On April 13, President Trump signed into law legislation that blocked Obama-era Department of Labor (DOL) regulations encouraging the establishment of IRA plans run by cities and municipalities. On May 17, he signed similar legislation applying to state-run IRAs. While these new developments may make the road ahead for both city and state run IRA plans more difficult, these plans are not going away.

It sounds funny to say, but death is a part of life for all of us. It’s one of the few things that all of us have in common at some point, and it’s one of the few issues that must be addressed in every plan. While every situation is unique and we all have our own goals and objectives, the overwhelming majority of married couples with IRAs and other similar accounts, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, name their spouse as their primary beneficiary as part of their estate plans. As such, knowing the rules for when a spouse inherits an IRA is critical for just about every married couple.

Hopefully, by now everyone has heard that IRA owners can only do one IRA-to-IRA or Roth IRA-to-Roth IRA 60-day rollover in any one-year period. This interpretation of the 60-day rollover rules was part of a 2014 Tax Court decision (Bobrow v. Commissioner, T.C.Memo. 2014-21). What was unclear from this ruling and from subsequent IRS guidance was whether or not the rule applied to a surviving spouse who inherited multiple IRAs from a deceased spouse.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into inherited IRAs, calculating RMDs, and 60-day rollovers.

This is a reminder that not all 10% early distribution penalty exceptions apply to all retirement plan distributions. Here are the three biggest mistakes that we see.