Boston Tax Institute Seminar
Estate Planning for Retirement Benefits after
SECURE & SECURE 2.0 and final regs. (Fall 2024)

Follow the link below to watch the recorded conference on demand:
Recorded Video Conference: Nov. 1st 2024, 9:00am-12:30pm ET

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If you are a subscriber to the e-book edition of Natalie Choate’s book Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits, you are not at the right website for subscription/login questions and tech support. Instead please go to https://retirementbenefitsplanning.us/

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Attention seminar sponsors:

Bring Natalie Choate to your hometown…

Via webinar!

“Your webinar is by far the best attended event (over 700 attendees) we have ever held… great job, thank you!” 

— Estate planning lawyer, California, July 2023

Click here to see list of Natalie’s topics.
Click here for how to check for available dates or other questions.

“Your seminars are the best there are regarding estate planning and retirement tax issues!”

 — Estate planning lawyer, Ohio, August 2023

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The 8th edition of Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits (pictured above) is the newest edition of Natalie’s book. It has NOT been updated for SECURE or other post-publication changes. For now, see Natalie’s 128-page outline “Estate Planning for Retirement Benefits” (v. 2004-4) explaining the changes and the new landscape for planning for retirement benefits updated for SECURE (2019), SECURE 2.0, and the IRS final and proposed regulations issued July 2024 completely restating the minimum distribution rules. It includes charts summarizing the new RMD rules for individuals and for trusts. Download this outline for free by clicking Estate-Planning-for-Retirement-Benefits-2024-4.pdf.

Here are some FAQs:

• Will there be another edition of Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits published? There will be a 9th edition someday, but publication is a long way off. In the meantime, the online (ebook) edition will be updated chapter by chapter, and an outline explaining the new rules will be posted FREE at ataxplan.com (and updated as needed).
• Will there be a Supplement to the 8th edition for SECURE’s changes? Yes, Natalie plans to post a SECURE supplement to the 8th edition FREE at this website but it has not been written yet. Until that is posted, please make do with the free outline “Estate Planning for Retirement Benefits.”
• Is the e-book edition up to date for SECURE? Chapters of the ebook are being gradually updated for SECURE but the updating is not complete. For ANY inquiries about the ebook please go to the ebook publisher’s website www.retirementbenefitsplanning.us.

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Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits (8th ed. 2019)

Sign up here if you wish to receive Natalie’s email newsletter Choate’s Notes, which will include a notice when an update is posted.

To all readers of the 8th edition: The “SECURE” law enacted December 20, 2019, and effective January 1, 2020, makes significant changes to the minimum distribution rules. Many sections of the book will need updates to reflect the new law. Here is a brief description of the changes. For more detailed discussion download the SECURE Outline:

Most significantly, SECURE replaces the life expectancy payout with a 10-year payout (modelled on the old 5-year rule) for all but 5 specified categories of designated beneficiary—surviving spouses, minor children of the participant, disabled and chronically ill beneficiaries, and beneficiaries less than 10 years younger than the participant.

SECURE does NOT change the definition of designated beneficiary. Your beneficiary designations are still good. And it does not affect the definition of see-through trust—your conduit trusts and see-through accumulation trusts (STATs) are still perfectly good. The only trouble is, except for the specified categories of designated beneficiary (called “eligible designated beneficiaries”), the existing estate plan won’t work as expected in many many cases—the benefits will have to be distributed in 10 years rather than over the life expectancy of the designated beneficiary (or oldest trust beneficiary).

Other significant changes: Age for starting required minimum distributions raised to 72 from 70-1⁄2 for people born after June 30, 1949. The age cap for contributing to a traditional IRA is removed. And for deaths prior to 2020, where benefits are being paid out over the life expectancy of the designated beneficiary, the 10- year rule will kick in upon the death of the designated beneficiary.

— Natalie Choate

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Natalie B. Choate is America’s leading author and speaker on estate and distribution planning for retirement benefits. Her book, Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits, is a leading resource for estate planning professionals.