Posted on 09/12/2016 7:44:05 AM PDT by george76
The law, which took effect Saturday, allows Pennsylvania to seize some retirement accounts three years after they're presumed abandoned - regardless of the account owner's age.
Previously, the state waited until individuals reached age 701/2 before seizing retirement accounts and liquidating the portfolios. Now, older folks and famously contact-averse millennials could be affected.
Valley Forge-based Vanguard, with more than $3 trillion in assets, isn't happy about the state's budget-inspired change and plans to join forces with others in the financial industry to repeal the law next year.
...
For those who opt to communicate electronically, the "lost contact" trigger is also different now. Firms such as Vanguard are now required to track "indications of interest" - meaning any activity - in the retirement account.
If there has been no indication of interest in a retirement account for two years, the firm must reach out to the owner - first by email and then, if there is no response, by regular mail.
"Again, for someone who isn't actively monitoring his or her account, and isn't expecting to, and doesn't receive mail deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service, that could mean that his or her retirement account is to be turned over to the state years - and even decades - before he or she ever even thought about taking distributions," Woerth said.
...
We're not aware of any other state that has eliminated the 701/2-year-old age," said Tami Salmon, associate general counsel for the Investment Company Institute (ICI). "This is an asset grab by the state."
Christopher B. Craig, treasury chief counsel for Pennsylvania, disputed that.
"These statutory changes were not made in an effort to grab funds to balance the Commonwealth budget, as claimed by ICI," Craig said
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
“These statutory changes were not made in an effort to grab funds to balance the Commonwealth budget, as claimed by ICI,” Craig said
Ya, right.
Outright theft by use of force.
If an estate, the proceeds should go to the heirs, not the State.
To those who have been paying attention, this is merely step #1 on the road to total confiscation of retirement and pension funds.
Those trillions are just too juicy of a target. And now that the rule of law no longer applies to the commoners...
They dream of the votes they can buy with that money.
[To those who have been paying attention, this is merely step #1 on the road to total confiscation of retirement and pension funds.]
Agreed. The state and all government are mainly filled with thieves and liars of the worst people on the earth.
Or, at a minimum, get people panicked about this to start withdrawing from their IRAs go the money can be taxed earlier.
go => so
Allow me to point out that both houses of our legislature are dominated by REPUBLICANS!
Isn’t Vanguard based out of PA? That’s going to leave a mark....
OR, if I had actually bothered to read the article..... :-)
My guess? If Trump *doesn't* get elected, that'll be the keynote issue. Much like ObamaCare was in 2009/10.
Oh, there will be a legit excuse. The market will crater. MSM will trot out idiot after idiot who "Lost It All" in the market, and Mommy Government will take over retirement accounts to "fix" everything.
IMO, if that happens, pols will start decorating lampposts. Obamacare destroying the healthcare system and/or taking over people's healthcare is major, but a lot of people think, "Meh, I'm pretty healthy" or "Meh, it won't affect me" or "Meh, those rich SOB doctors had it coming, anyway". At least, until it's too late.
The IRS (or other gov't agency) confiscating people's money, on the other hand .... things will get frisky, quickly. Just ask anyone fighting over a will, money makes people do foolish things.
Yes. Was waiting for it...this is just the beginning!
Heads-up...
I truly don’t see how a state can tax an IRA. State taxes have already been paid, prior to investment. Feds, however, COULD. Ever hear of the Minimum Withdrawal?
Theresa Ghilarducci has been pushing this crap federally, for years. Not a matter of “if”, but “when”, they’re going to do it nationwide.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/02/the_feds_want_your_retirement_accounts.html
Yup. Read up on Ghilarducci and you’ll see the plan. In the end it will be the only way to bail out all of those foundering union and government pension plans.
In California the then gov Schwarzenegger stole money and belongings from safe deposit boxes saying they were abandon and the state could not locate anyone. Of course the reporters were able to.
Gov’t is filled with thieves!
“...bail out all of those foundering union and government pension plans.”
Pretty soon, they’ll run out of OPM; commies and socialists always do.
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