minor benes on ROTH IRAs, IRAs and 401ks
I wish to leave money to my children who are minors. I don’t want to restrict access, but want to designate who I can have as the custodian for them to open and manage inherited IRAs. I am getting conflicting info. I do not want a complicated trust. I was under the impression I could title beneficiaries as certain person custodian for minor child ( my childs name) So, Joe SMith, custodian for minor child, Zach Smith ( age 10)
Is this still the best way to do this without complicating things?
Thanks
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2015-03-26 18:04
You should check with the IRA custodian to see what simple arrangements are acceptable in your state. You might have to use an UTMA account as beneficiary or may be able to just designate the financial guardian directly on the IRA beneficiary clause as you suggested. Check with the custodian to see what is acceptable, and if don’t come up with something acceptable check with another custodian since you can always transfer the account to another custodian. Of course, you might get a different answer from the 401k administrator than from IRA custodians.
Permalink Submitted by [email protected] on Fri, 2015-03-27 17:36
Perhaps a Testamentary Trust under Will would work for you. I didn’t think it was too complicated nor too expensive and solves the issue while maintaining the ability to change “custodian”/trustee if you wanted. – m