Individual Retirement Account

Also known as IRA. When a spouse inherits it, new beneficiaries must be named, and you can do these 4 things:

1. Keep spouse's IRA
2. Move spouse's IRA assets into your own account
3. Same as last point but convert IRA into Roth IRA
4. Discharge

Now, if:

• Traditional IRA: Contributions may be tax-deductible, and earnings grow tax-deferred.
• Roth IRA: Contributions are made with after-tax dollars, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free.

Why not put all one's cash into Roth IRA? $7k/year limit [1]. But good thing is, benefits are tax free.

Otherwise, Roth IRAs seem to get 7-10% returns, and seem to be quite advantageous as you pay no taxes upon cashing in. In a system which taxes your income in the first place.

How to move money into an IRA without getting taxed on that money? Yes if you are rolling over from another retirement account. This is called a Roth Conversion [2].