The SECURE Act, signed into law at the end of 2019, significantly changes retirement plan distribution rules, affecting everything from required minimum distributions to inheritance and estate planning. The act offers a significant opportunity for advisors to engage clients in revisiting — and maybe reconsidering — beneficiary designations, estate plans and trust provisions.
Under the SECURE Act, taxpayers who inherit traditional and Roth IRAs and similar retirement plan accounts will likely have to draw down account balances and pay taxes on the income much sooner than previously expected thanks to a new “10-year rule.”