RMD in year of death

Submitted by Diana Kirtland on Thu, 2013-02-28 16:43

IRA owner had 3 IRA accts. RMD. When died only withdrawn 50% of RMD in year of death. How is balance of RMD processed? is RMD withdrawn prior to trf to beneficiaries? If from deceeased IRA – who signs IRA WD form? Check payable to whom? OR if balance RMD withdrawn by each of beneficiaries in Inherited IRAs – based on own life expectancy?



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2013-02-28 18:09

  • Checks can only be payable to the beneficiary on the IRA the balance of the RMD is requested from. Since RMDs can be aggregated over all the IRAs, for the balance of the year of death RMD, any of the IRAs can be used. If there is more than one beneficiary, and one needs the money, this is a chance to allow the beneficiary who needs the money to satisfy the RMD and the others can defer more of their death benefits.
  • The year of death RMD is based on the decedent’s RMD for the year and is not affected by the beneficiary until they start their own RMDs in the year following death.
  • The year of death RMD can be satisfied either before or after separate accounts are created, but most IRA custodians need to set up a separate account to issue a check to a beneficiary under the beneficiary SSN. From a practical standpoint then, after the separate accounts for each beneficiary are established in the appropriate amounts, they can coordinate with respect to how the decedent’s remaining RMD can be split. This also makes accounting easier for the IRA custodian.


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