I have a situation in which a deceased individual listed her Revocable Trust as the primary beneficiary of her SEP IRA. The Revocable Trust lists several individuals to receive a set dollar amount, several charities to receive a percentage of the estate value and then other individuals to split the remaining estate via a particular percentage. My question is how do you determine the amount the charities are to receive? How do you determine the value of the estate? The estate now consists of the SEP IRA along with some real estate that has not been sold at this point and is still incurring maintenance expenses.

From previous research, it was determined that the beneficiary designation date is September 30 of the year after the IRA owner passes away. Therefore, if 10% of an IRA is designated to a qualified charity and this amount is distributed to the charity prior to September 30 of the year after death, the charity is no longer a designated beneficiary. The remaining designated beneficiaries may then use the life expectancy payout method. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-4, A-3(a). In this case, the SEP IRA owner died the end of last year so we need to pay out the money to the charities prior to September 30th so the charities are no longer considered a designated beneficiary, but I am trying to determine how much money should be paid out to the charities.