beneficiary after remarriage
Sure this has come up before, but can’t find the answer for sure. When a person remarries in a community property state, TX in this case, does the new spouse automatically by law become the primary beneficiary of an IRA that was established before the remarriage, overriding the existing primary beneficiary designation, in this case their adult children?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2017-05-25 19:07
No, the new spouse does not become the beneficiary. You may be thinking of ERISA retirement plans where the spouse is deemed to be the beneficiary unless they waive that right. This does not apply to IRAs. An IRA owned before marriage is also considered to be separate property rather than community property under TX law. This latter situation often surfaces at the time of a divorce. For additional protection against part of an IRA becoming community property, the person may consider not making any post marriage contributions including rollovers into the existing IRA and opening a new IRA for those post marriage contributions.