RMD amount when a Trust is the beneficiary of IRA

Submitted by Todd Lyon on Fri, 2014-12-05 16:03

Scenario – A Trust is the beneficiary of an IRA. IRA owner died at age 75 and was taking RMD’s. Trust is set up with primary beneficiary age 57 son with mental disabilities, and contingent beneficiary of Trust is a charitable foundation.
1) Who’s life expectancy are the RMD’s based on? (prior IRA owner at age 75 or 57 year old son as Trust beneficiary?)
2) which life expectancy table do you use – Single Life or Uniform table?
3) once you’ve answered 1 & 2, then do you subtract 1 each year after to determine the factor to calculate the RMD amount?



Submitted by mk foss on Fri, 2015-01-02 23:09

I’ll answer your questions using your numbering system:

  1. RMDs are based on the age of the primary beneficiary if the trust requires that the RMDs be distributed currently. If the trust can accumulate income, the IRA owner’s age is used.
  2. Beneficiaries always use the Single Life Table, the uniform table is only for IRA owners.
  3. The Factor to calculate RMDs is determined in the year after the death using the single life table and the age of the beneficiary (or owner if the trust accumulates). Subsequent factors are determined by reducing the original factor by 1.0.

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