Five IRA timing rules that can derail your retirement

By Robert Powell - MarketWatch 

Get familiar with IRA dates, ages — or risk your savings

Owning an IRA is one thing. Knowing the rules about IRAs is entirely different. And not knowing those rules can cost you dearly.

“IRAs are extremely complicated and it’s relatively easy for the average IRA account owner, and their financial adviser for that matter, to make simple, but very costly mistakes,” said Jeffery Levine, an IRA technical consultant with Ed Slott and Company.

IRA account owners need to be aware of all sorts of different dates, ages and “clocks.” When it comes to IRAs, timing is everything.

“Unfortunately though, the tax code isn’t exactly friendly when it comes to timing issues,” Levine wrote in the current issue of Ed Slott’s IRA Advisor newsletter. 

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