Options for the Beneficiary’s Beneficiary
I have an 88-year-old IRA beneficiary who died in November 2019. Her beneficiary is her son who is about age 60. Does Mom’s beneficiary son have any any options to extend his distribution of his inherited beneficiary IRA beyond the remaining years of Mother’s life expectancy. The son won’t get much more than 6 or 7 years if not. Thanks. Paul McG
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2020-11-03 00:57
If mother was taking beneficiary RMDs using her life expectancy, her son must continue the RMD schedule of mother. However, if mother inherited the IRA from her husband, it should be determined if she completed every beneficiary RMD in full, because if she was a spousal beneficiary and fell short even by a small amount, then she would have defaulted into ownership of the IRA despite how the IRA was titled. And if she defaulted to ownership, then the son is a designated beneficiary instead of a successor beneficiary and could take RMDs using his own single life expectancy.