Roth Accounts for Estate Valuation

My wife and I have multiple Roth Accounts. We are each the primary beneficiary for each others accounts. And, we have secondary beneficiaries designated that are our children and grandchildren.

My questions: 1) Are our Roth account amounts, with beneficiaries designated, included in our Federal Estate valuations? and 2) We live in Minnesota and MN has an estate tax that kicks in at 13-16% for amounts greater than $3M. Are our Roth accounts, with beneficiaries designated, included in the MN valuation amount for estate taxes? and 3) We both have Revocable Trusts in place…should we have our Roth accounts in our Revocable Trusts?

Thank you for any comments or references.



  1. Yes. Roths are treated like any other type of retirement plan. The marital deduction will probably eliminate any estate tax on the first spouse to pass. The second spouse can use portability to utilize the unused exemption from the first spouse.
  2.  Did not check if MN has any unusual exemptions, I would expect not.
  3.  A trust can inherit an IRA, but the owner cannot retitle an IRA to their trust, 

Add new comment

Log in or register to post comments