Retirement Terms Starting with ‘E’

Early Withdrawal: "The removal of funds from a fixed-term investment before the maturity date, or the removal of funds from a tax-deferred investment account or retirement savings account, such as an IRA or 401(k) before a prescribed time. Early withdrawal could be anything earlier than the account owner's attainment of a prescribed minimum age requirement, or the maturity of a fixed-term investment, such as a certificate of deposit (CD)."

Education IRA: "A savings plan for higher education. Parents and guardians are allowed to make nondeductible contributions to an education IRA for a child under the age of 18. The education IRA is now referred to as the Coverdell ESA."

Elective-Deferral Contribution: "A contribution arrangement of an employer-sponsored retirement plan under which participants can choose to set aside part of their pretax compensation as a contribution to the plan. (Also known as "salary-deferral" or "salary-reduction contributions.")"

Eligible Automatic Contribution Arrangements (EACAs): "Also known as EACAs, these were created as part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 to encourage more worker participation in self-funded defined contribution retirement plans. Like QACAs, all eligible employees must be enrolled in EACA plans and given adequate notice and information about the plan, as well as their contribution and withdrawal rights."

Eligible Rollover Distribution: "A distribution from an IRA, qualified plan, 403(b) plan or 457 plan that is eligible to be rolled over to another eligible retirement plan."

Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA): "The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) protects the retirement assets of Americans by implementing rules that qualified plans must follow to ensure that plan fiduciaries do not misuse plan assets."

Employee Savings Plan: "A pooled investment account provided by an employer that allows employees to set aside a portion of their pretax wages for retirement savings or other long-term goals (i.e. paying for college tuition, purchasing a home). Many employers match their employees' contributions up to a certain dollar amount, or by a certain percentage."

Employee Trust: "A trust fund established by an employer on behalf of its employees in which the company is the grantor and its employees are the beneficiaries. The person responsible for managing the employee trust or assets of the trust is called the trustee."

Employer-Sponsored Plan: "A type of benefit plan that an employer offers for the benefit of his/her employees at no or a relatively low cost to the employees. If employees participate in the plan, they will benefit from its low-cost method of obtaining discounted services. The benefit to the employer is that initiating these plans usually has some tax-deductible component, and sponsoring benefits is generally a good method of retaining valuable employees."

Encore Career: "A second vocation in the second half of one's life. An encore career seeks to combine a sense of purpose with public-service passion and a paycheck for people in their 50s and 60s, according to Encore.org, a nonprofit organization founded by social entrepreneur Marc Freedman. While encore careers can be found in any sector, they tend to be clustered in five areas – healthcare, the environment, education, government and the nonprofit sector. The term "encore career" is believed to have been popularized by Freedman."

Entrance Fee: "A term that can refer to any charge for admission. However, it is commonly used in reference to continuing-care retirement communities (CCRCs). Rather than purchase a unit in a CCRC, residents typically pay a high entrance fee and monthly payments. The entrance fee is paid in exchange for services provided at the CCRC, such as nursing care throughout the lifetime of the resident."

Escheat: "The transfer of title of property or an estate to the state when an individual dies without a will and legal heirs. Escheat ensures that property always has a recognized owner, which would be the state or government if no other claimants to ownership exist. Most jurisdictions have their own laws and regulations defining escheat and the circumstances under which it can be invoked. Escheat is usually done on a revocable basis, which means that ownership of the estate or property would revert to a rightful heir should one turn up."

Estate: "All of the valuable things an individual owns, such as real estate, art collections, collectibles, antiques, jewelry, investments and life insurance."

Estate Freeze: "An asset management strategy whereby an estate owner aims to transfer assets to his or her beneficiaries without tax consequence. In most estate freezes, the estate owner transfers assets, usually common stock, to a company in exchange for preferred shares. The company issues new common stock to the beneficiaries at a nominal value."

Estate Planning: "The collection of preparation tasks that serve to manage an individual's asset base in the event of their incapacitation or death, including the bequest of assets to heirs and the settlement of estate taxes. Most estate plans are set up with the help of an attorney experienced in estate law. 
Some of the major estate planning tasks include:

• Creating a will
• Limiting estate taxes by setting up trust accounts in the name of beneficiaries
• Establishing a guardian for living dependents
• Naming an executor of the estate to oversee the terms of the will
• Creating/updating beneficiaries on plans such as life insurance, IRAs and 401(k)s
• Setting up funeral arrangements
• Establishing annual gifting to reduce the taxable estate
• Setting up durable power of attorney (POA) to direct other assets and investments"

Estate Tax: "A tax levied on an heir's inherited portion of an estate if the value of the estate exceeds an exclusion limit set by law. The estate tax is mostly imposed on assets left to heirs, but it does not apply to the transfer of assets to a surviving spouse. The right of spouses to leave any amount to one another is known as the "unlimited marital deduction.""

Excess Accumulation Penalty: "The penalty a retirement account owner or the beneficiary of a retirement account must pay when he or she fails to distribute a minimum amount due for a year from the retirement account."

Excess Employer Withholding: "When one or more employers withhold more than the aggregate maximum amount of Social Security and/or railroad retirement contributions that should have been withheld from a single taxpayer during a taxation year. 
Excess employer withholdings are reported on line 67 of Form 1040, and all Copy Bs of the taxpayer's W-2s must be filed with Form 1040."

Executor: "An individual appointed to administrate the estate of a deceased person. The executor's main duty is to carry out the instructions and wishes of the deceased. The executor is appointed either by the testator of the will (the individual who makes the will) or by a court, in cases where there was no prior appointment."

Executrix: "A female individual who is responsible for executing the provisions set forth in a will upon the death of the testator. An executrix is nominated by the will's testator. The term is used less frequently than "executor". In a general sense, an executrix or executor is simply someone who is responsible for executing a task."

Exempt Income: "Certain types or amounts of income not subject to federal income tax. Examples of exempt income include municipal bond income, which may also be exempt from state income taxes, a portion of retirement benefits, qualified Roth IRA distributions and academic scholarships. Also exempt are gifts of less than $10,000 and certain death benefits."

Exemption Trust: "A trust whose purpose is to drastically reduce or eliminate federal estate taxes for a married couple's estate. This type of estate plan sets up an irrevocable trust that will hold the assets of the first spouse to die."

Exordium Clause: "A clause most often at the opening of a will that declares that the document is a will and effectively lays out to the readers a few basic premises upon which the rest of the document is based. Contents of an exordium clause are likely to include: 
1. Identity of the person who has left the will. 
2. The name of the place of residence of that person. 
3. A revocation of all previous wills made by that person existing before the date that the current will was produced. 
4. Declaration that the current document is the will belonging to the named person."

Extended IRA: "An IRA that allows a second generation beneficiary to continue to distribute the assets over the life expectancy used by the first generation beneficiary, thereby extending the IRA."