Public Speaker
Lee Martinson

Specialist In Retirement Plan Distribution Rules

Lee Martinson is the Citrus Belt Chapter President of SOFA, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Educational Public Speaker's Bureau.

SOFA organizes free workshop seminars for employees to help the employer comply with IRS Code 404(c) requirements, which says that they are supposed to provide educational opportunities for their employees to be able to make better informed choices in managing their benefits.

SOFA does this for government entities like cities and counties as well as for corporations. After participating, the employer gets a certificate of compliance.

SOFA speakers also speak at clubs such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, and so forth.

You may think that employees or organiztion members already have access to this type of information, but they don't. SOFA does not do just one seminar, but has several they put on, with different speakers who are experts in various fields. To give you an idea, look at Lee Martinson's specialty. He is very knowledgeable in IRS retirement plan rollover and distribution rules—rules that very few people know, including most accountants and retirement planners.

Just ask yourself if anyone has ever made you aware that spouses have special tax advantaged privileges that other inheritors of retirement plans don't have, but those privileges can be lost if the beneficiary form for their retirement plan is not filled out in the right way (it happens all the time). Non-spouses also have privileges that can be forfeited, accelerating the taxes due on the plan. There are also amazing tax traps in rollovers and divorce situations that many people are not aware of. In a seminar he gives, he goes over these and many other little known issues.

Per the rules as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, absolutely no selling or product pitching happens in the seminar.

Employees love these seminars and so do the employers, as is evidenced by the large list of companies and government entitles we have served. Some of the places that are currently being served are the Counties of San Diego and Ventura; the cities of Murrieta, Oceanside, Corona, Temecula and Santa Barbara; Orange County Dept. of Education; Rialto Unified School District; ADP; Lexis Nexis; Lockheed Martin; McAfee; Northrop Grumman (Wings); Novatel Wireless; US Coast Guard and so forth.