Hello – i had a separate question elsewhere on the discussion forum but hopefully this one is a little simpler. My brother died in April and had a lot of very small IRAs that I plan to cash out since it doesn’t make sense to keep his estate open for several years. he has 3 left at one bank (where I have his estate account) – two traditional IRAs and one Roth. He had no named beneficiaries on his IRAs since he was young [I am his executor and sole beneficiary].

Am I required to convert these to inherited IRAs in the name of his estate before distributing the funds to his estate account? The bank says they don’t know of a requirement to make them into inherited IRAs and neither does my accountant. I’d read somewhere it was required to make them into inherited IRAs in the name of his estate so just wanted to ask here as well since I get a lot of conflicting advice on different IRA situations. I plan to distribute the two traditional IRAs and the Roth to my brother’s estate account (and have the estate pay the taxes on that estate income). The bank’s form offers the ability to simply do a distribution (and they say they mostly do that in these situations) and this seems the simplest route.

Let me know if it is required to convert these into inherited IRAs in the name of his estate – very much appreciate your weigh in.