May 9, 2019

Congress has a way of keeping things interesting, don’t they? HR 1994 is also known as the SECURE act. SECURE stands for “Setting Every Community up for Retirement Enhancement”, but as is often the case-it may have you feeling a little less than “secure.”

It has support on both the Democratic side as well as the Republican side and there are similar bills in both Senate and House of Representatives. There’s a lot to take in on the proposals, and it is just a proposal but a few things to keep an eye on:

1. the required minimum distribution age would be raised from 70 1/2 to 72 (not that big of a deal),
2. IRAs which are inherited may need to be completely distributed within a five-year, or a 10 year window (a pretty huge difference from now where a beneficiary is able to stretch – and therefore not have to pay the taxes – over their life expectancy.)

The consequences can be huge. Imagine being forced to take income (and therefore have to pay higher income taxes) on income which you don’t need now, and could’ve possibly deferred under the existing law.

There are planning opportunities now, and on our legal planning, tax planning and financial planning practices we are having conversations regarding the same. Again, it is not law yet-but when you have both Democratic and Republican support (very rare), it does increase the odds that something is going to go through.