Beneficiary IRA on RMD Being Inherited

Have a daughter that has a Beneficiary IRA from her mother that died in 2009.  Under the old rules, she was taking RMDs based upon her life expectancy annually.  She become the owner of a Beneficiary IRA and listed her spouse as the new primary beneficiary.  That daughter / owner, died in 2024.  Since this was her mom’s original IRA, which rules apply to the spouse:

  • He must continue taking RMDs annually due to being his mother-in-laws original IRA?
  • Since he is the spouse of the daughter / owner and her death occurred in 2024, he now falls under the 10 year distribution rule?
  • Because his wife was the owner of the Beneficiary IRA, he can roll it over into his own IRA and since he is not 73, he can stop the annual RMDs?

Thank you in advance for your expertise on this.



Yes, he must continue the RMD schedule of his spouse, reducing the divisor she would have used by 1.0 each year. He is also subject to the 10 year rule in which the inherited IRA must be drained in 2034. But he cannot roll it over to his own IRA because his wife was a non spouse beneficiary. These rules will also apply to his beneficiary should he pass with a balance still in the inherited IRA. His own beneficiary would have to continue his annual RMDs but will still have to drain the IRA by 2034. His beneficiary does not get another 10 years.

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