SECURE ACT: Game changer for estate planning with qualified retirement benefits

Rebecca Rosenberger Smolen, left, and Amy Neifeld Shkedy, right, of Bala Law Group.

The new provisions of the SECURE Act, aka the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, which were enacted on Dec. 20, 2019, and became effective as of Jan. 1, 2020, change a key factor that goes into the retirement planning process.

Prior to the enactment of the SECURE Act, one of the valuable benefits of careful estate planning with tax-deferred retirement accounts was to preserve the tax deferral benefit of these assets over the life expectancy of children, or even better, grandchildren of the deceased funder of the account (the participant) if the beneficiary designation form was properly completed.