RMDs
If a person, age 80 dies, and leaves their traditional IRA to their spouse as a 100% primary beneficiary, and the decedent hadn’t taken out their RMD for 2018, must the surviving spouse distribute the RMD to themselves prior to transferring the IRA to their own IRA?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2018-12-04 17:50
Permalink Submitted by Anthony Zalesky on Tue, 2018-12-04 19:01
Just to be certain, there’s no RMD required for the decedent in the year of his death even though there was a 12/31/17 balance and he was over 70 1/2?
Permalink Submitted by David Mertz on Tue, 2018-12-04 20:38
The decedent’s 2018 RMD *is* required to be completed by the spouse, but it does not have to be done prior to transferring ownership of the IRA to the spouse by trustee-to-trustee transfer or by retitling.