IRA Ownership Change between Spouses
I have a couple, where the husband will be age 90 shortly, and the wife is 85.
They have an OLD fixed annuity, with a high guaranty rate (5%); however, the insurance company will require annuitization of the account when he turns 90.
As the client does not wish to give up control of the asset, can we change ownership of the account to his spouse without a taxable event?
TRKutz
Permalink Submitted by Alan Spross on Mon, 2010-11-22 20:35
Your header indicated “IRA”, and IRA accounts OR IRA annuity accounts cannot change living owners unless there is a divorce settlement.
How is the RMD being handled now? At age 90, the RMD is 8.77% of the prior 12/31 value, and if the contract could be amended to a joint annuity without a distribution (but still owned by him) the annuitized distribution required would be higher than 8.77% to begin with, but perhaps would not be higher 5 years from now when the 8.77% has increased to 11.63%.