common “points of failure” that our auditors have found, and which aspects of your IRA program you may discover are out of compliance. The course will guide you through these compliance concerns and provide checklists to help manage the compliance process, to help you avoid common pitfalls that may end up costing you thousands of dollars in IRS penalties.

Learn all aspects of the Roth IRA, including features and benefits, and how the Roth IRA stands out from other retirement savings accounts. Leave this course with a more thorough understanding of the tax advantages, contribution eligibility rules, reporting requirements, portability options, and advanced distribution issues, including the often asked about Roth IRA loophole.

Although financial organization personnel do not give tax advice to their clients, IRA administrators still may find themselves fielding legal questions. Generally, there is no IRS guidance on how to handle IRA legal issues. This course covers some of the more common legal issues that may arise with IRAs, such as powers of attorney, guardianships, creditors, beneficiary issues, and divorce; as well as how to handle these types of transactions to help mitigate risk for your organization

This course provides answers to your clients’ rollover questions by explaining all the rollover opportunities, including evolving portability rules between IRAs and employer plans. You will learn how to capture, facilitate, and report rollovers between employer plans and IRAs, as well as become familiar with new requirements from the DOL regarding making rollover recommendations to clients.