A New Study published by the American Accounting Association examines whether people who rely on tax-deferred accounts to save for retirement fare any better than people who rely on post-tax accounts such as Roth IRAs or Roth 401(k)s.

As the authors note, common savings wisdom suggests most people should expect to have lower incomes in retirement compared with their prime earning years. This implies that they should seek to defer taxes as a means of maximizing their amount of savings and to reduce their overall tax burden down the line.

9 Things to Know About IRA Beneficiaries Under the Secure Act

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act of 2019 upended the withdrawal and taxation rules for inherited individual retirement accounts for most non-spousal beneficiaries.

Most dramatically, the Secure Act established a 10-year rule for withdrawing from inherited IRAs that eliminated the popular, but at times controversial, ability to “stretch” inherited IRAs for these beneficiaries. But the law also included a significant number of other important changes that financial advisors and their clients have to grapple with in the income planning and estate process.

Social Security was never intended to be a retiree's sole source of retirement income. Still, it will likely provide thousands — even hundreds of thousands — of dollars over the course of your retirement years. Even if you realize its importance, though, you may be planning for retirement without fully knowing what to expect from your Social Security benefit.

There are several factors that will impact the amount you can expect to receive, but you will not know the exact amount until you actually file.