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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    February 01, 2000

    Wisconsin Lawyer February 2000: Book Reviews 2

     

    Wisconsin Lawyer: February 2000

    Vol. 73, No. 2, February 2000

    <---Previous Page

    Book Reviews


    This Month's Featured Selections


    An Estate Planners Guide to
    Qualified Retirement Plan Benefits

    By Louis A. Mezzullo
    (Chicago, IL: ABA Real Property, Probate
    and Trust Law Section, 1998).
    202 pgs. $89.95.

    Reviewed by Michael J. Hudson

    With qualified retirement plan and IRA benefits quickly becoming the largest asset for many individuals, knowing how to address the multitude of planning aspects surrounding these products has become a vital skill for attorneys, accountants, trust officers, and insurance professionals. Although the book is created for those engaged in estate planning on a somewhat regular basis, it provides a good overview and reference for the non-ERISA professional looking for a broad-based introduction to the major issues and rules of qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

    This six-chapter book begins with the major congressional activity that changed the rules surrounding qualified retirement plans and IRAs, showing why advising clients of retirement benefits has become complex. Chapter one also highlights the different types of qualified retirement plans, touching upon tax and nontax rules and benefits of contributing to certain plans.

    Rules that govern distributions from retirement plans are covered in chapters two and three. The text focuses on the minimum required distribution rules and an overview of the rules regarding when the participant dies. There is a discussion of options available to beneficiaries and issues surrounding the naming of a designated beneficiary. Concepts such as calculating the required minimum distribution, how life expectancies figure into the calculation, and differences between recalculation and nonrecalculation are explained. This section analyzes why individuals choose different options.

    Discussion of retirement plan distributions continues with an explanation of income taxation of benefits. Details of how to calculate the taxable portion of distributions, how qualified retirement plan distributions can qualify for special averaging and capital gain treatment, and a summary of rules regarding rollovers of funds also are provided.

    Chapters four and five explain the gift and estate tax implications of retirement plan benefits. Estate planning issues include qualifying for the marital deduction, QTIP issues, and effective use of disclaimers to pass along benefits. Survivor annuity rights available to spouses of qualified plan participants are explained.

    The final chapter and appendices tie together the various topics highlighted by discussing planning options available before retirement, at retirement, and after death for qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

    Michael Hudson, Hamline 1996, LL.M.-Taxation, Missouri 1997, an associate in the legal department of Aid Association for Lutherans, practices in qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

    CEO How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising
    to the Top of Any Organization

    By Jeffrey J. Fox
    (New York, NY: Hyperion, 1998).
    162 pgs. $11.87.

    Reviewed by Darin T. Allen

    In How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization, Jeffrey Fox presents 75 "rules" to improve work habits, surpass competitors, and maximize talent. The ideas behind the rules are based upon the realities of business and organizations as Fox has come to know them through his work as a senior corporate officer and consultant. Fox is comprehensive in his approach, and the book addresses a variety of factors that influence the path to the CEO position, including work habits, luck, timing, personality, competitors, talent, supporters, and circumstances.

    The book's principal weakness is that the rules are presented without any supporting context. Further, no allowance is made for exceptions to the rules. In fact, Fox states in the book's introduction, "[T]he recommendations are stated in rule or commandment form ... because what is written is the way it is ... not the way it ought to be." Thus, sophisticated readers will quickly recognize the futility of becoming CEO through blind application of a black-and-white formula for success.

    Darin T. Allen is a 1998 graduate of the U.W. Law School.


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