Successor Roth IRA
If husband passes away, wife keeps funds in a beneficiary IRA. Wife begins RMDs and now has passed away. The successor beneficiaries are now required to follow the wife’s RMD schedule.
Would the above rules for a successor beneficiary IRA be the same for a successor Roth IRA?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Fri, 2016-07-15 22:44
Yes, although there are fewer reasons for a surviving spouse to maintain a Roth as inherited in the first place. Both IRA types include the provision that if the surviving spouse fails to take an RMD required as the beneficiary, they default to ownership status, and if that happened the successor beneficiary would be treated as a designated beneficiary and receive a full stretch. For example, if the Roth owner passed prior to 70.5 and the surviving spouse set up the account as inherited, there are no beneficiary RMDs until the year the owner would have reached 70.5, and it the surviving spouse passes before the end of that year, the successor beneficiaries are treated as designated beneficiaries.