Should my spouse and I open up separate Roth IRA's or should we just open one joint account?

Question

In the long run is there any advantages or disadvantages for having separate IRA's or for having one joint IRA account?

Answer 1

I've been creating IRA portfolios for many people and there is no such thing as a "joint IRA" account. An IRA is an "Individual" Retirement Account. As you can see, individual means one person. Another reason is that each person has different investment profile. You may be an aggressive investor, but your spouse may be a conservative investor.

If your spouse is not working, you can open a "Spouse" IRA for her and use your own money and contribute for her. If your spouse is working, she can open her own Roth IRA.

Just be careful with the contribution limit. The IRS set contribution limit per person, no matter how many IRAs that person have. If you open a Roth IRA for yourself and a Spouse IRA (which can be a Roth or Traditional), you can only put in $4000 into your IRA and only $4000 into your spouse IRA. You can't put $8000 into your own IRA. (If you age 50 and above, you can put $5000 into yours and $5000 into your spouse).

Answer 2

Agree with above. There is no such thing as a joint IRA. It is illegal to have a joint IRA. An IRA is for a specific person.

Answer 3

Talk to an independent professional financial adviser. There may be tax advantages to combining your funds. You can also do research on-line about Roth IRA's. There are probably hundreds of sites which give information about them. Also, go to the IRS website and check out how the government treats those vehicles.

http://www.irs.gov/

Answer 4

There is no such thing as a "joint account" for ROTH IRA.

Answer 5

go seperate

that way if the unthinkable happens - as in a divorce - there won't be any fudicial problems