Mom Dies, Son Inherits, Now Son Dies…

Submitted by Richard Graves on Sun, 2023-12-10 17:04

What factor do I use? We may have selected the wrong factor in the past.

IRA Owner dies (Mom) in 2007 at age 85.

Son, gets the IRA and continues RMD’s until he passes in 2019 at age 71. (Pre Secure Acts)

Son’s Wife inherits the account in 2019. We used wife’s age as the factor in 2019 to 2022 due to old rules. She is 72 in 2023.

Is this correct?

I have read thru many pages of this forum, and have not come up with this fact pattern, and or an example in the IRS Publications.



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Sun, 2023-12-10 17:43

  • While this situation is entirely pre Secure, one thing that has been constant is that a successor beneficiary (wife of designated beneficiary) can never use their own age for RMD determination. The wife should have continued the RMD schedule of her husband, with the divisor reset in 2022 to reflect the new RMD tables. SInce the wife is younger than husband, the RMDs for 2021 and 2022 have fallen short of the correct RMDs.
  • Under the new 2022 tables, if son was age 60 in 2008, the intial divisor would have been 27.1. With a 1.0 annual divisor reduction the 2023 RMD divisor would be 12.1. 2022 should have been 13.1.
  • Pub 590 B has stated under “Death of a beneficiary” that “beneficiaries of a deceased beneficiary don’t calculate RMDs using their own life expectancy…”
  • Wife should have named her own successor beneficiary, and wife will pass post Secure Act. Her beneficiary will be come subject to the 10 year rule, and because the original owner passed post RBD, her beneficiary will have to continue the RMD schedule of the original designated beneficiary (son), which by that time will likely drain the inherited IRA before the next beneficiary has held it for 10 years.

Submitted by Richard Graves on Sun, 2023-12-10 17:56

Alan, Thank you for the prompt response!And the clear descriptions of what the correct factor and table to use.  We will correct it going forward.   I will review the prior year amounts to she if she did not take enough RMD.  (She did take extra, just going to make sure..)  

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