Divorce regarding an Inherited IRA

In a divorce ,when the husband has an inherited IRA ,what is the best way for the wife to have her one half transferred over to her.



A court judgement would require a “transfer incident to divorce” in which all or part of any IRA account be transferred to the wife in a non reportable direct transfer. The transferred portion of the inherited IRA would then be titled showing the wife as the beneficiary of the decedent. The wife would then have to complete the RMD schedule that applied to husband and pay taxes on the distributions.

Note that inherited accounts are not treated as community property or marital property, therefore securing the court judgement might require some negotiating between the parties with respect to which assets will be transferred.

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