Inherited IRA by Spouse: Distributions prior to RMD
Wife is 64 years old and inherits and IRA from her husband who was 62 when he died in 2017. If she takes the IRA as an inherited IRA, she can delay taking RMDs until when he would have reached 73. Is there any issue if she took a distribution prior to his RMD start date, if she needed the money? Does is trigger RMDs going forward? Thank You!
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Mon, 2023-05-01 17:40
Her beneficiary RMDs do not begin until husband would have reached 73 in 2028. Until then she can take any distributions she wants without starting RMDs.
Permalink Submitted by Joe K. on Mon, 2023-05-01 23:27
If the wife was under 59 1/2 could she have done and inherited IRA and requested RMDs based on her life expectancy. Also, if she did, do they have to continue forever?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2023-05-02 00:33
It does not matter what age the wife is. If she is the sole beneficiary of the IRA her RMDs do not begin until the year her husband would have reached 73. She can take distributions but they are not RMDs until that year. Once RMDs must begin they continue for the rest of her life, but she can then roll over the inherited IRA into her own IRA and then use the Uniform RMD Table. This will reduce her RMDs considerably. It is important that she knows when the best time is to assume ownership of the inherited IRA.