Spousal IRA RMD
The wife of a client passed away on October 12, 2024. Her RMD was taken for 2024 but her IRA asset balance was not transferred until early February of 2025. The IRA was transferred to her husband’s IRA. The custodian is not accounting for her IRA balance when they are calculating his RMD for this year. Is he required to recalculate his RMD to account for the transfer of her IRA assets?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Mon, 2025-03-24 11:19
Yes.
When a surviving spouse assumes ownership, they are treated as owning the IRA for the entire year. Therefore the 2025 RMD for the surviving spouse is calculated by adding the balance of the former inherited IRA on 12/31/2024 to the balance of his own IRA on that date.
This assumes that he acquired ownership by assumption, and did not take a distribution from the inherited IRA followed by a 60 day rollover.