Many people name their children as the beneficiaries of their IRA accounts. One of the advantages for your child in receiving an inherited IRA from you “used to be” that your child only had to withdraw a small percentage of the IRA account each year based upon his or her life expectancy.
This requirement of only having to withdraw a minimum amount of money each year from the inherited IRA “used to be” advantageous to your child because it allowed him or her to avoid a large tax bill due to a large IRA withdrawal all in one year and allowed the money left in the inherited IRA to continue to grow tax free.
I say “used to be” because the SECURE Act changes this rule for most children who inherit an IRA after December 31, 2019. Under the SECURE Act, most beneficiaries who inherit an IRA account will now have to withdraw all the money in the inherited IRA within 10 years of receiving the inherited IRA.
This change in the inherited IRA mandatory withdrawal rules could significantly change the way that many parents envisioned their IRA accounts being used by their children.
If you have an IRA account that you are planning to leave to a child, you may want to talk with your estate planning attorney about what impact the SECURE Act may have on your estate plan.