Good morning.

An individual has died appointing the marital trust as beneficiary of the $1.9 million IRA account. The beneficiary of the marital trust will be 78 at the end of this year. The decedent failed to take his RMD for 2014.

Questions:

1.) What is the IRS table that should be used for purposes of calculating the RMD for 2015? I’m assuming it’s the single life table.

2.) With regard to the first question, is the divisor simply reduced by 1 each year thereafter, ultimately terminating the IRA within 10 or 11 years?

3.) How will the RMD for 2015 be received for purposes of calculating distributable income from the trust to the beneficiary? I’m assuming that this will require the trustee to provide income and principal accounting for the IRA which will translate to the amount of DNI that will flow through the trust. How is this based when the trust only says ‘net income’… do we rely on IRS guidance (meaning IRA should principal and income accounting), or UPIA under state guidance for the 90/10 allocation of principal and income?

4.) Assuming that a substantial amount of the RMD is received by the trust as principal, I’m assuming that the trust’s tax rate will be as high as possible – 40% Federal, 5% state, 3.8% Medicare. True?

5.) By virtue of the trustee taking the RMD will that action disqualify any potential for disclaimers?

Any clarification or validation of my assumptions would be very appreciated.

Thank you.