An Insider’s Guide To Dividend Mutual Funds

The information found on this page will provide you with a mutual fund investment guide and will help you understand the tax rules and obligations pertaining to dividend mutual funds. When you invest your money into mutual funds, you are able to pool your money together with other investors, allowing you all to invest into larger stocks and accounts than you can on your own. Most mutual funds will provide you with the opportunity to reinvest your dividends so you have the chance to earn more money as you can buy additional shares.

Dividend mutual funds are very different from others as they do have very different tax treatments and they also come in different income options. Basically you will be taxes if the mutual fund has stock that you choose to hold for a year or longer and then you sell it for capital gains. You will face the capital gains tax law, which can be pretty high depending on the amount of income you acquired. You do have the option to have a long-term capital gain which does offer lower tax rates so you aren’t stuck with such a high tax bill.

The distribution of dividend mutual funds also work a little differently. With an ordinary dividend account you have taxable income on everything but your long-term capital gains. You do have the option of being taxed at a lower rate because you have qualified dividend that gives you a tax break. The capital gain distributions usually offer you a long-term option that offers a fair tax amount but the short-term capital gains are pretty high. You can only acquire them in the ordinary dividends. There are circumstances where you will be able to have exempt interest on the distributions but you need to invest your money into municipal bonds along with state or local government investments. These investments are usually made up of city or state projects like a new road, a new school, etc.

Practically all dividend mutual funds need to make a capital gains distribution so you shouldn’t need to worry about any capital gains allocations. Meeting with a skilled financial advisor and investment advisor can help you learn more about your investments and your tax obligations if you have any. You will need to fill out IRS Form 2349 if you are dealing with a capital gain allocation. Again, you want a good CPA or financial advisor to help you properly fill out the form so you aren’t making mistakes, which can be very costly.

Buy Annuities In Your IRA

With interest rates very low in the current economic climate it can be difficult to find a steady safe growth for your retirement.  Not everyone is equipped to handle the volatility of the stock market or no one deserves so little from the money markets.  With interest rates low you need to find growth to make any gains on your investments.  It may seem like very different advice, but you may want to buy annuities in your Independent Retirement Account (IRA).

In particular I recommend a variable annuity for this purpose.  The variable annuity should be invested in good growth mutual funds.  While you could get tax deferred growth with these outside of your IRA, you don’t get the tax savings for investing in your IRA or the tax savings when you remove your money as with a ROTH IRA.

A variable annuity is an insurance policy wrapped around mutual fund investments.  The insurance company wants your money so they promise you a return they are positive that you will make more if you purchase structured settlements.  For example the variable annuity may guarantee a return of 6% per year if you’ve invested more than 7 years.  You can now plan on at least 6% growth a year for retirement purposes, plus you still might earn more if the mutual funds do well, and the insurance company gets to charge you 3% or more per year for the privilege.

How can the insurance companies guarantee returns on stocks?   They are able to do this because the history shows that stocks will outperform enough to cover their fee.  Insurance companies understand the ups and downs, but with enough volume of dollars being invested it will how level out.  Very similar to understanding the risk of different drivers with auto insurance.  Some drivers have to pay more and some have to pay less because their risk level is different.  With variable annuities the longer you invest the lower fees and more guarantee you can get because you become a low risk investor.

The real question comes if you trust the insurance company will pay you and the insurance companies trust that the mutual funds will perform over the long haul, why don’t you cut out the middle man and just invest in mutual funds without the fee being shaved off the top?

Variable annuities do make a great guaranteed return for those who want more security in their retirement accounts.  As with any other investment when you reduce risk you often reduce overall returns, but you improve your chances of your account being up at the moment you require your money.