Pictured on the right is the cover of the soundtrack album for the 1985 movie by the late John Hughes, The Breakfast Club, which included Don’t You (Forget About Me) written by the Scottish New Wave band Simple Minds. No, this is not a lead-in to a "Where Are They Now Segment" (they’re still touring by the way).

Rather, this is about not being so involved with the more complicated retirement savings vehicles that we forget about good ole’ Individual Retirement Plans, a/k/a IRAs.

IRAs are back in the financial news as part of President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2011 which includes a provision for automatic IRAs. But that’s what may be.

What’s now with IRAs is that they continue to be an increasingly important tax planning vehicle for today’s investor particularly for distribution planning made more attractive with new Roth IRA conversion rules. Beginning this year, the $100,000 modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and tax filing status limits on Roth conversions has been removed.

The rollover rules are, of course, complicated but here is McKay Hochman’s excellent 2010 portability chart updated for the Pension Protection Act of 2006. After all, this is the Age of Decumulation.