Jim,
Per your post subject, I assume it was the OWNER who died, and not the beneficiary, who is probably a non spouse. I doubt if returning the check would work, but probably no harm in trying. Send a copy of the death Cert with the request.

With respect to post death rollovers, here are the results of recent PLRs on the subject:

>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>
• A non-spouse beneficiary will have a difficult time executing a post-mortem rollover. (PLR
200415011, released by IRS on April 9, 2004)
Until now, when a waiver was requested by someone other than the surviving spouse, the
IRS said no. See, e.g., PLR 2004-15011, where the decedent’s executor (his son) attempted to return,
to the decedent’s IRA, funds the decedent had withdrawn prior to death. The IRS pointed out that,
under § 408(d)(3), a distribution to the account owner can only be rolled into a plan “for the benefit
of” the same individual (or his surviving spouse). Rolling over to an account for the benefit of the
IRA owner was impossible because he was now dead, and the executor was not the surviving
spouse, therefore there could be no rollover.
Practitioners speculated that this rigid attitude might change if the IRS were presented with
the right facts, namely, a case in which a participant was actively attempting to roll over a
distribution and was prevented from completing the rollover by death. PLRs up to this point did not
mention that the decedent had been attempting to roll the distribution over, just that the participant
had received a distribution and the survivors wanted to roll it over.
>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>

• Flag as spam
• Log in to Reply