beneficiary designation
An Ira owner dies leaving his entire IRA to his spouse. All the IRA money was in an annuity which had the spouse named as the beneficiary. The question posed to me is there any way to change the beneficiary post mortem. I don’t believe there is especially since the IRA annuity has a named beneficiary and in effect is non-probate asset.
Your comments are appreciated.
Permalink Submitted by Alan Spross on Mon, 2009-02-02 22:08
Two ways:
1) Qualified disclaimer completed by spouse per Sec 2518
2) Legal contest that the owner was manipulated by undue influence, forgery of document etc. This one has a high hurdle, with costly legal fees and in most cases would be an extreme long shot, even more so when challenging a spousal beneficiary.
Permalink Submitted by mk foss on Tue, 2009-02-03 00:31
I agree with Alan but I want to make an additional point. Before anyone does a disclaimer they need to see who will become the beneficiary after the disclaimer. The disclaimant cannot name a new beneficiary, the benefits just go to whomever would received them if the initial beneficiary predeceased the owner.