By Sarah Brenner, JD
Director of Retirement Education
‘Tis the season for lists! Best TV shows, best of music and best podcasts. The lists go on and on. In the spirit of year-end lists, we present the “Best of the 2025 Slott Report.” Here are the retirement account blogs that got people talking in 2025.
- In January of 2025, we started the year strong with “Beneficiary Form Resolutions.” An annual check-up of retirement account beneficiary forms should be on everyone’s to-do list. Make it one of your resolutions for 2026.
- Later on in January, we examined how baseball and IRAs are NOT alike. On January 21, Ichiro Suzuki was elected to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. It takes 75% of the writers’ support to gain entry, and Ichiro was chosen on 393 out of 394 ballots. While a person can reach Cooperstown without 100% of the votes, such is not the case with many IRA transactions. A single misstep, a lone “missed vote,” and the outcome could be completely different. Read about some transactions where a 1% shortfall can cause the entire house of baseball cards to come tumbling down here: “99%: Good Enough for the Hall of Fame, but Not for Certain IRA Transactions.”
- It seems that some topics generate tons of questions every time we write about them. One of those is “How Roth IRA Distributions Are Taxed.” Another is the tax break for net unrealized appreciation (NUA), which we focus on in the blog post “NUA: ‘Resetting’ Cost Basis.”
- No one wants to imagine it could happen to them, but each year millions find themselves in bankruptcy. What does that mean for your IRA? Our blog post, “Higher IRA Federal Bankruptcy IRA Protection Limit Became Effective on April 1,” answers those questions.
- The SECURE Act, which upended the rules for retirement account beneficiaries, went into effect in 2020. Five years later, we are still getting questions on this complicated law. In “Surprise! You May Still Be Eligible for the Stretch IRA,” we explore the nuances of the rules for eligible designated beneficiaries who still get the stretch post-SECURE Act.
- While most distributions from a traditional IRA are taxable, sometimes distributions can include after-tax dollars. These after-tax dollars are known as “basis.” Handling and tracking basis in your traditional IRAs can be challenging, but it is important to get it right. If mistakes are made, double taxation can occur. That is a result no IRA owner wants. See how to get it right in our blog post, “Basis In Your Traditional IRA.”
- Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) are a popular strategy for older IRA owners who are charitably inclined. There has never been special coding on Form 1099-R for QCDs. That changed in 2025 when the IRS introduced Code Y, but then backed off and made the new code optional. Here are the details: “New Code Y is Optional for 2025 QCDs.”
- At the Slott Report in 2025, we were constantly battling the unending stream of misinformation that can trip up even experienced financial advisors. In “Misconceptions About the Still-Working Exception” and “The Craziest Stuff I’ve Heard,” we do our best to set the record straight.
- Summer of 2025 was a busy time with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). We discussed “3 Retirement Account Takeaways from OBBBA,” as well as the “OBBBA Impact on HSAs.”
- OBBBA also brought us a new tax advantaged account called a “Trump Account.” In “Trump Accounts – A Hot New Bombshell Enters the Tax-Advantaged Account Villa,” we explain these new accounts scheduled to be available later in 2026. We also reported on new IRS guidance in “IRS Addresses Unanswered Questions About Trump Accounts.”
- Other new developments to look for in 2026 include the arrival of the delayed mandatory Roth catch-up contributions for high earners. In “IRS Confirms Effective Date of Mandatory Roth Catch-Up Rule” and “8 Questions Answered About the New Mandatory Roth Catch-Up Rule,” we give all the details.
- Also, catch-up contributions for SIMPLE IRAs for 2026 will be more complicated than ever, as discussed in “The Crazy-Complicated 2026 SIMPLE IRA Plan Elective Deferral Limits.”
We look forward to sharing more retirement account information and developments in the upcoming year. Stay tuned in 2026 for the latest news on the rules that impact your IRA or employer plan.
Happy New Year from the Slott Report!
If you have technical questions you would like to have answered, be sure to submit them to mailbag@irahelp.com, to be answered on an upcoming Slott Report Mailbag, published every Thursday.
https://irahelp.com/best-of-the-2025-slott-report/