Inherited IRA, oil and gas royalties

1. I would absolutely love it if you would add the functionality to support inherited IRAs.

I still calculate a stream of payments out following the guidance you gave me four or five years ago, and enter the mandated withdrawals as a taxable income stream.

However, this apporach makes me nervous.. since this IRA represents roughly a third of my assets, it's acting pretty certain of itself using the approach above. I would love to apply monte carlo techniques to it, because as we've just seen over the last two years, the value of this account at any given year end is by no mean certain.

The calculations seem highly mechanical, like they could be automated in one of my favorite software programs (yours!) OK, recalculating everything again and again as the monte carlo seeds impact outcomes might be a bit complex, but you're up to it, right? Please, please?? It's just a bunch of rules, that vary whether you're the inheriting spouse or some other type of heir...

2. I have a similar income stream over the next 20 or so years, one where I know how many barrels of oil and cubic feet of gas are likely to come out of part-ownership of a bunch of wells. The variables are the price of oil and gas -- again something monte carlo could do well. Probably no chance of seeing this, right? At present, I calculate it much the same way, using conservative guesses for energy prices going forward...

Between them, the risk side of these two streams is making me a little, well, crazy, and the calculations every time I want to use ESPlanner are a deterrent to regular (say bi-annual) planning...

That all said, though:

Love, love your program and how responsive you always are. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!!

John Coombs
(MBA, UChicago '81)