No Beneficiary on Deceased Dad’s IRAs
My client’s father is deceased. He left a will drafted in the 1960s. The court has appointed her to oversee the estate. She has found many of his IRAs and none have beneficiaries. Is there any way to preserve the tax-deferred nature of these accounts for her and her sisters, or must they be paid to the estate and then distributed according to the will?
Permalink Submitted by Bruce Steiner on Fri, 2014-04-18 20:10
Check the IRA agreement. Sometimes the default is the spouse (or the children if there is no spouse), and sometimes it’s the estate. If it’s payable to his estate, and if the decedent had reached his required beginning date (which is likely to be the case if his Will goes back to the 1960s), his estate (or the beneficiaries of the estate) can still stretch it over the decedent’s life expectancy as if he hadn’t died. Bruce Steiner, attorney, NYC, also admitted in NJ and FL