TIAA Inherited IRA options Different Than Other Financial Providers
My 90-year old mother died in late 2023. She had four total IRAs, including one at TIAA. TIAA is giving me options to “stay in the plan as as a beneficiary” or “roll over to my own inherited IRA brokerage account”. Other financial providers only have the option to set up one’s own inherited IRA, and then transfer the decedent’s assets into that new inherited IRA account. It is significant money, but it is currently just in a money market fund – not in any of their guaranteed rate products/annuities. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to the “stay in the plan as as a beneficiary” option versus setting up one’s own account? I otherwise have no current relationship with TIAA. They seem very rigid and inflexible when dealing with them.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Fri, 2024-05-10 22:06
Under the circumstances that you have no special interest in learning TIAA’s unique rules, you should request a direct rollover to your own inherited IRA, and if your mother owned her IRAs that you inherited, you could combine them into a single inherited IRA.
Note that if mother did not complete her 2023 RMD prior to passing you are responsible for completing it. If you did not do so, please advise. You will be required to take annual RMDs starting in 2025 (2024 was waived) based on your life expectancy if mother owned the IRAs and was not herself a beneficiary.