When a Nonspouse Inherits an Estate's IRA.(individual retirement accounts)(Brief Article)

Kiplinger's Retirement Report, January, 2004

If you inherit an IRA as the beneficiary of an estate, the IRS may allow you to move your share of the IRA assets into a separate IRA and be treated as the account's beneficiary.

A man died without specifying who would inherit his IRA. He had already begun taking required minimum distributions from the account. The IRA passed to his estate and the estate was split equally among his heirs. Under a private letter ruling (2003-43030), the IRS allowed one of the heirs--the man's daughter--to transfer her portion of the IRA into a separate account in her father's name and base her withdrawals on his remaining life expectancy--in this case 25.6 years. (A private letter ruling has no standing in court, but could indicate how the IRS might rule on the issue in the...

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