This is the second in a series of blog posts from my friend Steve Hartnett, Director of Education for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys. Here Steve talks about how the Secure Act, which became effective at the beginning of 2020, impacts the designation of trusts as the beneficiary of retirement accounts. We make these designations pretty commonly for our clients at Clarity Legal Group and the approach Steve describes here is the one we most common implement. In any event, remember that the risk of getting beneficiary designations wrong in estate planning is high, and that risk is multiplied by the false simplicity implied in the process of making the designations. Steve’s post considers how designations done prior to the SECURE Act might not have the intended consequences today. Read on to learn more.