Pension Protection Act of 2006 has been hailed as one of the most important pieces of retirement planning legislation in the past 30 years. The need for this kind of law was felt to address the ongoing funding issues facing many traditional defined benefit pension plans. This law covers a broad range of rules affecting retirement planning and covers employers sponsoring those plans, and plan participants. Some features are:

• The contribution limits have been made permanent, this would make the next year’s increase to $5,000 for individuals under 50 and $6,000 for those over 50 secure.
• After 2008 the contribution limits will continue to adjust with inflation.
• Conversions to Roth accounts from pension plans, like 401k accounts, may now be made via a direct transfer to a Roth IRA, rather than having to go through a Traditional IRA.
• You can have your tax refund sent directly to your IRA.
• For 2007 you will be allowed to make a direct tax-free charitable donation from your IRA. This avoids taking the distribution as taxable income and then donating. Also, these donations do not count toward the maximum limit on donations allowed.

The new law restructures many of the rules affecting defined benefit pension plans, generally effective for the 2008 plan year. Some of the new stipulations are:

• The minimum funding rules for both single employer plans and multiemployer (union) plans have been revised.
• The tax deduction limits for defined benefit pension plan sponsors are increased under certain conditions, and the computation of the combined limit on deductible contributions to the employer’s defined benefit and defined contribution plans is updated and, in general, increased.
• The rules for calculating lump sum distributions from defined benefit plans are amended. These rules are phased in over five years.
• The provisions affecting premiums required to be paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to cover certain benefits of defaulted defined benefit plans are altered, and include a special reduced variable rate premium for employers with 25 or fewer employees.

These changes have ensured that employees would retire if not wealthy, certainly with wherewithal to sustain their lifestyle. But if you want to retire wealthy, the one surefire way is to invest your IRA in real estate. Most people are not aware that you can take advantage of a rather unknown IRS code that allows IRA funds to be parked in real estate investments.

Real estate investments is the one avenue that has produced most millionaires. If you do your retirement planning prudently, with your IRA invested in real estate, you can retire not only comfortably but actually wealthy.
Now this piece of information sure must have perked the dormant real estate investor in you. Or at least it would excite your friendly neighborhood realtor.

But it is not a piece of cake. As with everything connected to law, this code is vast and quite complex. Those of you who want to know more about making investment of IRA funds in real estate would do well to attend the seminar on December 3, 2007 at South San Francisco, CA organized by Wealthy IRA where a powerhouse team of experts would dwell on…

• The “unknown IRS code” that allows IRA funds to be parked in real estate investment.
• How you can buy and sell real estate within your IRA, 100% Tax Free!
• The legal and tax ramifications of investing your IRA in Real Estate.

If you have advised your children to invest in a Roth IRA as early as they have started earning money, you have given them one of the best pieces of advice that they will ever receive. With this you have started them early in their lives to begin their retirement planning.

In fact it is one of the smartest money moves a young person can make. With Roth IRA money grows absolutely tax free, and you won’t owe Uncle Sam a dime when you cash it out on retirement if you follow the rules.

Moreover, the Roth IRA accumulation can be parked as investment in almost whatever you want, from stocks and mutual funds to bonds and real estate as compared to 401(k) and other retirement plans.

Advantages

• An investor can withdraw up to the total of his or her contributions without tax or penalty at any time from his/her Roth IRA account.
• If Traditional IRA has been converted into a Roth IRA then after “seasoning” period, currently five years, a Roth IRA owner may withdraw up to the total of the converted amount.
• If Roth IRA account is “seasoned” (established for five or more years), earnings withdrawals become automatically qualified in the tax year the participant reaches age 59.5 or becomes disabled whichever is earlier.
• If the Roth IRA owner, their spouse, or their lineal ancestors and descendants purchase a principal residence out of withdrawals from Roth IRA account, up to $10,000 in earnings withdrawals are considered qualified. It must be remembered that the owner or qualified relative who receives the “first time homeowner” distribution must not have owned a home in the previous 24 months.
• In case a Roth IRA owner dies, and his/her spouse becomes the sole beneficiary of that Roth IRA. If he/she also owns a separate Roth IRA, he/she is permitted to combine the two Roth IRAs into a single account without penalty.Fourth point is quite attention worthy for the realtors and real estate investors, most of whom do not know that IRA funds can be invested in real estate. In fact not only IRA funds but 401k funds are there for real estate investing.

This is a win-win deal for both Roth IRA owner and a realtor as the owner would be able to get much better returns for their money and a realtor would earn commissions galore by tapping this largely untouched market. Both will retire wealthy. Still not convinced, there is a seminar on December 3, 2007 at South San Francisco, CA organized by Wealthy IRA where a powerhouse team of experts would dwell on…

• The “unknown IRS code” that allows IRA funds to be invested in Real Estate.
• How you can buy and sell real estate within your IRA, 100% TAX FREE!
• The legal and tax ramifications of investing your IRA in Real Estate.
• How it’s possible to turn a $40,000 IRA into a $350,000 IRA!

Most investors have heard of prohibited transactions, but many are not sure what they are and what the consequences are of conducting them. I will cover some aspects of the prohibition. This will help you in planning your retirement.

The Prohibited Transactions

• A prohibited transaction is a transaction between your IRA and a disqualified person who is prohibited by law, such as your IRA cannot have any business with or make an investment involving the disqualified persons or you may not provide benefits to any disqualified person. To be more specific, prohibited transactions generally include the following transactions:

• If there is transfer of the plan income or assets to a disqualified person.
• If the plan income or assets are used by or for the benefit of, a disqualified person.
• If a fiduciary uses the plan income or assets for his or her own interest.
• If a fiduciary receives any consideration for his or her own account from any party dealing with the plan in a transaction that involves plan income or assets.
• If any sale, exchange, or lease of property i.e. real estate investment has occurred between a plan and a disqualified person.
• Any money lending or extending of credit between a plan and a disqualified person.
• Any furnishing of goods, services, or facilities between a plan and a disqualified person.

That does not mean that you just can’t use your IRA funds. In fact a prohibited transaction does not take place if a disqualified person receives a benefit to which he or she is entitled as a plan participant or beneficiary. However, the benefit must be figured and paid under the same terms as for all other participants and beneficiaries.
While above points must be taken care of while dealing with IRA funds, there are myriad of ways through which you can earn handsome returns using your IRA funds without attracting the penalty. One of them is real estate investment. Yes there is a rather unknown IRS code that allows IRA funds to be invested in profitable real estate. It is one virtually unknown way in which you can build your retirement planning and retire wealthy. If you plan it right, you can retire with almost a million dollars in your IRA.
Those of you real estate investor types who want to know more about investing IRA funds in real estate would do well to attend the seminar on December 3, 2007 at South San Francisco, CA organized by Wealthy IRA where a powerhouse team of experts would dwell on…

• The “unknown IRS code” that allows IRA funds to be invested in Real Estate.
• How you can buy and sell real estate within your IRA, 100% Tax Free!
• The legal and tax ramifications of investing your IRA in real estate.

When it comes to investing in real estate most people think in terms of either residential properties or commercial properties, whether it be condos, single-family homes, apartments, shopping malls, or office buildings. Few real estate investors, however, ever think about raw land. Most are deterred because they think its too speculative or not a good investment because in most cases there is little or no monthly cash flow.

Land bought right, however, has more upside potential than most income producing properties period.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Rich Uncle, and Mega-Rich Uncle

Investment Guru, Robert Kiyosaki touts how he learned about investing from his Rich Dad (a friend’s father) and his Poor Dad (his real father); I learned about real estate investing from my rich uncles, and my mega-rich uncle.

My uncles did well for themselves growing the family supermarket business that my grand parents started decades ago. The flourishing business expanded and provided them with capital for investing. While most of my uncles became even wealthier from investing in both residential and commercial properties, one of my uncles decided to invest in large orchard fields just outside of Sacramento, CA.

Most people thought he was crazy to buy orchards, especially since he didn’t know anything about farming. What most people didn’t know, however, is that he had the foresight to see how much the city was growing and he strategically purchased these orchards because they lay right in the path of that growth. You see the value was not in trees but in the location of those trees. He was right; the city kept growing right through and past his property, which ultimately transformed my rich uncle into my mega-rich uncle.

My uncle’s story, however, is not a new one, because for centuries the same scenario has repeated itself over and over again, as cities and towns grow and need more room for expansion, adjacent landowners (usually farmers) become rich from selling their land.

Land Banking the perfect investment for your IRA or 401K

If you have some time before you retire, land banking could be the perfect investment for your IRA or 401K. The barrier to entry is lower than other real estate investments since land usually cost less and the upside of your land investment could be huge. Just remember the trick in land banking is to correctly predict where growth is going to happen within a reasonable time frame (before you retire), select an appropriate piece of property in the path of that growth, and before you purchase try to ensure that you or someone else will be able to develop that land at some time in the future.

While many Realtors are concerned about today’s slowing real estate market other Realtors are actually excited. Why? Because history dictates where there is market, social, or economic stress, there are also opportunities, golden opportunities in some cases.

A few examples include:

1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area destroyed 1,018 homes, damaged 23,408 homes, destroyed 366 businesses and damaged 3,530 businesses; the total economic loss was over $5.9 billion.

1991 The Oakland Firestorm was characterized as one of the worst fires in California history with 1,520 acres and 3,280 homes destroyed with over $1.5 billion in economic loss.

2005 Hurricane Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in US history. The total economic loss is still being calculated today but it’s estimated to be over $150 billion.

All of these events and countless others are tragic in terms of both human loss and real property loss. We’re fortunate, however, that the human spirit is strong, and always finds away to rebound from its loss and that damaged and destroyed properties are rebuilt.

In each of the cases above, immediately following the tragedy a lot of property owners just wanted out and opted to sell their damaged or even undamaged properties at whatever price someone was willing to give to them. Investors with the foresight, knowing that these communities would rebound, bought these properties at substantial discounts, fixed or rebuilt them and in turn made huge profits.

The untold benefit is these investors were often among the first ones to rebuild homes, commercial properties, and even entire neighborhoods which actually gave hope to countless others that their community would survive and thrive again.

Today’s Opportunities

So where is today’s stress and today’s opportunity? Sometimes all you have to do is open the newspaper. Today there are countless stories about the slowing real estate market and the mortgage melt down, especially in the sub-prime area. This market stress has opened up opportunities known as foreclosures; where property owners no longer have the capacity or willingness to make their mortgage payments and the bank proceeds to take back their property.

The opportunities are from the banks and mortgage companies’ motivations and willingness to get these foreclosures off their books as quickly as possible, even if they have to sell them at huge discounts.

You see banks are in the business to make loans and make money in the form of loan interest; they are not in the business to make money from selling homes. When a bank takes back a property it sits on the bank’s books as a nonperforming asset and if they accumulate too many nonperforming assets, the bank is mandated by government banking regulators to increase  loss reserves, thus reducing the amount of money it’s able to lend, and possibly increasing the interest rate on which the bank can borrow money .  So, the lesser of two evils for the banks is to sell these properties at huge discounts rather than keeping them on the books affecting their loss reserves.

Untapped Investment Capital

A common problem for investors is having enough funds to capitalize on golden opportunities when they present themselves.

The wealthiest families in America with the best tax attorneys that money can buy have been using a virtually unknown IRS code to get rich. This wealth building code legally unlocks unused investment capital from their IRA and 401K funds so they can take advantage of investing in golden real estate opportunities that can make them filthy rich.

Armed with the right knowledge anyone can reap the rewards of snapping-up foreclosure properties or other distressed real estate investment opportunities and take advantage of leveraging one’s IRA funds to do it and retire wealthy.