Taking Care of Our Clients
Our Promise
At Axial Financial Group, you are the center point of all we do. You will benefit from our independent financial advising team’s specialized experience, knowledge, and capabilities, which always revolve around you and your needs, wants, and goals.
What Our Clients Say
Bringing Your Dreams Front & Center
Our Financial Services
We are independent financial professionals and fiduciary advisors dedicated to the success and financial confidence of individuals, families, and business owners. We act in your best interest and provide independent advice centered on achieving your lifetime dreams.
We provide help with the following services:
Saving & Asset Accumulation
We work hard to help you grow your assets and investments.
Risk Management
Risk management is intended to help you minimize or mitigate potential losses.
Taxation
Tax planning helps you consider the tax liabilities and implications of financial choices.
Business Planning
We can help you plan for the future of your business to protect and preserve its value.
Retirement Planning
Retirement planning involves building toward your desired retirement lifestyle.
Estate Planning
Estate Planning helps you plan for your heirs and property during your life and at the end of it.
Investment Management
Prudent investment planning helps you grow and accumulate wealth for your future.
Collaboration & Teamwork Brings Success
Our Process
Our entire organization works together in collaboration, bringing you the benefits of our dedicated team of in-house experts in portfolio management, tax planning, Social Security, Medicare, life insurance, and long-term care, to serve your sophisticated planning needs.
Winning Strategy
As skilled problem-solvers and strategists, we’re committed to delivering the caring, responsive, and personalized service you need to succeed. We help you understand the financial challenges and decisions you face, evaluate your options, and implement sound solutions across all stages of life.
Holistic Planning
Our Story
Michael Marchese and Paul Miller, founding advisors and managing principals, created Axial Financial Group in 2006. As independent advisors, they decided to take on a more personal and hands on approach to helping prospects and clients plan for their future and secure their current financial goals.
With more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry each, they built Axial Financial Group from the ground up. Now, there are four main office locations in Burlington, Hyannis, Quincy, and Lynnfield, Massachusetts managing over $3 billion dollars in combined assets as of December 31, 2022.
Through hard work, strategic planning, and a commitment to always put our clients’ needs first, we have grown our firm to more than 45 financial professionals in all offices.
Committed to Giving Back
Community
The Axial Team is dedicated to helping our neighboring communities by providing support in the forms of funds, materials, equipment, and volunteering assistance; to improve lives, strengthen communities, and empower individuals, all while fostering good will and teamwork.
Axial Updates & Industry News
News & Blog
3 New Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Rules Everyone Must Know Before the End of 2024
By Adam Levy – Nov 3, 2024 at 5:07AM
Key Points
Roth 401(k) owners can now completely avoid RMDs while maintaining their accounts.
Inherited IRA owners may be able to forego an RMD this year, but they might want to take it anyway.
You can avoid taxes altogether with this smart distribution option.
The $22,924 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook ›
Knowing these important rules could save you a lot in taxes and fees.
One of the biggest benefits of saving in traditional retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA is the upfront tax break you receive. You won’t owe any income taxes on contributions in the year you make them. That can give you extra cash now, enabling you to save more for retirement.
But you can’t defer those income taxes forever. Eventually, Uncle Sam wants his cut. That’s why the IRS imposes required minimum distributions, or RMDs. As the name implies, account holders subject to RMDs are required to withdraw a certain amount of money from their accounts. RMDs apply to anyone age 73 or older and may apply to inherited IRAs as well, regardless of the account holder’s age.
The penalty for missing an RMD can be quite steep — up to 25% of the amount you were supposed to withdraw — and you’ll still have to make the distribution and pay the income taxes on top of that. So, you don’t want to miss making an RMD on time (usually by Dec. 31 of every year).
Unfortunately, the rules are always changing, so making sure you’re following the most recent rule changes is paramount to ensuring you don’t end up owing a big penalty to Uncle Sam. Here are three newly updated RMD rules everyone needs to know before the end of 2024.
A piggy bank with the letters RMD printed on it.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Roth 401(k)s are now exempt
Just as important as taking your full RMD on time may be avoiding withdrawing funds from a tax-protected account unnecessarily. That’s why every retiree needs to know that Roth 401(k)s are now exempt from RMDs following the passage of the Secure 2.0 Act.
Avoiding RMDs in a Roth 401(k) used to require rolling over the funds from a Roth 401(k) to a Roth IRA, which don’t have required minimum distributions. However, that process could result in investors losing access to certain investment options they liked in their 401(k).
An additional challenge could arise for anyone who never opened a Roth IRA before. Opening a new Roth IRA and rolling over funds into it makes them subject to the five-year rule. Any earnings on your investments are locked up for five years from the year you open your first Roth IRA if you want to avoid taxes and penalties. As a result, retirees could end up with less access to their retirement savings.
Calculate Your Retirement Savings
About Me
I am
and
45
years old. My spouse is
45
. Our monthly work income is
$7,000
and we have saved
$200,000
. Every month we spend
$3,000
and we save
$500
. I want to retire at
66
and start Social Security at
67
.
Boldin
How long will my savings last?
Ideally, your savings will last ten years past your life expectancy.
2024
2029
2034
2039
2044
2049
2054
2059
2064
2069
$0
$600k
$1.2M
$1.8M
$2.4M
Goal: 92
Life Expectancy: 82
Retirement: 66
Savings
The new rule solves that headache, putting the Roth 401(k) on equal footing with the Roth IRA.
2. Inherited IRA owner might not have to take a distribution this year
The Secure Act made some big changes to inherited IRAs. Instead of being able to stretch out withdrawals across your lifespan, called a stretch IRA, most beneficiaries now have to distribute the entire account within 10 years of the inheritance. If the original account holder was already subject to required minimum distributions, the beneficiary must continue making annual RMDs as well.
If you inherited an IRA before Dec. 31, 2019, you can still execute the stretch IRA. You will have to make a required minimum distribution this year as a result.
The new rule applies to anyone who inherited an IRA from someone who passed away after Dec. 31, 2019. There are exceptions for spouses, children under the age of 21, individuals with disabilities, and beneficiaries less than 10 years younger than the original owner.
Due to some confusion over the rule changes as they were written in the Secure Act, the IRS waived the RMD requirement for newer beneficiaries for 2021 through 2024 (the Cares Act waived RMDs for everyone in 2020). So, if you inherited an IRA from someone after Dec. 31, 2019, you don’t have to take a distribution this year, even if the original owner was subject to RMDs.
However, beneficiaries will have to start taking RMDs in 2025, according to a ruling published by the IRS this year. They will also still need to distribute the entire account within 10 years of inheriting it. As such, it might make sense to take a distribution this year anyway, unless you expect a drop-off in your personal earnings (and tax rate) before the 10-year deadline expires.
3. You can lower your RMD by up to $105,000 with a charitable distribution
One of the best ways for retirees to donate to nonprofits is by using a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD. A QCD allows you to make a distribution directly from an IRA to a qualified nonprofit, and the good news is a QCD counts toward your RMD. The IRS increased the limit for QCDs in 2024 to $105,000, up from $100,000 previously.
Note that this rule only applies to IRAs. Any savings in a defined contribution plan like a 401(k) is still subject to RMDs. And you cannot make a distribution from an IRA and have it count toward the RMD requirements for your 401(k).
Distributing funds directly from your IRA to charity offers a big financial advantage. The distribution never shows up as gross income like a regular distribution would. While you could make a distribution and then donate to charity for the tax deduction, you’d have to itemize your deductions to get the tax break.
A QCD allows you to donate to charity and take the standard deduction without missing out on the tax advantages. That can result in lower income taxes, reduce the percentage of Social Security income subject to taxes, and reduce your Medicare premiums.
You can start making qualified charitable distributions at age 70 1/2, well before RMDs start. Even if you donate less than the $105,000 limit, they can be a great way for the charitably inclined to reduce their RMDs and keep their taxes low.
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