Rethinking retirement planning in wake of SECURE Act

Andrew Rusniak, McNees Wallace & Nurick

The recently enacted Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act represents one of the most significant changes to our retirement system in over a decade. The SECURE Act includes many changes to retirement planning in general, such as the increase in the age for required minimum distributions (RMDs) to 72 and the elimination of the maximum age for making contributions to a traditional IRA, provided the individual has earned income. With respect to estate planning, however, perhaps the most notable change comes in the form of the elimination of a beneficiary’s ability to “stretch” an inherited IRA over the beneficiary’s lifetime for all but a limited class of beneficiaries.

The elimination of the lifetime stretch has caused practitioners to collectively rethink some of their long-held norms with respect to legacy planning and tax planning for retirement benefits, particularly with the use of trusts that will receive retirement plan benefits.