Paul O. Dillon, Attorney at Law

What Is the Best Thing to Do with an Inherited IRA?

When a parent dies and their adult child inherits a traditional IRA, knowing what to do can be the difference between an inheritance and a tax disaster. Many people take the money from the IRA account and place it into their own IRA. However, that’s a mistake, says the article “How to manage an inherited IRA from a parent” from Sentinel Source.com.

Any inherited IRA, whether it’s from a parent, sibling, or friend, cannot be simply rolled into your own account or treated as if it’s your own IRA. Instead, the assets must be transferred in a timely manner to a new IRA that must be titled as an “Inherited IRA” that includes the name of the deceased owner and the phrase “For the benefit of…” and your name. Different financial institutions may have small variations in how they title the account. However, this seemingly small detail is critical.

If a traditional IRA has more than one beneficiary, it must be split into separate accounts for each beneficiary. Each heir will treat their own inherited portion in the same way, as if they were the sole beneficiary.

It’s the heir’s choice to either set up a new Inherited IRA Beneficiary account with a financial institution or advisor of their own, or to create a new account using the prior institution. Sometimes using the same firm that held the account is easier, as long as the correct title is used.

The new owner of a Beneficiary IRA needs to know the rules to avoid costly penalties. After the SECURE Act became law in December 2019, most beneficiaries are now required to deplete an inherited IRA within ten (10) years of the original account owner’s death. This applies to any inherited IRAs where the owner has died after December 31, 2019.

The prior rules allowed Inherited IRAs to be depleted over the lifetime of the beneficiary, which allowed the accounts to grow tax-deferred and in many cases, be passed to a third generation, often referred to as “Stretch IRAs.” This option is gone.

There are no limits as to how much or how often withdrawals can be taken from the account, as long as it’s depleted in ten years. However, the withdrawals are taxable as regular income, so if you wait until the ten year mark and take out the entire amount, you’ll end up with a hefty tax bill.

There are exceptions to the withdrawal rule. A surviving spouse, a minor child, a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, or a beneficiary within ten years of age of the original IRA owner may have a little more time to withdraw funds (and pay taxes on the withdrawals).

If inheriting an IRA from a spouse, you may transfer the IRA balance into your own account and delay distributions until age 72.

Consider your IRAs carefully when working with an estate planning attorney on the distribution of your assets. Will your heirs be able to pay the taxes on their inherited IRAs, or should they be converted to Roth IRAs to relieve heirs of a future tax burden? These are questions that your estate planning attorney will be able to address.

Reference: Sentinel Source.com (Sep. 18, 2021) “How to manage an inherited IRA from a parent”

Checklist for Estate Plan’s Success

We know why estate planning for your assets, family and legacy falls through the cracks. It’s not the thing a new parent wants to think about while cuddling a newborn, or a grandparent wants to think about as they prepare for a family get-together. However, this is an important thing to take care of, advises a recent article from Kiplinger titled “2021 Estate Planning Checkup: Is Your Estate Plan Up to Date?

Every four years, or every time a trigger event occurs—birth, death, marriage, divorce, relocation—the estate plan needs to be reviewed. Reviewing an estate plan is a relatively straightforward matter and neglecting it could lead to undoing strategic tax plans and unnecessary costs.

Moving to a new state? Estate laws are different from state to state, so what works in one state may not be considered valid in another. You’ll also want to update your address, and make sure that family and advisors know where your last will can be found in your new home.

Changes in the law. The last five years have seen an inordinate number of changes to laws that impact retirement accounts and taxes. One big example is the SECURE Act, which eliminated the Stretch IRA, requiring heirs to empty inherited IRA accounts in ten years, instead of over their lifetimes. A strategy that worked great a few years ago no longer works. However, there are other means of protecting your heirs and retirement accounts.

Do you have a Power of Attorney? A POA gives a person you authorize the ability to manage your financial, business, personal and legal affairs, if you become incapacitated. If the POA is old, a bank or investment company may balk at allowing your representative to act on your behalf. If you have one, make sure it’s up to date and the person you named is still the person you want. If you need to make a change, it’s very important that you put it in writing and notify the proper parties.

Health Care Power of Attorney needs to be updated as well. Marriage does not automatically authorize your spouse to speak with doctors, obtain medical records or make medical decisions on your behalf. If you have strong opinions about what procedures you do and do not want, the Health Care POA can document your wishes.

Last Will and Testament is Essential. Your last will needs regular review throughout your lifetime. Has the person you named as an executor four years ago remained in your life, or moved to another state? A last will also names an executor for your property and a guardian for minor children. It also needs to have trust provisions to pay for your children’s upbringing and to protect their inheritance.

Speaking of Trusts. If your estate plan includes trusts, review trustee and successor appointments to be sure they are still appropriate. You should also check on estate and inheritance taxes to ensure that the estate will be able to cover these costs. If you have an irrevocable trust, confirm that the trustee is still ready and able to carry out the duties, including administration, management and tax returns.

Gifting in the Estate Plan. Laws concerning charitable giving also change, so be sure your gifting strategies are still appropriate for your estate. An estate plan review is also a good time to review the organizations you wish to support.

Reference: Kiplinger (July 28, 2021) “2021 Estate Planning Checkup: Is Your Estate Plan Up to Date?

The Stretch IRA Is Diminished but Not Completely Gone

Before the SECURE Act, named beneficiaries who inherited an IRA were able to take distributions over the course of their lifetimes. This allowed the IRA to grow over many years, sometimes decades. This option came to an end in 2019 for most heirs, but not for all, says the recent article “Who is Still Eligible for a Stretch IRA?” from Fed Week.

A quick refresher: the SECURE Act—Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement—was passed in December 2019. Its purpose was, ostensibly, to make retirement savings more accessible for less-advantaged people. Among many other things, it extended the time workers could put savings into IRAs and when they needed to start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).

However, one of the features not welcomed by many, was the change in inherited IRA distributions. Those not eligible for the stretch option must empty the account, no matter its size, within ten years of the death of the original owner. Large IRAs are diminished by the taxes and some individuals are pushed into higher tax brackets as a result.

However, not everyone has lost the ability to use the stretch option, including anyone who inherited an IRA before January 1, 2020. This is who is included in this category:

• Surviving Spouses.
• Minor children of the deceased account owner–but only until they reach the age of majority. Once the minor becomes of legal age, he or she must deplete the IRA within ten years. The only exception is for full-time students, which ends at age 26.
• Disabled individuals. There is a high bar to qualify. The person must meet the total disability definition, which is close to the definition used by Social Security. The person must be unable to engage in any type of employment because of a medically determined or mental impairment that would result in death or to be of chronic duration.
• Chronically ill persons. This is another challenge for qualifying. The individual must meet the same standards used by insurance companies used to qualify policyowners for long-term care coverage. The person must be certified by a treating physician or other licensed health care practitioner as not able to perform at least two activities of daily living or require substantial supervision, due to a cognitive impairment.
• Those who are not more than ten years younger than the deceased account owner. That means any beneficiary, not just someone who was related to the account owner.

What was behind this change? Despite the struggles of most Americans to put aside money for their retirement, which is a looming national crisis, there are trillions of dollars sitting in IRA accounts. Where better to find tax revenue, than in these accounts? Yes, this was a major tax grab for the federal coffers.

Reference: Fed Week (March 3, 2021) “Who is Still Eligible for a Stretch IRA?”

Loss of Stretch IRA is Not Such a Big Deal

Yes, the SECURE Act has eliminated the use of the stretch IRA, which is the ability to pass an IRA down to a child or grandchild and have them take out withdrawals over their lifetime. No big deal, says the article “No stretch IRA? No problem” from Investment News. Here’s why.

Only the biggest IRAs are affected. How many IRAs actually make it to the beneficiary that are large enough to justify stretched payouts? According to the Treasury Department, only about 20% of all individuals who were required to take the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) actually stick to the schedule and take that amount out. Four out of five people who own IRAs take much more money than the minimum. This reduces the amount in the account that is left for their beneficiaries and reducing and even eliminating the possibility of heirs using the stretch option.

There’s no change to spousal beneficiaries. Most married people leave their IRAs to their spouses, and surviving spouses are exempt from the new stretch restrictions. Spouses who inherit IRAs and other assets still have the same options they had before the SECURE Act was passed. Financially savvy spouses (or those with good advisors) will do a spousal rollover and further delay the “no stretch problem” for another generation. By doing this, they postpone the start of the ten-year payout rule. If they use more of the IRA during their own lifetime, again, there’s not that much to worry about.

Most beneficiaries don’t stretch. Not at all. Windfalls usually don’t last very long. How many beneficiaries wait patiently for 30, 40 or 50 years to deplete an inherited IRA? Not many. For many beneficiaries, the new ten-year rule might actually be more realistic. For the smaller IRAs, it may be more logical to empty the account with a lump-sum distribution, especially if it is distributed among several beneficiaries in low tax brackets. However, if the IRA is a Roth, hang on to it and let it grow, tax-free, for as long as possible.

Most beneficiaries are in lower tax brackets. People like to leave their IRAs to their grandchildren, but most grandchildren, under the SECURE Act, will not be able to stretch IRA payouts over their lifetime. If the grandchild is a minor, then the kiddie tax emerges, and the child might have to pay taxes on any withdrawals at their parent’s tax rates. Do your homework with your estate planning attorney.

While the inherited payout is ten years, the tax hit to younger, usually lower income earners, won’t be as bad. However, the kiddie tax could lead to a huge tax hit for your adult children and grandchildren. Another option is naming multiple grandchildren. More beneficiaries will at least stretch out the tax hit over multiple tax returns.

Speak with your estate planning attorney about what needs to change on your estate plan, in light of the new restrictions created by the SECURE Act. There are strategies that they can discuss with you to minimize the tax liability.

Reference: Investment News (March 2, 2020) “No stretch IRA? No problem”

Alternatives for Stretch IRA Strategies

The majority of many people’s wealth is in their IRAs, that is saved from a lifetime of work. Their goal is to leave their IRAs to their children, says a recent article from Think Advisor titled “Three Replacements for Stretch IRAs.” The ability to distribute IRA wealth over years, and even decades, was eliminated with the passage of the SECURE Act.

The purpose of the law was to add an estimated $428 million to the federal budget over the next 10 years. Of the $16.2 billion in revenue provisions, some $15.7 billion is accounted for by eliminating the stretch IRA.

Existing beneficiaries of stretch IRAs will not be affected by the change in the law. But going forward, most IRA heirs—with a few exceptions, including spousal heirs—will have to take their withdrawals within a ten year period of time.

The estate planning legal and financial community is currently scrutinizing the law and looking for strategies will protect these large accounts from taxes. Here are three estate planning approaches that are emerging as front runners.

Roth conversions. Traditional IRA owners who wished to leave their retirement assets to children may be passing on big tax burdens now that the stretch is gone, especially if beneficiaries themselves are high earners. An alternative is to convert regular IRAs to Roth IRAs and take the tax hit at the time of the conversion.

There is no guarantee that the Roth IRA will never be taxed, but tax rates right now are relatively low. If tax rates go up, it might make converting the Roth IRAs too expensive.

This needs to be balanced with state inheritance taxes. Converting to a Roth could reduce the size of the estate and thereby reduce tax exposure for the state as well.

Life insurance. This is being widely touted as the answer to the loss of the stretch, but like all other methods, it needs to be viewed as part of the entire estate plan. Using distributions from an IRA to pay for a life insurance policy is not a new strategy.

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT). The IRA could be used to fund a charitable remainder trust. This allows the benefactor to establish an income stream for heirs with part of the IRA assets, with the remainder going to a named charity. The trust can grow assets tax free. There are two different ways to do this: a charitable remainder annuity trust, which distributes a fixed annual annuity and does not allow continued contributions, or a charitable remainder unitrust, which distributes a fixed percentage of the initial assets and does allow continued contributions.

Speak with your estate planning lawyer about what options may work best in your unique situation.

Reference: Think Advisor (Jan. 24, 2020) “Three Replacements for Stretch IRAs”

SECURE Act Means It’s Time for an Estate Plan Review

The most significant legislation affecting retirement was signed into law on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. After stalling for months, Congress suddenly passed several bills, as attachments to budget appropriations, as reported by Advisor News’ article “SECURE Act, Signed by Trump, A Game-Changer For Retirement Plans.”

Here are some of the key points that retirees and those planning their retirements need to know:

Changes to Age Limits for IRA and 401(k) Accounts. The age for taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) has increased from 70½ to 72 years. Adding a year and a half for investors to put away money for retirement gives a little more time to prepare for longer lifespans. The change recognizes the prior limits were arbitrary, and that Americans need to save more.

However, the SECURE Act also brought about the demise of the “stretch” IRA. Americans who inherit an IRA must now withdraw the money within 10 years of the account owner’s death, along with paying taxes. Surviving spouses and minor children are still exempt. The exempt heirs can still spend down inherited IRA accounts over their lifetime, which is an estate planning strategy known as the “stretch.”

Small Business 401(k)s. The SECURE Act expands access to Multiple Employer Plans, known as MEPs, so that employers can pool resources and share the costs of retirement plans for employees. This will cut administration and management costs and ideally, will allow more small businesses to offer higher-quality plans available to their employees.

The law also enhances automatic enrollment and auto-escalation, letting companies automatically enroll employees into a retirement plan at a rate of 6%, instead of 3%. Employers can now raise employee contributions to a maximum of 15% of their annual pay, although workers can opt out of these plans at any time.

Annuities Options. The SECURE Act now allows 401(k) plans to offer annuities as a retirement plan option. Experts have mixed opinions on this. Annuities are a type of life insurance that convert retirement savings into lifetime income. However, fees are often high, and if the insurance company closes its doors, those lifetime income payments may vanish. Under the new law, employers also have what’s called a “safe harbor” from being sued, if annuity providers go out of business or stop making payments to annuity purchasers. Being freed from liability may make employers more likely to offer annuities, but that may put 401(k) investors at more risk, say consumer advocates.

529 Plans and Saving for Children. The new law expands 529 accounts to cover many more types of education, from registered apprenticeships, homeschooling, private elementary, secondary or religious schools. Up to $10,000 can be used for qualified student loan repayments, including for siblings.

Reference: Advisor News (December 23, 2019) “SECURE Act, Signed by Trump, A Game-Changer For Retirement Plans”

How Does the SECURE Act Change Your Estate Plan?

The SECURE Act has made big changes to how IRA distributions occur after death. Anyone who owns an IRA, regardless of its size, needs to examine their retirement savings plan and their estate plan to see how these changes will have an impact. The article “SECURE Act New IRA Rules: Change Your Estate Plan” from Forbes explains what the changes are and the steps that need be taken.

Some of the changes include revising wills and trusts which include provisions creating conduit trusts that had been created to hold IRAs and preserve the stretch IRA benefit, while the IRA plan owner was still alive.

Existing conduit trusts may need to be modified before the owner’s death to address how the SECURE Act might undermine the intent of the trust.

Rethinking and possibly completely restructuring the planning for the IRA account may need to occur. This may mean making a charity the beneficiary of the account, and possibly using life insurance or other planning strategies to create a replacement for the value of the charitable donation.

Another alternative may be to pay the IRA balance to a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) on death that will stretch out the distributions to the beneficiary of the CRT over that beneficiary’s lifetime under the CRT rules. Paired with a life insurance trust, this might replace the assets that will ultimately pass to the charity under the CRT rules.

The biggest change in the SECURE Act being examined by estate planning and tax planning attorneys is the loss of the “stretch” IRA for beneficiaries inheriting IRAs after 2019. Most beneficiaries who inherit an IRA after 2019 will be required to completely withdraw all plan assets within ten years of the date of death.

One result of the change of this law will be to generate tax revenues. In the past, the ability to stretch an IRA out over many years, even decades, allowed families to pass wealth across generations with minimal taxes, while the IRAs continued to grow tax tree.

Another interesting change: No withdrawals need be made during that ten-year period, if that is the beneficiary’s wish. However, at the ten-year mark, ALL assets must be withdrawn, and taxes paid.

Under the prior law, the period in which the IRA assets needed to be distributed was based on whether the plan owner died before or after the RMD and the age of the beneficiary.

The deferral of withdrawals and income tax benefits encouraged many IRA owners to bequeath a large IRA balance completely to their heirs. Others, with larger IRAs, used a conduit trust to flow the RMDs to the beneficiary and protect the balance of the plan.

There are exceptions to the 10-year SECURE Act payout rule. Certain “eligible designated beneficiaries” are not required to follow the ten-year rule. They include the surviving spouse, chronically ill heirs and disabled heirs. Minor children are also considered eligible beneficiaries, but when they become legal adults, the ten year distribution rule applies to them. Therefore, by age 28 (ten years after attaining legal majority), they must take all assets from the IRA and pay the taxes as applicable.

The new law and its ramifications are under intense scrutiny by members of the estate planning and elder law bar because of these and other changes. Speak with your estate planning attorney to review your estate plan to ensure that your goals will be achieved in light of these changes.

Reference: Forbes (Dec. 25, 2019) “SECURE Act New IRA Rules: Change Your Estate Plan”

Should I Include Beneficiaries in My Estate Planning? Most Definitely!

Because of the specific tax rules governing the distribution of assets at death, you should prepare carefully to be certain that liquid assets are integrated properly into your estate distribution plans and tax savings strategies. That’s the advice from Investopedia’s recent article, “Include Your Retirement Accounts in Your Estate.”

Re-examine your beneficiary designations after major life changes like marriage, divorce or the birth or adoption of a child. If you don’t designate beneficiaries for your retirement accounts, the designation may default to your estate. That can be one of the worst possible outcomes for your retirement accounts, from a tax and planning standpoint.

If your estate is named as beneficiary, your heirs have to wait until the probate process is complete, before they can access your retirement funds. Be sure to name an individual or a trust as your beneficiary. Each state may have a different requirement concerning who you can name as a beneficiary. For example, the federal ERISA law requires you to name your spouse as the beneficiary of your 401(k) account, unless he gives permission in writing to name another person or charity.

Another option is to include a trust in your estate planning, instead of distributing retirement funds directly to specific individuals. This gives you more control over the distribution and protects your heirs from additional paperwork and taxes. If you want to leave the assets in your retirement accounts to a relative who you think won’t manage the funds well, you can use a trust to provide regular distributions from those accounts. These regular trust distributions will keep a beneficiary from tapping into their inheritance and spending it all at once.

A trust is also a good choice, if your beneficiaries are minor children who cannot have direct access to the money until they become legal adults. All that noted, however, very careful planning must be done to avoid unintended consequences, when designating a trust as beneficiary of retirement funds. Otherwise, you may actually trigger unnecessary taxation and lose the ability for the trust beneficiaries to “stretch” their distributions as long as the law allows.

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). Your retirement plans have rules about when you must begin taking distributions, known as required minimum distributions. For accounts like a 401(k), you are must start taking RMDs at age 70½. However, if you die and leave retirement plans and accounts to your heirs, the rules apply to them, and they can get pretty complicated. A spousal beneficiary can roll over retirement funds (tax-free) into his or her own retirement plan and make their own distribution choices. However, other beneficiaries don’t have the same option. Learning how the tax treatment and distribution options vary based on who’s receiving your retirement assets, is a crucial part of the overall estate planning process.

In addition, some beneficiary designations may qualify for the stretch IRA provision. This lets them withdraw their inherited retirement plan assets over the course of their lifetime—or they may be required to withdraw the entire balance within five years of your death. Who your beneficiary is and determining what distribution rules apply to that person, can make a big difference in how much of your retirement assets are actually passed on to your intended beneficiaries.

Taxes. The biggest worry to address when designating retirement accounts as part of your estate plan is how they’ll be taxed. Retirement accounts are some of the most heavily taxed assets you can pass on after your death. When reviewing your financial and estate plans, find out how you can withdraw from these accounts while you’re alive and how to minimize tax consequences after you’re gone.

Work with an estate planning attorney who has a deep understanding of retirement accounts and the legal requirements of estate planning to ensure that your retirement assets are distributed to the proper beneficiaries, with the least adverse tax consequences.

Reference: Investopedia (August 27, 2018) “Include Your Retirement Accounts in Your Estate”