Death of Spouse – Roth IRA
Can a spouse move the other spouses Roth IRA into their own Roth IRA after death. I know this is an option for IRA’s but is it the same for Roth IRA’s? Is there any advantage for the spouse to moving to a Beneficiary Roth IRA instead?
Permalink Submitted by Alan Spross on Wed, 2011-06-08 22:07
A spousal Roth beneficiary can assume ownership at anytime thereafter in the same manner as if they inherited a Traditional IRA. Some Roth agreements make this automatic.
However, there would be an advantage of keeping the Roth in inherited form if the survivor needed to take out earnings or conversions under 5 years so that there would be no penalty on the earnings or conversions under 5 years. But in the vast majority of cases, the survivor would be better off rolling it over or assuming ownership. For purposes of the 5 year holding period, the surviving spouse doing a rollover would have the longer of their own Roth IRA or the first year the decedent contributed to a Roth IRA.