Sorry kids, my IRA isn't as valuable as it used to be.

Let me first say to everyone with an IRA: Nothing about recent changes in tax laws has made your IRA less valuable (or less important) to you now or throughout your retirement. Your IRA, and all its siblings like 401(k)s, 403(b)s and TSPs, remains the best way to save for a comfortable retirement.

Favorable tax treatment of contributions and account growth continue to favor IRAs.

It's your kids who got the short-end of the stick in the new tax laws.

Let me describe how the tax laws used to work-

When the surviving spouse passed away the IRA would go your kids as named beneficiaries. The kids could cash in the IRA and pay all the taxes at once, but that usually only happened if the IRA balance was small or the kids had lots of debt they could pay off. The IRS did require the kids to take some out each year, but the minimum amount was based on their life expectancy. For example, a 55-year old inheriting their mother's $100,000 IRA would only need to take out $1,900 in the first year.

Because the amount required as a withdrawal was small, often the IRA balance would grow over time and become a big part of the son's retirement income plan.

Now, that favorable way to use the IRA is gone. Children are now required to distribute the entire inherited IRA over no more than 10-years. Now the kids will be required to take out much larger amounts right when they are at their peak earning years and paying taxes at a much higher rate. Darn!

Uncle Sam wanted his tax money sooner and our kids were the losers.