A surviving spouse has several options to consider when inheriting an IRA, but, for many, the most favorable may be a type of rollover transaction that provides valuable tax deferral benefits. However, for this option to be available, the rules governing beneficiary designations must be followed precisely—and many clients often err in believing that any type of trust that benefits the spouse may be used to transfer the IRA without loss of the spouse's rollover option.
Despite this, a little known exception has been developed through IRS rulings that can allow a surviving spouse to reap the tax benefits of the inherited IRA despite some of the simple and common errors that could otherwise cause the option to be lost entirely.
Spousal Rollovers: The Options
Typically, a surviving spouse has several options available when he or she inherits a deceased spouse's IRA. The surviving spouse can begin to take distributions immediately, using his or her own life expectancy to control the required minimum distributions (RMDs). He or she may also begin taking distributions once the deceased spouse would have reached age 70 ½ (the age when the deceased spouse's RMDs would have began).
The most attractive option for many surviving spouses, however, is to simply roll the inherited IRA funds into an IRA that is treated as though it were the surviving spouse's own IRA. If the surviving spouse is named as the sole beneficiary of the IRA and elects to treat the inherited IRA funds as though they were his or her own, the account will be treated as though the surviving spouse is the owner for all purposes—including RMD calculations.
Despite the appearance of simplicity that the rollover option generates, in many cases the deceased spouse's beneficiary designation can operate to create potential roadblocks for the strategy—which is where the exceptions to the rule become important.
Saving the Spousal Rollover
One common error in beneficiary designation occurs when an IRA owner names a trust as his or her IRA beneficiary without properly structuring that trust as a see-through trust (which is essentially an irrevocable trust with clearly identifiable individuals who are the trust beneficiaries). Generally, the IRA owner's mistake occurs in naming a revocable trust as beneficiary.
