Americans saving for retirement are well aware of the tax benefits that individual retirement accounts confer on account holders. Fewer are familiar with the rules that offer tax savings to IRA heirs. These special “stretch” distribution rules can help you transfer wealth across one or perhaps two generations.

Most people understand how money ends up in IRA plans, but they may not understand how it comes out later and what happens after they pass on. They may be missing out on a powerful estate planning tool that’s also easy to use. Here’s how it works and how it might make a difference to your estate planning.

• Defining the stretch. Rather than a product – such as a particular type of IRA – stretching is a distribution strategy that can be applied to any type of IRA. Under the strategy, beneficiaries can make withdrawals from the inherited account over years or decades.