I found the The IRA and Retirement Plan Owner’s Guide to Beating the New Death Tax by accident. I am retired and have some money saved in IRAs. I knew there were some changes around the IRA law but didn’t know the whole story. So I was hoping to find a new book explaining those changes in detail.

The full title is The IRA and Retirement Plan Owner’s Guide to Beating the New Death Tax: 6 Proven Strategies to Protect Your Family from The SECURE Act by James Lange.

This title came up when I searched on Amazon. The book was written by a lawyer who also happens to be a CPA so I figured he must know his stuff. Reviews were good. The date of publication was recent but what really convinced me to give this book a try was the price. The Kindle edition was 99 cents.

So if there was anything useful at all, I figured this book was well worth the price! After reading a bit I thought I had gotten much more than I paid for.

I like the organization of the book. The book opens up with a summary or overview of the situation. Then it is followed by chapters giving the details on each strategy to beat the new death tax. This way you get he overview but only read the details of those things that seem applicable to your situation. The book is well written and things are explained clearly.
Some solutions are oriented toward the very rich but several also apply to those of us who are middle class.

I’m not sure if many in Congress thought of the name of this law as being somewhat ironic. The SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement), which became law effective January 1, 2020, does some good but much more to make our savings insecure. There were a few good things which did improve the IRA for most of us but mostly it was financially devastating for our heirs.

Most of us would like to think that if we died before exhausting our IRA it would benefit our children or grandchildren. Under the pre-2020 rules if we left an IRA to children or grandchildren, they could stretch out the required minimum distribution (RMD) over their lifetime. Under the SECURE Act rules the payout needs to be complete in 10 years. This greatly accelerates and increases the tax burden on our heirs.

There are ways to beat this new death tax and James Lange discusses all. It seems to me that the one most applicable to my situation is conversion of the traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. This is usually done over several years to minimize the tax consequences. Details are in the book. It is a complicated decision and may not be appropriate in all cases.

I am in the process of making those conversions. I see this as beneficial to me since although I pay taxes now, I get tax-free growth in my retirement savings. It also benefits my heir (if I don’t spend it all!). My heir still needs to take the money over 10 years but loses the tax burden.

The author runs a financial company and is always mentioning their services but even these near-advertisements are useful since they convey useful information.

I highly recommend The IRA and Retirement Plan Owner’s Guide to Beating the New Death Tax. Understand your options and do the right thing for you and your family.