Hello,
My mother had a TDA account at TRS. When she died in 2012, this account went to my father, and when my father passed away in December 2015, my sisters and I inherited this account. At the time I researched and understood the negative tax implications for not transferring the money properly to an Inherited IRA account. I contacted TIAA, where I have a Traditional IRA account, for help setting up the Inherited IRA. They helped me set up the account and over the phone, talked me through how to properly fill in the paperwork to have my money transferred from TRS to TIAA. Unfortunately, the money still ended up in my Traditional IRA account, and the Inherited IRA account that I created remains empty. I just discovered this mistake yesterday, although the funds were transferred in August. My husband and I recently met with a financial advisor, and she had asked me to contact them to verify what my annual RMD would be going forward. When I spoke to TIAA, they informed me that although they have notes in their system about my wanting to set up this Inherited IRA, the balance in that account is at $0, and that the paperwork for the transfer had the wrong account number on it. However, their employee helped me fill out the paperwork! (Albeit over the phone). Because everything was done over the phone, I don’t have a paper trail. However, every time I spoke with TIAA I was on a recorded line, and they do apparently have some notes in their system about my wanting to set up an Inherited IRA.
I have a phone appointment set up with TIAA for 1 pm to see what they can do to rectify this situation. Meanwhile, I haven’t slept at all because I am worried sick about the disastrous tax effects and catastrophic financial repercussions. Can you give me any advice? I don’t know who to contact: the IRS? A litigation attorney? An estate/tax attorney? Is there any redress?
Many thanks,
R Diamond