Wall St. Journal on leaving IRAs or retirement accounts outright to children vs. to a trust for the children: “Every tax practitioner has seen parents leave a lot of money that took a lifetime to save, and then watched the children go through it in less than five years . . . . some estate lawyers and accountants are advising parents to name an irrevocable trust as the IRA beneficiary—and to name their heirs as beneficiaries of the trust.”
Forbes: “An inherited retirement account is more than a simple pot of cash. Often, an heir can stretch out withdrawals from an individual retirement account over his or her life expectancy, gaining decades of tax-deferred or (in the case of a Roth IRA) tax-free investment growth. But the IRS rules for doing this can be tricky. If you’re inheriting an IRA or 401(k), here’s what you need to know.”
We create IRAs and retirement plans to provide income during our retirement years, but we also expect that on our deaths our loved ones will inherit a sizable sum of money from the IRA or the retirement plan. Everyone knows or should know that the proper way to transfer IRA and retirement plan assets on the death of the IRA owner or plan participant is by a beneficiary designation.
I believe that IRA owners and retirement plan participants should do more than simply complete a beneficiary designation form. They should also educate their adult beneficiaries about fundamental IRA concepts to prevent them from immediately cash out the inherited IRA or plan and blow the money on an expensive car or other foolish expenditures.
Forbes has a great article called “Five Rules For Inherited IRAs” that is a must read article for anybody whose IRA or retirement plan may leave substantial assets to loved ones. The article begins:
“Before they inherited $3 million in retirement accounts from their father last year, the three middle-aged siblings didn’t know it was possible for heirs to stretch out the tax benefits of such accounts for decades. […]
Forbes: “More Americans will be handing down IRAs to their kids. A new decision suggests it might be a creditor proof inheritance. But nothing is certain yet. In what estate planners and bankruptcy lawyers are saying could be a significant case, a federal bankruptcy judge in Minnesota has allowed a bankrupt woman to keep a $63,000 individual retirement account inherited from her father. IRAs inherited from someone other than your spouse have traditionally not been protected in bankruptcy under either federal or state laws, and thus have been available for creditors to grab.”
The case is In re Nessa, a federal bankruptcy case out of Minnesota.