How to Distribute an IRA at Death
- 1). Get a beneficiary claim form from the deceased's IRA custodian. The custodian is the financial institution that holds the money in the IRA.
- 2). Fill out the beneficiary claim form with the custodian. The beneficiary claim form will require you give the custodian your name and other identifying information, along with a copy of the death certificate for the deceased.
- 3). Sign the claim form and turn it in to the custodian.
- 4). Transfer the funds to a new IRA or take a distribution of the full amount. The IRS usually requires that you take some sort of distribution from the IRA when you inherit it unless you are the spouse of the original account owner. As a spouse, you may elect to treat the money you've inherited as your own by naming yourself as the account owner. Alternatively, you may add the funds to your existing IRA and make contributions and withdrawals as you normally would. If you're not a spouse of the account owner, you must take the full distribution amount by the end of the fifth year following the the owner's death or over your lifetime using table I in the appendix of IRS publication 590 as a guide for required distributions. If you elect the five-year distribution, no distribution is required prior to the fifth year.
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