IRA Beneficiary form
In an attempt to send our clients copies of their beneficiary forms we have run into a few instances where we can get beneficiary information, but not the actual beneficiary form. Will a list of beneficiaries be sufficient to help executor distribute IRA to appropriate beneficiaries or does the executor need a copy of the actual form to notify the fund companies?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2014-07-23 21:29
The executor would not normally be involved with distributing the IRAs unless the estate was the beneficiary. If a beneficiary was named on the account (designated beneficiary), the executor would only notify that beneficiary to contact the IRA custodian and provide them with the account number and a copy of the death cert. After that it would be up to each beneficiary to deal with the IRA custodian. The actual beneficiary clause in the contract might be needed if there was NO beneficiary named and the executor would have to determine what the default beneficiary clause indicates (IRA could go to any surviving spouse, to the estate, or to surviving children for example). Other than that situation, a list should be sufficient as long as percentages or dollar limits for that beneficiary are also stated. Per stirpes or per capita designations speak for themselves and the executor might have more coordinating work to do. But the official executor duties are limited to when the estate is the beneficiary, or there is NO beneficiary stated and the estate is the default. In the last situation, the IRA contract needs to be carefully checked to be sure who the default beneficiary is. Might not many of these custodians already send out periodic beneficiary info direct to the IRA owners?