Question:Good Afternoon Ed Slott and Company, LLC,I was inquiring about a recent situation with a client that came up and if you could be of any assistance. We recently had a client pass away who was the account holder of an inherited IRA from his mother. This client died in July 2020. The deceased listed his wife as 100% primary beneficiary of his inherited IRA and she will inherit this second-generation IRA once the new account is opened.
As sure as the sun will rise, someone will take a distribution from his IRA tomorrow. And as sure as the moon will set, someone will fail to roll over his IRA distribution within 60 days. And as sure as the wind will blow, so too will the icy gusts from the IRS as penalties and taxes accumulate like a snowdrift upon said distribution when the 60-day rollover deadline is missed.Yes, a person is permitted to take a distribution from his IRA and roll it over to another (or the same) IRA within 60-days. But only one rollover is allowed within a 12-month period. That means no rollovers for the next 365 days.
Dollar cost averaging is a tried-and-true investment strategy that has existed for decades. Using this technique, an investor divides up their entire amount to be invested and makes smaller periodic purchases over a desired time. The goal of dollar cost averaging is to minimize the potential volatility of a single large investment. Essentially, dollar cost averaging seeks to reduce the possibility of making a big purchase just before the value drops.Example: Roger has $10,000 and wants to invest in a mutual fund. Roger is unsure what the market’s direction will be over the next few months. To avoid the possibility of investing the full $10,000 all at once and then having the market immediately drop, Roger elects to dollar cost average.
Question:Client has a Thrift Savings Plan and took RMDs in January, February and March of 2020. Client then rolled the balance of the TSP into an IRA. Question is whether or not he can “repay” those RMDs to the IRA under Notice 2020-51. Thanks.Answer:Yes, the three RMD payments can be “repaid” to the IRA, but a deadline is fast approaching. Plan-to-IRA rollovers do not count against the one-rollover-per-year rule, so that is not a concern. However, since these RMD payments were taken back in January, February and March, they are outside of the standard 60-day rollover window.
Yes, trusts can play an instrumental role in estate planning. Yes, special needs trusts are invaluable to those with disabled or chronically ill family members. Trusts are essential for minors and for those who may struggle with managing money. Trusts also allow for post-death control of assets. But they are not for everyone, nor are they a panacea when it comes to estate planning…especially with IRAs.I continue to pound my head on the desk every time I encounter a trust unnecessarily named as an IRA beneficiary. Why did the IRA account owner name the trust? Bad advice? Was he simply trying to keep up with the Jones’ who bragged about their trust? Did he read someplace that all trusts are great? Was he intentionally trying to make things difficult for his IRA beneficiaries? Sadly, “making things difficult” is oftentimes the unintended result.
A financial advisor contacted me about her client who had recently passed away. The advisor was legitimately concerned about a rollover check received by the now-deceased individual. It had not been deposited into his IRA prior to death. Was her client’s estate stuck with a taxable distribution? Could the financial institution refuse the rollover because the person was no longer of this earth?
Question:Once the RMD’s for 2020 were suspended, I withdrew what would have been my RMD from my traditional IRA and deposited it in my Roth IRA. Can I now withdraw that amount from my Roth and repay it to my traditional IRA?Thank you.RussAnswer:Russ,Once you deposited the RMD amount into your Roth IRA, it became a conversion. Roth conversions can not be reversed (“recharacterized”).
The IRA and plan rollover rules have been in constant flux this year. We are now past the original July 15 extended rollover deadline. This was the first extension date created by IRS Notice 2020-23. Distributions from an IRA or company plan taken February 1 or later could have been rolled back to an IRA or company plan beyond the standard 60-day rollover window. This rule applied to any distributions that were otherwise eligible to be rolled over, including unwanted RMDs.
After a six-month sprint through a diabolical obstacle course of new laws, a pandemic, record unemployment, deaths, confusion and complete disruption of everyone’s professional and personal lives, this seems like a good time to recap the madness of the pr
FIX: Rolling Over the Tax Withheld on a Distribution. Was the mandatory tax of 20% withheld on your work plan withdrawal even though you intended to roll over the entire account? Did you change your mind on an IRA withdrawal and now want to roll it back, but you elected to have taxes withheld on the initial distribution? If money was withheld for taxes on a distribution from a work plan or an IRA and you want to roll over the distribution plus taxes withheld, you can make up the difference “out-of-pocket.” The money withheld and sent to the IRS is gone, but you can replace that withholding with other dollars, roll over the full amount, and have a credit waiting for you for the amount withheld when you do your taxes next year.
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