Actually, it negatively affects the heirs, not those who are departing.
Because of my poor choice to elect RMDs over 5 years rather than my life expectancy (just wanted to get it over with at the time), we went from the 15% to the 25% tax bracket for those 5 years. What made it worse was that when I realized the ramifications of my decision, I called TDAmeritrade (my brokerage at the time where I'd opened the inherited IRA) to ask if I could change my election from 5 years to my life expectancy. It was shortly after I'd made the election (within a month or two) and I'd not yet taken my first RMD. It was still the same year my father had passed. That's how quickly I tried to "fix" things. Yet, I was told I couldn't change my mind. I have no idea if that was true or if someone was just being lazy. I was not in a frame of mind at the time to pursue the matter.
I inherited an IRA and took it in a lump sum because my then Wachovia broker told me they could not transfer in an "inherited IRA". I was pretty much a novice with investing at that point. It was not long after that I left that brokerage. Hiers are subject to all sorts of shenanigans!