Hi, What is the post-death deadline referred to below?

Question:

Hello Ed,

I have an elderly client in his 80’s, not in the best of health. He has named his spouse (also in her 80’s) along with his 4 children as primary beneficiaries of his IRA. That said, I know the 4 children will have to establish inherited IRA’s – and keep them in such an account forever, receiving RMD’s at the single life table rate. However, is there some special handling that needs to be done by his spouse (who also has her own IRA and of course is receiving her own RMD’s) – since she is not the sole primary beneficiary listed – or should it just be a straight forward spousal rollover of her portion into her own IRA???

Thank you!

Mike

Answer:

Mike:

You have a good understanding of the rules and issues. The key to taking advantage of all the rules is to split the account. Technically, it doesn’t have to be done until December 31st of the year following death, but you could have the client do so now. By splitting the account now, we avoid the post-death deadline, each beneficiary gets to use their own life expectancy for post-death RMDs, and the spouse can execute the spousal rollover (if advisable). If the post-death deadline to split the account is missed, all beneficiaries will be stuck using the life expectancy of the oldest amongst them, which I imagine is the surviving spouse. I also suspect there’s a significant age disparity between the spouse and the children, making splitting the account now or before the post-death deadline very important.