Tax Savings Opportunities For Retirees 65+ (Including Your Elderly Parents)

If you are turning 65 soon, you are closer to becoming eligible for potentially thousands of dollars in tax deductions and savings opportunities that many people never take advantage of. And if you're helping with your elderly parents' finances, there's a good chance they're entitled to tax breaks they don't even know exist. The tax code is full of opportunities specifically designed for retirees. But here's the problem: Social Security isn't going to call and tell you about them. The IRS certainly won't, and unfortunately, most tax preparers are so focused on compliance and filing deadlines that they miss most of these strategies entirely. I'm about to walk you through the most valuable tax savings opportunities available once you reach your retirement years. Some you've probably never heard of, and some that could literally save you tens of thousands of dollars over your retirement.

Welcome to Retired-ish. I am your host, Cameron Valadez, Certified Financial Planner and Enrolled Agent. Today, we are covering tax savings opportunities that are commonly available for those in their retirement years. And some for those that are age 65 and older specifically. This applies whether you're in that age range yourself or you're helping elderly parents navigate their finances.

Here's the reality. Most retirees leave thousands of dollars on the table every year simply because they don't know these strategies exist. Some of these are straightforward deductions that kick in, let's say, automatically at 65, but many require proactive planning and coordination between you and your financial and or tax professionals.

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And what frustrates me the most is that even when people work with professionals that they know, like, and trust, these opportunities often get missed. Your tax professional or advisor might be filing everything correctly when it comes to tax compliance, such as filing your returns, but they're not necessarily identifying planning opportunities, looking forward. Oftentimes, their job entails looking in the rearview mirror. That's the difference between paying what you legally owe versus leaving the IRS a tip.

So we're going to cover everything from the basics, like increased standard deductions and medical expense strategies, to more advanced moves like utilizing banked real estate losses and strategic Roth contributions in your 60s and 70s, claiming elderly parents as dependents on your tax return, and maximizing qualified charitable distributions. So whether you're approaching retirement or have been in retirement for years, or you're helping your aging parents, there's likely something here that applies to your situation. Let's dig in.

One of the most straightforward tax breaks once you reach age 65 is the ability to get an increase to your standard deduction. This increase applies per spouse if married, who reaches age 65 or older at any time during the calendar year. And you'll receive it every year going forward under the current tax law. The amount typically adjusts with inflation over time, so this additional deduction typically increases as the years go on. Also, if your birthday happens to be on January 1st, you are considered 65 in the previous year, so just a little nuance to know if you were born on New Year's. So here's something that many people miss when it comes to the standard deduction.

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If you're helping your elderly parents file their taxes, and let's say their vision has significantly faded to the point where they can be determined blind by a medical professional, there's an additional standard deduction on top of the one I just mentioned, potentially for them as well. So just keep that in mind because that is a common thing for the elderly.

Starting in 2025 through 2028, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill that was recently passed, there's also a new deduction called the Enhanced Senior Deduction, and this is separate from the standard deduction that I just mentioned and is based on your income levels. You can get up to $6,000 in deductions per person if married, a maximum of $12,000 for a couple. But depending on your income, you may qualify for less or not get the deduction at all. But there's a critical detail. If you or your parents file married filing separately and are over 65, this enhanced senior deduction is not available at all. Like many deductions in the tax code, when filing married filing separately, that deduction goes away. However, there are legitimate reasons to file separately, but they're fairly rare, so be sure to consult your tax professional on that if you think you may need to file separate.

Next, let's look at what can happen when a spouse passes away. For example, one of your elderly parents. Of course, it's almost inevitable that one will pass before the other. If a spouse passes away during the year, they are considered married for the entire year. So the surviving spouse that goes to file the taxes for that year will still be considered married.

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Therefore, the surviving spouse again can still file married filing joint for that tax year, which provides a larger standard deduction and allows them to claim deductions related to the deceased spouse, including any additional standard deduction amount that they would have if they were, let's say, over 65. Combine this with the fact that maybe the deceased spouse had their own income source, and let's say they passed early in the year or halfway through the year, there will also be less income to be reported while also maintaining the larger deduction. That's why some opportunities financially can arise here. And this is crucial because a clock starts ticking on certain tax-saving strategies. Going forward, the surviving spouse will likely be filing single unless there's a child under their care. And that means compressed tax brackets, potentially more Social Security taxation, and possible Medicare premium surcharges, also known as IRMAA surcharges, which is essentially another form of tax. This creates opportunities in the year of death. With higher deductions available that year, you might consider Roth conversions or purposely recognizing capital gains on any investments held outside of retirement accounts while you're in a more beneficial tax situation. These strategies won't be as attractive once you're filing single.

Now, losing a spouse is obviously very devastating and life-changing. And with that comes some pretty heavy grieving, typically. And because of that, you usually don't have a clear mind and thought process in order to make big financial decisions, which is why a lot of professionals will say, hey, we don't want you to make any big financial decisions within the first six to twelve months, for example.

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Now, this is one of those cases where we still might want to act sooner than later and make some of these decisions because they may make a big difference on your finances for the rest of your life and be beneficial to you. So while you don't necessarily have to make these decisions right away, it's important to know that there are opportunities. And what you should probably do is just bring those up to any professionals you work with. That way, they can do an analysis and help you when you're ready to act.

On a lighter note, let's talk about deductible medical expenses. Medical expenses, of course, aren't just a senior issue, but let's be honest, they increase dramatically as we age. Insurance premiums go up, of course, home modifications eventually become necessary for transporting around the house. And expenses like in-home care, nursing homes, assisted living, and long-term care insurance all become more and more common.

Whether you can deduct these medical expenses largely depends on whether you itemize or take the standard deduction in a given year. To itemize your total itemized deductions, which consist of things like medical expenses over seven and a half percent of your adjusted gross income, charitable contributions, mortgage interest that you pay throughout the year, state and local taxes or sales taxes that are paid throughout the year, and property taxes. These types of expenses altogether need to exceed the standard deduction that is available to you. If they don't, then you don't get a tax benefit from them, and you would just take the higher standard deduction. Most people nowadays use the standard deduction regularly, then switch to itemizing when medical expenses spike.

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The point is that you need to use what's called Schedule A and itemize your expenses to potentially deduct medical expenses, including premiums paid for health insurance. When it comes to health insurance premiums, Medicare is, of course, available at 65, but you might not be on it yet. If you're still working with employer coverage or you're on a spouse's employer health plan, or retired early prior to age 65, you probably have a health plan with the marketplace, or maybe your former employer has retiree coverage for you. You are paying premiums that could be deductible as an itemized deduction.

Now, commonly with civil service jobs, so like firefighters, police, and teachers, there's an interesting wrinkle. Some former employers let you apply any unused sick leave to future retiree health plans and premiums. If you have the choice between cashing out that sick leave or using it for medical premium payments, and you choose to have it cover the medical premiums, that money is taxable income, and you are able to deduct it as a medical expense. But if they automatically apply it to health coverage without giving you that cash-out option, it's neither income nor is it deductible. So just a little nuance there that's common with those civil service jobs to be aware of.

Some employers also maintain medical trusts or similar plans. For example, here in Southern California, SB CERA, which stands for San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association, has a retirement medical trust that's funded by the employer, the county, during an employee's career. You can use the money tax-free for certain medical expenses in retirement.

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Health savings accounts work in a very similar fashion, but instead of it being owned and operated by the employer, essentially, it's owned by you individually. Here's the general rule with these kinds of plans and accounts.

If you're taking money from, let's say, an HSA or a medical trust, to pay for qualified medical expenses, the distribution is already tax-free. And so you can't double-dip by also deducting those premiums when itemizing. However, some expenses, such as Medicare Supplement Plan premiums, for example, may not be eligible for tax-free payment from these accounts. So you could potentially deduct them on Schedule A when itemizing. So you just have to make sure you understand what qualifies as a medical expense per the type of plan that you have, whether that's an HSA or some type of medical trust or something similar. If you are on Medicare, you are paying for Part B, possibly Part D, the prescription drug coverage, and maybe a Medicare supplement policy. Now, I know there's also Medicare Advantage, but most of those plans are premium-free. Rarely, if you didn't pay enough into Medicare, you might even have Part A premiums too. All of those different premiums count as insurance premiums that may be partially deductible when itemizing on your return.

Okay, so what if I pay for long-term care insurance? What if I have a long-term care policy or my parents have a policy, and we pay those insurance premiums? What happens then? Long-term care insurance premiums can be deductible, to a certain extent, but there are a few nuanced factors that determine this, and it usually has to do with the type of policy as well as your age. We've covered this in detail, actually, in a previous podcast episode, so be sure to check the show notes for today's episode for the link. Note that I said premiums paid for long-term care.

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So if you or a parent are receiving benefits from a long-term care insurance policy, these are typically paid to you tax-free, but again, there are some nuances.

Related to long-term care insurance, what about the cost of services in assisted living and nursing homes that maybe aren't reimbursed by long-term care insurance? Let's say you don't have any. The first thing to understand is don't assume all assisted living or nursing home costs are automatically deductible as medical expenses. They can be fully deductible, but the care and expenses must be for medical reasons, not personal ones. And sometimes there's a mixture of both at play.
The exception is if the care is considered a qualified long-term care service, most expenses are fully deductible. This generally means the person that is receiving the care is chronically ill, so they're unable to perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance, usually for about 90 days, their needs for substantial supervision due to some sort of cognitive impairment, like dementia or Alzheimer's, or require substantial hands-on assistance.

Additionally, the care must be pursuant to a plan from a licensed health care professional. This means it typically won't qualify if services are provided by, let's say, your spouse or relative. If you or your sibling are helping your elderly parent and let's say they're paying you, that likely won't qualify. Therefore, it's best to consult a tax professional for these types of situations because there may be other tax-saving strategies you can follow and still get the care you need or that you need to provide for your parent.

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Okay, now let's switch gears and talk about potential paper losses from rental real estate. Now, this is a powerful opportunity that's often overlooked, particularly for those in or approaching retirement who own rental properties. Sometimes, rental real estate generates paper losses or losses for tax purposes. So the expenses, including things like depreciation, exceed the rental income, but your cash flow that you receive every month or every year might be positive, right? So looks like a loss for tax purposes, but you're maybe still generating income in reality. If your modified adjusted gross income, that's one of those big tax terms, exceeds $150,000 in a given year, you can't use any real estate losses against your income in that year and offset it. But instead, those losses can be suspended or banked for later years.

This is common during peak earning years, right before retirement. But in retirement, when income typically drops, maybe you have just a pension, some retirement account withdrawals, or Social Security. If you're under certain income thresholds and you actively participate in that rental activity, you can begin to unlock those suspended losses from your rental property that you built up over the years. If your, again, modified adjusted gross income is under 100,000, not 150, and you actively participate in the rental activity, which isn't difficult to do, by the way, you can use up to $25,000 of those passive losses to offset any active income. This is other income you have, such as Social Security, retirement withdrawals, pension income, income from a business, or part-time consulting, for example.

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Normally, these passive losses from your rental real estate can't offset that other active income, but this is a special allowance. For instance, if the mortgage on your rental property is now paid off in your retirement years and now that property is generating positive cash flow and income instead of losses on the tax return, those suspended losses first will offset the rental income on your tax return, potentially zeroing it out in any remaining losses that you might have can still offset up to $25,000 of other income, if you're under the income thresholds that I previously mentioned and you actively participate in that rental activity. If income stays above the 150,000 all throughout retirement, and the losses just sit there, you can use them to offset the gain when you eventually sell the property.
Here's why all of this complicated stuff matters. If you're aware of these suspended passive losses, you can use them strategically. For example, you might do a Roth conversion that recognizes ordinary income, but keeps you under that $100,000 threshold. Then use the unlocked passive losses to offset some or all of the Roth conversion tax bill.

The point is that your tax professional may report these passive losses correctly year to year, but they often miss these opportunities when there's a substantial change in income or income sources in and around retirement. So we need to be aware of these opportunities, or at least be aware that these rules exist, so you know when to consult a professional and when there might be an opportunity to take advantage of.

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Next on our list is the Roth IRA and, more specifically, Roth contributions while in your retirement years. If you're unfamiliar, Roth IRAs are a retirement account where you fund it with money that's already been taxed. Then, as long as you meet a few qualifications, the growth that you may experience by investing in the Roth IRA over long periods of time will be able to grow tax-free. That includes that money being tax deferred, meaning as you earn interest or realize gains or make money in the account, you don't pay taxes year to year on it, in addition to it being tax-free when you take the money out later in your retirement years. Now, Roth IRAs, in my opinion, are one of the best types of accounts to have and to try and maximize because of the uncertainty of the future.

Tax law and legislation can and surely will be different, and your future tax situation will also be different. I'm not saying that all of your money should go into a Roth IRA because everybody's circumstances are, in fact, different, but they are a phenomenal account nonetheless. They provide one of the only opportunities in the world that can allow your money to grow completely tax-free. That being said, I want to discuss Roth IRAs because, although you might be deemed to be in your retirement years, you might be in your 60s or 70s and might actually choose to continue working. Or maybe you operate a business or consult for your former employer, things like that.

If you or you and or spouse are earning income in some capacity, which means that you're working, getting a W-2, or maybe you're getting a 1099 because you're consulting or you own a business or what have you, you have earned income that is not from something like a pension or Social Security, then you are likely able to contribute to a Roth IRA up to certain limits each and every year.

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Now, if let's say you are working, but your spouse is retired and doesn't have any earned income, depending on how much you've earned, you can even fund a Roth IRA for yourself and for your spouse via a spousal contribution again, each and every year that you have that earned income. I do want to note that there are some caveats to contributing to a Roth IRA. Generally, you can contribute the maximum amount as long as you're under certain income limits in a given year. If you are over those income limits, basically, if you make too much money, there is another way to fund a Roth via what's called a backdoor Roth IRA contribution. But there are even nuances to that strategy as well. So you'll definitely want to work with a financial professional if you're trying to do this and figuring out how to fund a Roth in these kinds of situations. The main reason I want to discuss contributing to Roth IRAs in your so-called retirement years is because many of you or your parents will have money that is invested but not in a retirement account, such as a 401(k) or IRA.

For example, you may have money in a regular brokerage account or just sitting in a checking or savings account or something similar, or you might have inherited money from your parents that passed away, and that money is in, let's say, a trust account in cash or stocks and bonds, things of that nature. Those monies are typically taxed on any interest, dividends, or capital gains that might be recognized each and every year. And if you have earned income, you could have the opportunity to take some of that money from those accounts and essentially shift it over and slowly contribute it to Roth IRAs as the years go on.

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So you're essentially taking money that's in your left pocket that is being taxed every year, and you're shifting it over to the right pocket, which is the Roth IRA. Where you can invest it in typically the same stuff in a very similar manner if you'd like, but now turn those earnings and would be capital gains into tax-free money during your own retirement years. This is a well-underutilized strategy in the real world. In our actual financial practice at Plannable Wealth, we see new clients come in and reach out all the time that have these taxable investments or inheritances, and they have earned income from some form of work. Yet there is no recent history of them contributing to Roths. So if the excuse were to be that they had to spend all of the money that they were earning and therefore they didn't have the extra cash to contribute to the Roth IRAs, at a minimum, there should be some sort of strategy that is transitioning the money from the taxable accounts, though again, those bank accounts or brokerage accounts or the inheritance money two Roth accounts over time. Again, one for yourself, and if you have enough earned income, you can even fund a Roth IRA for your spouse.

Like I said, we usually can get this done for both spouses if married, and will often utilize this strategy if a Roth IRA makes sense for the client and their particular situation. And if you utilize a strategy like this long enough, you can actually shift a lot of funds into a Roth IRA and save a lot of money over time by taking of the potential tax-free growth moving forward. This is especially true if leaving some sort of legacy to children or other family members is very important to you. Because if you leave them with a Roth IRA, they will be able to continue to leave that money invested and earn money tax-free for an additional 10 years after your death.

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So this is very powerful stuff. For more information on Roths, just in general, see the links to our blog and previous episodes in the show notes of today's episode.

Next, I want to talk about a strategy that is specific to those of you who may be taking care of an elderly parent. There comes a point where a parent may potentially be able to be treated as a dependent for tax purposes by you. This happens or can happen when your parent meets what is called the qualifying relative tests. Which means they're one, not a qualifying child. Two, they are a member of the household or related, which they are if they are your parent. So they actually don't have to be living with you. This can even be a step-parent or an in-law. However, it can't be a foster parent. And by the way, relationships established by marriage do not end by death or divorce for tax purposes. However, the most important part of this and the hardest test or hurdle to overcome is that their gross income has to be under $5,200 as of the year 2025, although this number typically goes up with inflation each year, and you have to provide over half the parents' total support.

This strategy can be very beneficial to you as a caretaking child, if, let's say, you are single, because if you're single, you're filing single for tax purposes, and if you can have your parent qualify as your dependent, you may now be able to file as head of household and get additional tax savings via an additional standard deduction. Another really interesting quirk to this is that you, as a taxpayer, are typically able to deduct the medical expenses for yourself, your spouse, and any dependents you have, which would include a qualifying relative.

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If your parent is able to qualify as a qualifying relative and you have medical expenses you help pay for on their behalf as your dependent, you may be able to deduct these on your own return as well. And what's interesting is that you can deduct medical expenses you paid for your parent in this example, who would have been your dependent if not for that gross income test of $5,200 a year. I know that sounds kind of confusing, so here it is said differently. If you, the taxpayer, could have claimed your parent as a dependent, if that gross income test of them earning $5,200 a year or more didn't apply, which means they do make more than $5,200 a year, then generally you can still deduct your parents' medical expenses. Pretty cool stuff.

Okay, moving on. Another extremely unique, although not rare, situation that we expect to be happening more frequently this year, in 2025 and beyond, is people receiving lump sum payments from Social Security. We expect this to start happening more frequently because of the recent elimination of what are called the Windfall Elimination Provision, or WEP, and the Government Pension Offset, or GPO. These two provisions were eliminated starting in 2025. However, the elimination is also retroactive and includes the year 2024 as well. And again, we have a previous episode on this, but essentially, these two provisions affected those who are or will be receiving a public pension, where they did not pay into Social Security while working for that employer.

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Or maybe they paid a little bit into Social Security during their lifetime from a different job, but the majority of their income in retirement comes from their public pension. It also affects the spouses of individuals who earned a Social Security benefit. But they have their own public pension. These two provisions reduced any Social Security benefit that the person with the pension was able to receive, and oftentimes, they weren't able to receive anything. Now that those provisions are eliminated, there are many people receiving these public pensions that are now also able to apply for a Social Security benefit. Sometimes the benefit can be substantial, if a former spouse had a large Social Security benefit and let's say passed away.

Our office recently ran into one of these situations. We had a prospective client come in and speak with us. They went through our retirement playbook process, and throughout that process, they shared with us their tax return, which is one of the requirements. We had learned through the initial conversation with them that their spouse had passed away a few years ago. And they mentioned that their spouse was collecting Social Security, and now she doesn't receive any of it anymore. And when we looked at the current tax return, we confirmed that it only showed income from her pension, which was one of those public pensions. When we asked her if she had her own Social Security benefit, she told us that she didn't, and it didn't matter because she was never able to receive Social Security based on her own record or her spouse's record because of some provisions that didn't allow her to. And those, of course, were the provisions that we just discussed, which are now gone.

So, although this individual had been retired for years and years and up until the last few years was not receiving Social Security benefits anymore because her spouse passed away, she is actually now eligible to file for a survivor benefit and collect the full amount that he was receiving at death, unreduced by her pension.

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Once we shared this with her, she was, of course, over the moon. And this will, of course, impact her financial well-being and plans significantly for the rest of her life. Now, what happens in this case is when she files again, they are going to go back retroactively all the way through the year 2024. So what's going to happen is she's going to receive a lump sum payment for all of the months in 2024. Including all the months she was eligible in 2025. And of course, this large payment will have tax ramifications. She will have two different options when she goes and does her taxes for the particular year in which she receives the lump sum. That may be this year, in 2025, or she might not get it paid until 2026.

The first option is she can just report the entire amount on her return in the year she receives it. And pay whatever taxes may come from that, which, depending on how large it is, could cause a myriad of other shadow taxes such as Medicare premium surcharges, et cetera. Number two, she can make something called the lump sum election when filing her return, and she'll have to complete several worksheets that will allow her to treat that lump sum payment as if she received it over 2024 and 2025, depending on how the math plays out. And again, the size of the lump sum, it may be better for her to recognize it over the two years rather than option one, recognizing it in one year alone.

So this strategy, of course, entails communicating with a tax professional, but I just wanted you to be aware that this is a thing. Most people don't understand the elimination of these two provisions and how it impacts them.

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And they're completely unaware that there are benefits that they can file for since Social Security is not automatically going to do this for them or tell them. Even more unknown is the lump sum election to spread it out over multiple years. And this is the case with many tax professionals as well. So as long as you're aware and you're able to bring it up to the appropriate people, hopefully this can help. And if you're quite a ways away from collecting Social Security, but your parents receive pensions and may be in a situation like this, you'll definitely want to ask them about their situation and let them know that there could be substantial tax savings opportunities or income on the table.

Lastly, I want to discuss a phenomenal tax strategy or opportunity that is available to those with IRA’s that are age 70 and a half or older and are charitably inclined. And these are called qualified charitable distributions or QCDs. Essentially, these are a distribution from your IRA up to a certain limit each year, which in 2025 was $108,000 per person, sent directly to a qualified charitable organization, and comes out of your pre-tax IRA. Free of tax. This is particularly beneficial when someone reaches their required minimum distribution age, or RMD age, which is currently age 73 or 75, depending on the year you were born. When you must begin taking these required minimum distributions from your pre-tax retirement accounts, the money is fully taxed in the year it's received.

However, if you're charitably inclined, you can decide to make qualified charitable distributions from your IRA, and they are able to offset that required minimum distribution amount.

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You're able to do that partially or in full, if you please. But again, you are restricted to the $108,000 a year limit as of the year 2025. Now, I know you might say, that's a lot of money. I'm not giving that much to charity, and that's fine. There are some individuals out there with very large IRAs that are very charitably inclined, and so that limit pretty much applies to them. The other benefit to this is that again, if you are charitably inclined, if you don't do a QCD and instead just do regular charitable contributions, you must itemize your deductions to potentially get a benefit from those charitable contributions.

Remember, charitable contributions were on that list of itemized deductions I talked about earlier. With a QCD, it doesn't matter if you're taking the standard deduction or itemizing deductions. You still can get a benefit for the charitable contribution because money that would have otherwise be included in your taxable income from your RMD will now not be included in your income. Not only that, but because it's not included in your income, it reduces your adjusted gross income on your tax return, which can help you qualify for other deductions and tax benefits. Whereas if you were to take charitable contributions as an itemized deduction, that is a deduction that's accounted for after your adjusted gross income is calculated, so it doesn't affect it. And it can't potentially help qualify you for those other deductions. There is a significant difference or can be a significant difference between a QCD and a typical charitable contribution, and that is that a QCD is a cash contribution. It is cash from your retirement account. You may give to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, the local animal shelter, or your church, but you may donate actual items of value, like clothing or supplies.

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That's where things differ. You can't do a QCD using physical items. It has to be cash that is from your IRA. Typically, what you're able to do is send money directly from your investment custodian that holds your IRA directly to the charitable organization. Another method that our firm often employs, especially if you regularly give to your church, for example, is we will issue you a checkbook that is tied directly to your IRA account, and you are able to write a check on demand as you please to whatever qualified charitable organization you want for however much you want.

The money comes directly out of your IRA and goes straight to that charitable organization. It does not go to you first, which is a very important rule that needs to be followed in order to have a legitimate QCD. The money cannot go to you personally first, then given to the charitable organization. It needs to go directly from the account to the organization.

You might be wondering, well, if I'm over 70 and a half, but I haven't reached my RMD age of, let's say, 73 or 75, is there really any benefit to doing a QCD? I'd say the answer is kind of not really. The main benefit of a QCD is to reduce your required minimum distribution, and therefore, it reduces the taxes you would have paid.

However, if you don't have to take money out of your IRA yet and you choose to do a QCD anyway, all you're really doing is giving to the charity from your IRA, albeit tax-free. What that can do is potentially decrease the would be value of your IRA once you reach RMD age, which therefore might reduce the required minimum distribution amount that you need to take at that time, but it likely won't make a huge difference.

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But other than that, there isn't really a large benefit to be had. During that time frame between 70 and a half in your RMD age, it may be more beneficial to just do a regular charitable contribution if you're itemizing your deductions, or you might consider a more advanced strategy and utilize a donor-advised fund. And usually we will do that if we need to bunch several years of charitable contributions into one year so that you can itemize if, let's say, you've been using the standard deduction.

So there you have it. Some really unique and interesting, at least we find them interesting, tax savings opportunities for retirees. Of course, there is so much more out there. And because the tax code is comprised of millions of words and constantly changing, this is why doing proactive annual tax planning is so key to preserving and growing your wealth. Consistently making good investment choices alone may not solve your retirement planning puzzle. By consistently recognizing tax savings opportunities and acting on them, you can theoretically add to your overall returns over time because that's more money you get to spend, donate, or leave as a legacy. And the best part is that many of the tax-saving strategies out there are under your complete control. Investment returns are not. Remember, these strategies will often require coordination with tax and financial professionals, but simply knowing they exist puts you in a position to ask the right questions at the right times and maximize your tax efficiency in retirement.

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The newsletter often dives deeper into some of the topics we discuss on the show, as well as useful guides and charts available for download. As always, you can find links to the resources we have provided in the episode description right there on your podcast app, or you can head over to retiredishpodcast.com/83. Until next time, thanks for tuning in and following along. See you next time on Retired-ish.

[00:42:50] Disclaimer
The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax or legal advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax or legal advisor.

Cameron Valadez is a registered representative with, and securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC.

Tax and accounting-related services offered through Plan-It Business Services DBA Planable Wealth. Plan-It Business Services is a separate legal entity and not affiliated with LPL Financial. LPL Financial does not offer tax advice or tax and accounting-related services.

Traditional IRA account owners have considerations to make before performing a Roth IRA conversion. These primarily include income tax consequences on the converted amount in the year of conversion, withdrawal limitations from a Roth IRA, and income limitations for future contributions to a Roth IRA. In addition, if you are required to take a required minimum distribution, RMD, in the year you convert, you must do so before converting to a Roth IRA.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principle.

No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.