older beneficiary

Submitted by Jeff Nolan on Fri, 2013-10-04 23:55

client died 2013 before RMD(age 68)was required…. sole beneficiary is spouse (age 83 when she died)…..surviving spouse will be 84 in 2014….When is first distribution required and how is the RMD calculated.

Also, I thought I read when the surviving spouse names the new beneficiary, you can use the joint age to calculate the RMD. Is that accurate?

any help is appreciated



Submitted by mk foss on Sat, 2013-10-05 00:15

It depends upon what choices the beneficary makes.

  1.  If the beeficiary takes the account as a beneficiary, RMDs can be deferred until the year the original owner would attain age 70.5. At that point RMDs are based on the beneficiaries age from the single life table.
  2.  If the IRA is rolled over, the beneficiary begins RMDs the year after the death based on her age. As an account owner, the uniform table is used – which is based on 2 lives.
  3. The spouse does not have to roll the account over immediately. Can wait until after owner would have reached 70.5.

Submitted by Jeff Nolan on Sat, 2013-10-05 14:32

The beneficiary is the husband who is 83 currently.  if the account is rolled over you state the uniform table may be used which is based on two lives.  The uniform table only shows the age of the owner and their life expectancy. What two lives are used in the calculation? Is there a uniform table for joint lives?…………………….Is the other life the owner or beneficiary?

Submitted by mk foss on Sat, 2013-10-05 21:56

The unifom table is based on the age of the owner of the account and assumes there is a beneficairy who is exactly 10 years younger. If you compare it to the single life table, you’ll see that the divisors are larger making the distributions smaller. When you use the uniform table it doesn’t matter how young or old the owners’ beneficiary is, the table works even if there is no named beneficiary. Once the account is rolled over the spouse beneficiary becomes the account owner. 

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