Ep 5: How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Retirement

The SECURE Act took effect to start 2020 and it’s the first significant retirement legislation in many years. Let’s look at the key changes to retirement planning and how it might impact your future.

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With everything that’s happened in 2020, it’s easy to forget about the SECURE Act. This legislation was passed at the end of last year and quickly took effect in January, but it’s been moved to the backburner for a lot of people because of the pandemic.

But we want to revisit this bill and make sure it gets the attention it needs from every individual. That’s what we’ll do on this episode of The Retirement Huddle podcast because this is the first significant retirement account legislation in many years and it requires planning adjustments.

As with most bills that come through Congress, there’s plenty to read through. So if you want to do that, the SECURE Act can be accessed here.

To save you time and to get right to the key portions of the bill, let’s look at the changes that will impact most retirees and pre-retirees. We’ll start with the adjustments that were made to account for everyone living longer, which is required minimum distribution age moving back and IRA contributions now having no age limit.

Then we’ll discuss an important one for estate planning and that’s the Stretch IRA being eliminated. What does that mean for you and what strategies should you consider to offset this change?

The last two things we’ll address is the ability for new parents to pull money out of a retirement account without paying a penalty but is that a good idea for most? And finally, there are now more 401k options for small businesses and Mark will touch on that as well.

We know a lot of people are still thinking and adjusting to life with the coronavirus health crisis, but we hope this episode puts the spotlight back on a very important piece of retirement planning legislation.

Thanks for listening to this episode. We’ll be back for another show every other Thursday.

Today’s rundown:

[1:07] – RMD age moves from 70.5 to 72. There are some important points to know.

[3:41] – There’s now no age limit on IRA contributions as long as you have earned income.

[4:47] – Inherited retirement accounts now have to be distributed within 10 years.

[7:46] – Penalty-free withdrawals from retirement accounts up to a certain amount for new parents.

[8:54] – There are now more 401k options for small businesses out there.

[9:44] – These are all great things to review with an advisor.