In addition to coping with COVID-19 last year, on Jan. 1, 2020 Congress passed into law a major change in the distributions of retirement accounts. This law was titled Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, commonly referred to as the SECURE act. While there are some good provisions of the act — increasing the required minimum distribution (RMD) start date to 72 years) — the overall result of the act will be the elimination of the “Stretch IRA.”

The Stretch IRA allowed your beneficiaries the ability to take the required minimum distributions (RMDs) out over their lifetime. Now, all non-spouse beneficiaries will have to take the total amount of the inherited retirement accounts out within a 10-year period of time, resulting in a tremendous increase in the timing and the dollar amount of taxes due.

A workshop presented Thursday, Nov. 18 at Edmonds College by Dick Harsin, CPA, CFP will discuss the SECURE act in great detail. It will explore alternative strategies to reduce your income tax, and to pass your remaining retirement account values to your beneficiaries in the most tax-efficient way. This workshop will explore the relationship between IRA withdrawals, and the taxability of Social Security and Medicare part B payments. To register for the workshop access the following link:

You can learn more and register at this link.