RMDs from Inherited IRAs
A husband named a trust as the 100% primary beneficiary of his IRA. The trust qualifies as “see-through” with the deceased husband’s wife as 100% primary beneficiary of the trust. Aside from the fact the wife should have been named outright, can the wife take RMDs based on the uniform table rather than the single-life table? She plans to leave all of the assets in the inherited IRA titled for the trust, and therefore, will not complete a spousal rollover to her own IRA.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2025-09-30 10:50
The proposed Regs for Sec 327 of Secure 2.0 do not clarify this question. My guess is that if the trust is a conduit trust for the spouse the trustee could use the Uniform Table, but if it’s an accumulation trust that might eliminate treatment of the spouse as the sole beneficiary. And this will probably not be clear in the next 3 months when the first beneficiary RMD is due.
To avoid the question and if the trust provisions allow, the trustee might consider assigning the IRA out of the trust to the spouse as a spousal rollover. She will then own the IRA, can use the Uniform Table, and her beneficiary will be a designated beneficiary who would be able to stretch over 10 years.