This is a really grey area. There are rules about self-dealing and buying/selling from disqualified parties. On the face of it, selling stock you already own or stock from a company you own to your IRA would seem to be self-dealing.
These guys do it somehow though, and I’ve never seen it reported that they were punished or penalized or had to undo it or whatever.
We bought a T-Mobile smartphone plan. It gives us 4 lines with unlimited text and talk plus 2.5 GB per line at highest speed and unlimited at lower speeds for $118/month, under $30/line.
It’s much lower than the $228/month we paid with Sprint and we are month to month, with NO contract. We also get free text and data for international travel.
We have never run out of things to do in H’s retirement and are enjoying much greater flexibility when we do things, where we can adjust based on the weather and our whims.
H is doing a ton of deferred maintenance on the house and we can choose to eat at home or dine out, depending on how our spending or recent savings has been going.
Paying off the mortgage and all college expenses and having all debts paid off before H retired gave us a huge raise in income.
For those happily outfitted with employer-sponsored 401(k) and 403(b) plans, this is a bit of a heavy read and checklist. But it points out the considerations in favor of rolling over the balance once you retire into an IRA. It’s not as much a sales pitch as the financial institutions that encourage you bring your qualified retirement plan assets under their management. It points out considerations that pertain to limitations inherent in an employer plan.
http://www.omhpartnergroup.com/i-should-have-listened-seven-problems-your-401k
I alluded to some of these issues in the Estate Planning Thread.
H had money in the TSP plan. We can add but only do RMDs and one total withdrawal. We are currently content with leaving funds there until we hear of any great reason to move it. We are satisfied with the investment options and RMDs. Interested article–my other employer retirement account is with Prudential, for our state employees and ok so far.
I hate this. I think this a legal scam. I think these loopholes should be closed. These tax breaks are wasteful government spending.
Tax breaks for the wealthy. Adelson uses these grants. He has saved his estate billions in taxes while complaining about social security. 
Shawbridge, here you go.
The firm Peter Thiel used is listed in the link. The firm merged with another firm and the reviews about the firm aren’t the best.
However, I am pretty sure Peter Thiel gets great service.
dstark,
What do you think the venture capital firms in SV are doing with their time and legal-counsel budgets, huh? Doing good? 
I think that by the time start ups get noticed by the VC firms, they should have their legal team in place. These VC guys are not known for their altruistic approach to business.
Aren’t these billionaires restricted by income limit in setting up their Roth IRAs?
@cbreeze, are they restricted by the income limit? In a word, no. That’s for us peasants.
@AttorneyMother, thank you very much for the link in post #5682. Have started researching this topic and reviewing various companies for rollover option. For me, deciding on the type of funds within a company to invest is a very tough decision.
Good question about the income limit on Roth contributions. I’m imaging the following scenario:
Mark Zuckerberg, in his flip-flops, while still impecunious, is advised to earn no more than income limit the year he set up his Roth and any subsequent year feasible. You’ll note that many high-level tech execs take a nominal $1 in salary and their compensation rests in start-up stock, options and the like. It allows them to time and shift income in ways that working stiffs (like us) cannot. Highly-expert compensation and tax consultants exist for no other reason.
Having a pretty good view of ‘retirement’ in a coastal community, Gulf Shores area. Friends have a great place with beautiful water views and not ‘crowded’. However have to put up with some members in their community which ‘scheme’ with potential developer (unique property; so if a developer got their hands on it, would tear down and build a high rise) - currently they also have a marina with a boat slip for every unit. Friends are in one of the 7 buildings with the best views (and on the end two which have even better views).
H is not a beach person. I could see an occasional trip, but not owning property. Friend has two pensions, plus wife’s teacher pension and SS. More than us!
It is a pleasant thought, six years from Oct to retire!
@Hopeful820
You are welcome, of course.
Do you mean investment options at a financial institution or within your company-sponsored plan? The former offers considerably more flexibility than the latter, as the latter offers none other than what your employer provides. I’m a long-time convert to Vanguard (well, since 1991) and have some at Fidelity and Schwab.
Edited: Fidelity and Schwab both have index funds also (as I’m sure you know). Just make sure and compare annual fund expense ratios.
Rolling over employer-plan assets to IRAs: make sure you check with recipient company so it can help you with the process. Somewhere on this thread is a post I made about trustee-to-trustee IRA transfers to Vanguard. Call and speak to the “concierge” department.
Here is the answer to the first part of my question:
We have to protect these phony-baloney jobs. 
Before we go off too far, backdoor roth eliminated income limit in practice, didn’t it?
@Iglooo, yes, and the Mega Backdoor too. The issue though, is that while $5,500/year or $53,000/year might mean a lot to us, it is rounding error for the super rich. The people with 8 or 9-digit IRAs didn’t get there the way you and I would.
If you put $53K private shares into roth and it explodes 1000 times going public, that’s nice $53M right there. The issue is not that there’s limit to roth contribution. It is that one is allowed to keep assests in roth that are not publicly available tilting the field in favor of those running a business. The law should be amended imo. Close up the backdoor roth, limit the total amount in tax advantaged account or allow publicly traded assets only. They should also limit GRATs and dynasty trusts while at it.
Nevermind
Wouldn’t it be simpler if the number of different instruments - IRA, 401/403(k), SEP IRA, Keogh are consolidated into fewer with one total limit? Let everyone set up accounts on their own - for pre-tax or not, and the individual and his employer make contributions to it, perhaps to a max of 50 grand. Then the individual can pick and choose whatever funds he wants to invest in and not a small set that’s generally available now, and the employer merely sends employee and employer contributions to that account the same way they auto-deposit his paycheck to the bank.
@Dadof3,
[rant]That would be simpler. So would a tax code that a college graduate could understand. Heck, why shouldn’t a high school grad be able to file a tax return? And while we’re at it, why not taxes simple enough that they’re computed for you and you just pay your fair share, knowing that you got charged fairly and equitably (kind of like no-haggle car dealers)? And why is person A’s contribution to a church subsidized while my full-pay of tuition isn’t, except that if I contribute over and above the tuition to the very same institution, then it is subsidized? And why is no part of my full-pay subsidized but my neighbor’s contribution is deemed charitable and deductible even though his kid got a tuition reduction?
I was in a PhD program, but pay someone to do my taxes. My new car will drive itself safely, and I will soon be able to tell it to find a parking spot and come back when I call it. But the tax code is so full of nooks and crannies that it requires experts at the steering wheel. Someday soon, we will free up millions of human hours to read, talk, think, and work instead of worrying about staying in their lane and not rear-ending the car in front of them – but we can’t seem to return the millions of hours spent dealing with taxes to productive use.
Sorry. The drugs must have kicked in. As in most things, follow the money.
[/rant]