Sister died 3/18/2018 leaving two IRA accounts (one traditional the other a roth) to her Brother. Since we was older than 70-½ she had already started taking RMD’s from the traditional account, but had not started taking distributions from the Roth.

Brother died 11/25/18 leaving the same two accounts to his Wife.

Brother took his RMD from the inherited traditional IRA (a continuation of Sister’s RMD) for 2018 (using a factor of 14.8 from the uniform life table – It was done this way automatically by the financial institution where the account is held. I’m not saying it was correct.) He did not start or take any RMD for 2018 on the inherited Roth account.

Sisters birthday: 12/27/1933

Brother’s birthday: 9/28/1935

Wife’s birthday: 1/15/1938

Inherited traditional IRA account value as of 12/31/18: $86,412.42
Inherited Roth IRA account value as of 12/31/18: $89,392.99

I’m trying to help my mother (Wife above) calculate her RMD on both inherited IRA accounts. I have my logic below…please correct as needed. The financial institution that holds the account will not calculate or give an official opinion, but I’ve based my opinion on what I could find and interpret. Apologies if I’m incorrectly using terms as I’m not an accountant or investment specialist. My CPA said she couldn’t really help as it’s not her area of expertise.

My interpretation:

Both are non spousal since wife was a successor beneficiary and neither account is eligible for spousal rollover.

Inherited Roth Account:

Wife would benefit from taking “Term Certain” Distributions (Term Certain Method), but in order to do so she must take her RMD by 12/31/19. If she doesn’t take a distribution she must take out the entire balance by December 31st of the year containing the fifth anniversary of the owner’s death.

The RMD calculation cannot be reset when a successor beneficiary inherits an inherited IRA. They succeed to the original beneficiary’s inherited IRA.

Inherited Traditional IRA for 2019 would assume Wife simply pickups where Brother left off. Brother’s 2018 distribution for this account fulfilled Sister’s 2018 obligation based on her age and the uniform life table. 2019 would have jumped to Brother’s obligation based on the single life table so Brother’s 2019 RMD would have been calculated by looking at the Single Life Table Uniform Life Table based on his age of 84 at the end of 2019. That gives us a divisor of 8.1. So for this account Wife must take 86412.42/8.1=$10668.2 in 2019.

This factor will decrease by 1 each year until the account is depleted.

Inherited Roth IRA for 2019 would assume Brother takes his first distribution in 2019. So Brother’s 2019 RMD would have been calculated by looking at the Single Life Table Uniform Life Table based on his age of 84 at the end of 2019. That gives us a divisor of 8.1. So for this account Wife must take 89392.99/8.1= $11036.18 for 2019.

This factor will decrease by 1 each year until the account is depleted.

A beneficiary can combine inherited IRA accounts that are inherited from the same individual as long as the RMDs are calculated using the same life expectancy factor, but’s since these are different types of accounts she must take an RMD from each account annually. She cannot combine RMD’s in this case.

Thanks in advance!