Another selling point of MLPs is tax deferral. (So hold MLPs in a taxable, not a tax-deferred, account.) The deferral works like this: In your early years of owning an MLP, most of your cash payout counts as a return of capital--it isn't taxable, but it reduces your basis in the MLP shares.
Under current rules, people who inherit IRAs can "stretch" their withdrawals across their life expectancies, paying income tax only on the amounts they remove from the account and continuing the tax deferral on any earnings inside.