A couple of years ago, congress stealthily changed the tax law for most owners of retirement plans. Under the old law, if you left your IRA to a person, generally, they were allowed to withdraw the money ‘slowly’ over their life expectancy (popularly called a Stretch IRA). Now, in most cases, the new law requires the IRA beneficiary to withdraw all funds within ten years of the owner’s death. For many beneficiaries, this means a forced withdrawal during their highest-earning years and, therefore, highest tax rate years.