Estate-planning lawyers are contacting clients about a big change in the law when it comes to protecting retirement funds meant to pass by inheritance.

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that inherited Individual Retirement Accounts are not shielded from creditors in bankruptcy proceedings, a decision that clears up confusion about the status of unspent IRAs that parents leave to their children.

In a case that turns on the definition of two words in the expansive language of the Bankruptcy Code, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tried to determine whether an inherited retirement account can be shielded from bankruptcy liquidation.

An IRA that a debtor inherited from her mother was not exempt from creditors’ claims in her bankruptcy case, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in reversing judgment.

More lawyers than ever are going solo, whether by choice or out of necessity, according to recent statistics.

An unreported retirement distribution related to an inherited individual retirement account is taxable, regardless of the taxpayer’s maneuver to obtain the funds through a trustee-to-trustee transaction, the U.S. Tax Court has ruled in upholding a $13,600 deficiency assessment.