The SECURE Act stands for the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act. This bipartisan bill is designed to bolster the ability of Americans to save for retirement. If you have specific plans for your estate related to the passing of an IRA, you already know some of the potential tax implications if someone younger inherits it.
But this new bill could alter your previous plans.
This bill originally passed in July 2019, and has many different aspects to address the retirement savings crisis, such as:
- Relaxing employer rules on offering annuities.
- Boosting the required minimum distribution age to 72 from 70 1/2.
- Removing maximum age limits on retirement contributions.
- Allowing retirement benefits for part-time long-term employees.
- Revising portions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that raised taxes on benefits received by students, some Native Americans, and family member of deceased veterans.
Some of the ways that this could influence your existing estate plan include revision of beneficiary designation forms, modification of certain trusts, revision of trusts and wills that include provisions with conduit trusts that were designed to preserve stretch IRA benefits, and restructuring the planning for your individual IRA account.
Scheduling a consultation with a Pasadena estate planning lawyer can help you to determine what’s most appropriate with regards to adjusting your planning in light of the SECURE Act. If you need to adjust your current estate plan to accommodate for these new rules, your attorney can help.
