Then your entire firm should be fired.
The only way that pre-tax and after-tax assets are equivalent is if the tax rate is ZERO. Do you expect that the tax rates will be zero in the future?
For any non-zero tax rate, pre-tax and after-tax assets have different value. I don't have any way of knowing with certainty what the tax rates will be in the future, but betting that they'll be zero is an incredibly stupid bet.
The fact that you keep promulgating that inane nonsense really calls your professional skills into question. Your argument that one shouldn't even consider tax consequences of an action simply because you don't know the exact future tax rates reeks of criminal incompetence.
If I choose not to take distributions before 70 1/2 and I die before 70 1/2 I will never pay tax on my retirement funds. Or, if I die at 75 after having taken only minimum distributions after age 70 1/2 I will pay tax (maybe) on only a small portion of my retirement funds.
If my minimum distribution of retirement funds is my only income other than social security, and my minimum distribution is less than my standard deduction and my personal exemption I will never pay tax on my retirement funds. At least 80% of my retired clients fall in this bucket.
If my minimum distribution is more than my standard deduction and my personal exemption, I will pay a very low rate on ONLY the amount that exceeds my standard deduction and personal exemption....and it would take a lot of minimum distribution to exceed the lowest marginal tax bracket...about 15% of my remaining retired clients fall in this bucket.
Only about 5% of my retired clients pay any real tax on retirement assets...and then its only on the required minimum distributions.
My clients who inherit from parents who passed away generally inherit significant retirement assets (upon which their parents never paid any tax)...and if they follow my advice, they roll those assets over into retirement accounts of their own, therefore deferring tax for themselves.
On top of that, tax law changes significantly over 20 or 30 years.
So tell me Misto...how the heck at 35 or 40 could anyone POSSIBLY or even REMOTELY determine if they will EVER pay ANY tax on ANY significant portion of their retirement funds? They cannot.
So...all of your ranting and raving about retirement funds and tax, just gives divorcing people one more thing to fight over and ratchet up their attorney fees in a divorce.