Required Minimum Distribution Planning

This is a topic that will affect nearly everyone and especially those who otherwise don’t need any distribution plans in retirement.  There are three general categories of people that can change how required minimum distributions are handled.  First is those who have an income plan that will automatically cover distribution requirements.  Second are those who need to take a little more than their normal income to cover it.  And third are the people who don’t need the money at all.  Everyone can learn something from this but it’s the last group that needs to approach the issue as early as possible.

This is a core retirement topic so a retirement topic should cover it extensively.  Of the three groups mentioned above, each of them should verify at some point whether they are set up properly so that no surprises come at the last second.  The biggest concern is being forced into a higher tax bracket unexpectedly.  Using Roth conversions or early distributions can mitigate this risk and you need to know if that’s something you should consider.

Less than optimal advice comes from every corner of the financial services industry.  Annuity agents sell annuities with benefits that are watered down when distributions are required.  Investment managers wanting to charge fees on higher account balances often discourage distributions even if it makes sense.  We are all human and nobody knows your plan better than you do.  That’s why I try to make this an objective part of creating retirement plans.  We have built a tool into the new calculator that will allow you to project whether you have a looming issue.  It’s one more step toward covering every issue now and into the future.

There are places online where you can calculate your RMD but to my knowledge I’m not sure you’ll be able to find something similar to my calculator.  Not only will you be able to calculate a simple RMD based on account balances, but you will also be able to project what those distributions will grow to based on different market scenarios.  Of course annuities can help with management of these distributions but we can save that for specific planning cases.  If you are able to see that unexpected IRA distributions may be required then you’ll be able to deal with it early and mitigate the negative effects, namely taxes.  I published a podcast last year explaining how annuities can help so go check that out and we will be able to get the app to work with those strategies shortly.

I’m going to run a quick demo in the podcast to show you how this works and talk about the changes we are going to make in the near future.  The first step required is to determine whether you have a problem that needs to be solved.  Then hopefully you have enough time to take care of it.  This is purely a service offer to help anyone wanting to create an optimal plan.  If you want to see your numbers now then get on my calendar and we can run it through several scenarios.

Have a great weekend!

Bryan

Watch Episode 227: Required Minimum Distribution Planning

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Last Updated on May 15, 2026 by Bryan Anderson