Hi, I have a client that named his wife’s personal revocable trust (this is not a joint revocable trust) as the primary beneficiary of his IRA. he died in 2021 before his RBD. At the time of his death, his wife was over age 59.5, but had not yet (and still has not yet) reached her RBD. Her trust is a revocable living trust whereby she is the grantor, trustee and current beneficiary. It has look through provisions. TD Ameritrade is the custodian. When her husband died, she set up an inherited IRA in the name of the trust using her SSN as the TID number on the account. TD states this should not be the case and is forcing her to set up a TIN for the trust.
First question….should she have a TIN or use her SSN? Not sure if we should push back here.
Second….If we do get a TIN, would the trust be considered revocable or irrevocable? I would argue is still revocable as she is still alive and this was a grantor trust.
Third…related to the RMD….If this has look through provisions (which we think it does) can she treat it as her own and take RMD’s beginning when she turns age 73? or does she have to use a different schedule? We want to try to avoid a 5 year rule for naming the trust as a beneficiary.
thanks!! Carlos