U.S. retirement assets totaled $25 trillion as of September 30, accounting for more than one-third of household financial assets, according to the Investment Company Institute in Washington, D.C. Of those assets, $7.8 trillion were in IRAs.
 
If the bill does pass, it should prove a boon to financial advisors, since elimination of the much used inherited IRA will compel many to retool their estate plans.

“This will force people to do better financial planning,” says Slott, who thinks even now there are better ways to set aside money for future generations.

“I would say, ‘Forget the stretch IRA. You’re better off taking the money out now, paying the taxes and putting that money into a life insurance policy that will be tax free when it’s cashed in.’ You could easily take a $300,000 IRA and turn it into a $1 million life insurance policy.”

Or, he adds, wealthier clients could easily simulate a stretch IRA with a life insurance trust or a charitable remainder trust, either of which would allow payments to future beneficiaries over their lifetime or a set term of years, subject to the terms of the trust.
 
Still, there are those who don’t think the bill will move next year -- like Deborah Jacobs, author of Estate Planning Smarts: A Practical, User-Friendly, Action-Oriented Guide.    

“Those who most benefit from the stretch are the families of the rich,” Jacobs says. “More than ever, in a Trump Administration we can expect legislation that favors the rich and their descendants.”

But she does offer this hedge: “It’s sometimes said that she who lives by the crystal ball is destined to eat glass.”

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