RMD Post Death 2021
78 year old Mother passed away January 2nd 2021. No RMD was taken by her. Other company had all 4 beneficiaries (the kids – ages 52-62) split the account and told them that the youngest beneficiary could take the whole RMD amount based on their age to satisfy the RMD for 2021. This doesn’t sound right to me, I wanted to confirm.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2021-09-01 18:25
It isn’t right. The 2021 RMD is mother’s RMD. The age of the beneficiaries does not matter with respect to the 2021 year of death RMD. IRS Regs indicate that the year of death RMD can be completed in any combination by the beneficiaries. One of the 4 might want to take a large distribution, and if it covers the RMD, the others do not have to take distributions for 2021. Of course, resolving this requires coordination and communication between the beneficiaries. If a beneficiary does not trust another beneficiary to follow through, the beneficiary could take out their pro rata share (25%) of mother’s RMD. The IRS has not been penalizing any beneficiary who takes out their share even if the others do not take a distribution at all.