Roth IRA in an Athene annuity
I have 2 clients under the age of 59 1/2 who have fixed income annuities in Roth IRAs at Athene, inception dates of 6/2011. The 10 year surrender periods end in June, 2021, and they want to move these accounts into their Roth IRA accounts at TDA. Per Athene’s distribution form, It appears that the checks will be sent to their home address, with no rollover options. Are these eligible for the 60 day rollover, with no penalties?
They also have 2 more much larger annuity Roth IRA contracts in which the surrender periods end in September and October, that they would also like to move. However, I’m concerned about the 1 rollover per year rule. Would I need to wait until June, 2022 to do these rollovers?
Thank you,
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Sat, 2021-06-05 21:53
For some reason, many life insurers seem oblivious to the one rollover rule or in the case of inherited accounts that a distribution cannot be rolled over at all. Since your situation only indicates one account, it could still be rolled over if there had not been another rollover in the past year, but this would block out any other rollover for the next 12 months.
I would be concerned that even if Athene were provided with a payee as the next Roth custodian FBO client which would qualify as a non reportable transfer, they would still gum up the works by issuing a 1099R.
You might try to have the new custodian initiate a direct transfer. This may or may not work. It is not clear what Athene will do with the proceeds once the annuity matures. Maybe they can hold it in a MM fund for a time until the transfer request shows up?
Each company has their own ways of dealing with these situations. They do not seem to make available to clients their options to move money out in a way that is not potentially very costly.