Required distribution date for surviving spouse after SECURE

Submitted by Michael Kelsall on Tue, 2020-02-11 16:31

My apologies, as I assume this has been addressed earlier, but I have not found the thread for it.

Pre-SECURE, a surviving spouse could elect not to assume ownership of a deceased spouse’s IRA, and would be required to start distributions in the year the decedent would have reached age 70½.

Under SECURE, how will this play out? Are we adapting rules based on date of death, or date of attainment of age 70½?

For example, Joe Smith dies in 2018 at age 68. He would have attained 70½ in 2020. Does his spouse start distributions in 2020 (when Joe would have reached 70½) because death occurred in 2018 and she is subject to the pre-SECURE rules, or would she start distributions in 2022 (when Joe would have reached 72) because Joe would have turned 70½ after 12-31-2019 and would have otherwise had a Required Beginning Date based on age 72?

Hoping for a little clarity.



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2020-02-11 20:57

  • Cannot locate any Secure Act analysis that addresses this question. However, Sec 401 of the Secure Act states that the Section applicable to beneficiaries does not apply to participant deaths prior to 2020. Therefore, it seems his spouse would have to take the first beneficiary distribution by 12/31/2020. This despite the fact that had Joe lived, his first participant RMD year would be 2022 because he did not reach 70.5 until 2020. 
  • But unless his spouse is under 59.5 or much older and wants to defer RMDs, she should be electing to assume ownership of the inherited IRA. If she does this anytime in 2020, she is treated as owning the IRA for the entire year. Unless she is 72 this year, there is no RMD, and if she is 72+ her Uniform Table RMD will be less than a beneficiary RMD. That would also remove any doubt regarding whether her beneficiary RMDs must start in 2020 or not.

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