Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

Q&A

Q&A: Determining a house’s value

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Dear Liz: I understand that as a widow, if I sell my house I get the stepped-up value from the year my husband died. Should I have gotten an appraisal at that time (26 years ago)? How do I find out what my home was worth then? We bought it in 1973 and he died in 1998.

Answer: In most states, half of a couple’s jointly owned property gets a new, favorable step-up in tax basis at a spouse’s death. In community property states such as California, both halves of the property may get that step-up.

A professional appraisal 26 years ago could have been helpful, although a good appraiser can do a retroactive assessment, said Jennifer Sawday, an estate planning attorney in Long Beach.

Before you hire an appraiser, though, hire a tax pro, Sawday said. The CPA or tax preparer will use the data to file your return, report your home sale and compute any capital gains taxes owed, so find out how they recommend obtaining it.

Q&A: Alternatives to paper checks

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Dear Liz: Because I am concerned about check fraud, I pay most of my bills online. However, I still need checks for paying my housekeeper, gardener, etc. I use a gel ink pen to deter fraud but was wondering if there is something else I should consider doing.

Answer: Checks you hand to people you know are probably less risky than those you send through the mail, but there may be better options.

Most Americans have accounts with at least one peer-to-peer payment app such as Venmo, Zelle or PayPal. These can be a secure and convenient way to pay people you know.

Be sure to create a strong, unique password for your account and to keep the apps updated. Whatever payment method you use — checks, online payments or peer-to-peer apps — continue to monitor your linked bank or credit card accounts so you can spot and quickly report any suspicious transactions.

Q&A: Here’s something you might not know about how colleges hand out financial aid

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Dear Liz: After the pandemic started, we received money from the federal government and decided to put it in a custodial account for our son, starting when he was 14. We invested the money in a Standard & Poor’s index fund. I now think I made a mistake and should have simply added the money to the 529 college savings plan we have for him. Can I close the custodial account and transfer the money to the 529? If so, what is the process? Another benefit I see to doing so may be that the funds might not be considered in financial aid calculations. He will not qualify for aid based on need as we are financially well-off but he may qualify for aid based on merit.

Answer: You can transfer the funds from a custodial account, but contributions to 529 college savings plans have to be made in cash. That means you’d have to sell the index fund, which likely means paying a tax bill on the gains.

If your primary concern is financial aid and your family won’t qualify for need-based help, then there may be little reason to incur that tax bill right now. The merit aid you’re hoping to get won’t be affected by where you save. Merit aid isn’t based on your financial situation but is instead an incentive to attend the school and reflects how much the college wants your kid.

Need-based aid, by contrast, can be profoundly affected by custodial accounts, which are considered the student’s asset. Because 529 plans are treated much more favorably by need-based formulas, a transfer could make more sense. If there are a lot of gains in the custodial account, though, parents would be smart to get a tax pro’s advice before making this move.

With college expenses looming, consider picking up a copy of “The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make,” by New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber. The book offers a comprehensive but readable guide to a fraught, potentially expensive process.

Q&A: Naming beneficiaries turns tricky

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Dear Liz: I have spent the majority of the last three decades abroad. Relationships fade away if there is little contact. Such is life. Most of the financial accounts that I have allow me to provide an organization as a beneficiary. But some institutions, like TreasuryDirect, require an actual person to be listed as a beneficiary. I have approached some acquaintances to ask if they would like to be my beneficiary, but as soon as I say I need their Social Security numbers, they think that I am trying to scam them. My bizarre question is: Whom can I leave my money to?

Answer: If you don’t name a beneficiary for your U.S. savings bonds, they become part of your estate when you die.

The proceeds can be distributed according to your will or living trust. This may require the court process known as probate, but whether that’s a big deal depends on where you live and the size of your probate estate. Many states have simplified probate that can make (relatively) short work of small estates.

If your savings bond holdings aren’t substantial and your other accounts have beneficiaries — which typically means they avoid probate — then this could be a reasonable approach.

Another option is to create a living trust and have the bonds reissued to the trust, said Burton Mitchell, an estate planning attorney in Los Angeles. Living trusts involve some costs to set up, but they avoid probate and they’re flexible.

“The reader can then modify the living trust whenever desired without re-titling the financial accounts,” Mitchell said.

Q&A: Junk fees for online payments

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Dear Liz: You recently answered a question about fees for paying bills online. I agree that the $12 fee mentioned is too high but I also know that any platform costs money to maintain. I work for a nonprofit that takes donations and our donors can choose to pay the fee. I doubt regular customers would agree to pay a corporation’s fees by choice.

Answer: The key word here is “choice.” Your donors are volunteering to chip in a little extra to help a charity. The letter writer was facing a $12 fee to securely pay an insurance bill online, when the alternative is to send a check through the (insecure) mail. Most companies have figured out that online payments are better for all concerned and are trying to encourage their use, rather than sticking consumers with junk fees for using this option.

Q&A: College expenses and 529 plans

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Dear Liz: You’ve been writing about what to do with leftover money in 529 college savings plans. Our grandchild went to a great state university with low tuition. To manage this ahead of time, we have carefully withdrawn some “excess” funds every year. This must be payable to the beneficiary student. The tax on non-qualified distributions applies only to earnings, not contributions, and will be negligible while the student is in college and has no or very low income. We paid for our CPA to prepare the tax filings. We have used this to pay for “non-eligible” living, travel and other expenses. I also recommend that parents start a college savings account in addition to a 529, because the strict definition of eligible costs leaves out a lot of expenses.

Answer: Previous columns have mentioned that withdrawals from 529 plans can be tax free when used to pay qualified expenses, which include tuition, fees, books and certain living costs, such as on-campus room and board or off-campus living expenditures up to the college’s “cost of attendance” limits, which are listed on its site.

Other common expenses, such as transportation and health insurance, typically aren’t considered qualified. Withdrawals that aren’t qualified will incur not just taxes on the earnings portion of the withdrawal but also penalties. The federal penalty is 10%, said Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Your approach could be a good way to use up excess 529 funds, as long as you’re reasonably sure your grandchild won’t need the money for graduate school and you’re not interested in other options, such as naming another family member as beneficiary or rolling up to $35,000, subject to annual contribution limits, into a Roth IRA for your grandchild. (The Roth rollover option is new this year and applies only to accounts that are at least 15 years old. In 2024, up to $7,000 can be transferred for someone under 50, assuming they have at least that much earned income.)

As you noted, it’s important to ensure the non-qualified withdrawals are paid to the student if the idea is to minimize the tax bite. Otherwise the taxes would be calculated based on the account owner’s tax rate.

“If the grandparents kept the excess earnings, it would be taxed to the grandparents plus a 10% penalty, so it would almost always be the case that it would be better to have the excess funds paid to and taxed to the beneficiary,” Luscombe said.