Stretch Option Statistics
I am looking for statistics on how many Inherited IRAs were actually stretched (post death mom and dad) and for how long the children allowed the stretch to function. My hunch is a small percentage of IRAs actually stretch and even less survive more than 10 years. Looking for evidence to either prove or disprove my point. Thank you in advance.
Permalink Submitted by Paul Jacokes on Thu, 2020-01-02 22:54
According to an article by Jeffrey Levine at Kitces.com, only about 20 percent of the owners of IRAs take no more than their RMD. See https://www.kitces.com/blog/secure-act-2019-stretch-ira-rmd-effective-date-mep-auto-enrollment/ I wouldn’t be surprised if the beneficiaries have a similar track record, but I’m not aware of a source for such data or the source of Mr. Levine’s data.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2020-01-02 23:08
How would you define “stretched”? Just by the final year the account was drained? Or by how many years distributions exceeded the RMD? What about 5 year rule accounts? I don’t think the IRS has enough data to know what the RMDs are in many specific cases, for example who the oldest beneficiary of a trust would be. If enough was known to produce a credible report I would expect that a much higher of total inherited IRA dollars were stretched than accounts since many accounts are small. In general I agree with your assumption
Permalink Submitted by Bruce Steiner on Sun, 2020-01-05 02:46