Decedent’s IRA with no beneficiary

Husband died 2 years ago at age 65 and one of his IRA’s at Chase with $100k had no designated beneficiary. His wife wants to know what to do.
(1) Is she required to take it out over 5 years ( with only 3 years left)
(2) Does she need to start taking it out when he would have been 70 1/2 or (3) can she take the money out over her life or (4) can she roll the account over to her IRA?



Did he have a will? If so, who is beneficiary and executor?  If spouse, she should be able to roll over the death benefit to her own IRA, or perhaps to an inherited IRA if she is under 59.5 and needs penalty free distributions. There have been numerous IRS letter rulings allowing this. Any effort by the bank to push out a lump sum distribution to the estate should be resisted until she locates an IRA custodian who will accept the rollover.



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