Ed Slott: More 'Insanity' Lurks in IRS Secure Act RMD Regs

On top of that, "this is where these RMD rules go off the rails," Slott said. The plan includes "a special rule that was to the inheritor's benefit if that beneficiary was older than the IRA owner they inherited from. If death was after the RBD, the beneficiary could use the IRA owner's lifetime to compute stretch IRAs, resulting in lower annual beneficiary RMDs."

Older beneficiaries "will likely be EDBs because they qualify as a beneficiary who is not more than 10 years younger than the deceased IRA owner — because they are older. They can use the longer life expectancy based on the younger IRA owner's age," he said.

"This was easy enough before, but now when this beneficiary is likely in their 90s or older, they must empty the inherited IRA when the deceased IRA owner's life expectancy would have expired," Slott added. "Yes, this older beneficiary must now monitor two sets of RMD factors well into their 90s!"

This new rule, he points out, "will be incredibly complicated for custodians, advisors and seniors to administer. It is difficult to understand what abuse the IRS was looking to prevent here. Can you imagine explaining this to someone in their 90s?"