required beginning date

Non-Spouse Beneficiaries and Roth IRA Distributions: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag

QUESTION: On September 6th in a piece titled, “Rules for Inherited IRAs that May Surprise Nonspouse Beneficiaries,” Sarah Brenner from Ed Slott and Company wrote, “If you inherited the IRA funds in 2020 or later, as a nonspouse beneficiary you will most likely be subject to a 10-year payout-period, possibly with annual RMDs during the 10-year period.” My brothers and sisters and I are non-spousal beneficiaries, and my understanding is that there is no rule or code yet that states we must take some out of the inherited IRA account each year, only that it must be drained by end of the tenth year as required by the SECURE Act. My sibling says we must take some each year. Which of us is correct? We are all under the RMD age, in our sixties and our parents passed September of 2022.

Required Minimum Distributions: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag

Question: Hello and thank you for all the great, helpful information you continue to send out. I am due to take my first RMD (required minimum distribution) in 2024 which would make my required beginning date April 1, 2025 if I understand correctly. My intention is to empty my traditional IRA next year and convert it to my existing Roth. My question is, if my traditional IRA shows a zero balance by my required beginning date, would that still require a RMD be taken for 2024? I’d like to know if I can convert the entire account or if I have to take an RMD and then convert the rest. I think the answer is I would have to take an RMD, but am not 100% sure. Thanks so much, Dana

RBD – Proactive Sally and Oblivious Jerry

Last week the Ed Slott team hosted another highly successful and sold-out 2-day advisor training program at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Over 250 financial professionals from across the country attended, and we plowed through our 400-page manual. During the two day event we discussed IRA beneficiary rules, trusts as beneficiary, net unrealized appreciation, backdoor Roth IRAs, SECURE 2.0 changes, QCDs, the pro-rata rule, gifting strategies, etc.

The Required Beginning Date is Now a “Really Big Deal”

When it comes to IRAs and workplace plans, the concept of the “required beginning date” (RBD) is a “really big deal” again. The RBD is the first date you’re required to start required minimum distributions (RMDs). For traditional IRAs, the RBD is April 1 of the year following the year you turn age 72. (But if you were born before July 1, 1949, your RBD was April 1 of the year after the year you turned 70 ½.) There are no lifetime RMDs for Roth IRA owners, so they are always considered to have died before the RBD with respect to their Roth IRAs.

A Clear Explanation of the RBD

SECURE Act regulations shoved the required beginning date (RBD) to the front of the stage. No longer can the RBD hide from the bright lights. What was once somewhat of a minor date in people’s lives has blossomed into an important event with cascading impacts on generations of potential beneficiaries.

Top 12 RMD Waiver Questions

As we have written on many occasions, the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act) waives required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2020. This waiver applies to company savings plans and IRAs, including both inherited traditional and inherited Roth IRAs. While that sounds like a straightforward announcement, the RMD waiver has generated a landslide of inquiries and confusion since the CARES Act was passed in late March. Here are a dozen of the most popular and widely applicable Yes/No questions and answers:

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