Spouse Inherited IRA
Hello,
I have a husband and wife who are both 73 and the husband passed away on 12/14/2020. The spouse who was the beneficiary would need to take the RMD for the husband and include the 12/31/2020 balance with her own IRA, correct?
Thank you.
Permalink Submitted by David Mertz on Fri, 2021-01-15 19:01
RMDs for 2020 were waived by the CARES Act, so there was no RMD for 2020 that needed to be taken either then or now.
To minimize wife’s RMDs for 2021 and beyond, wife will want to assume ownership of this inherited IRA as soon as is practical either by retitling the inherited IRA or trustee-to-trustee transferring it to her own IRA and naming her own beneficiary(s). Doing so in 2021 will result in it being treated as her own IRA for all of 2021 and the 2020 year-end balance included in determining her RMDs for 2021 as owner.