JulesInCNY

curious if anyone knows what the UTMA dollar limits are? I can't seem to find anything out there. I'm handling a distribution for a deceased participant with 3 children as default beneficiaries, 1 of which is still a minor (16). the other 2 are over 21. the mom signed paperwork as his guardian. all 3 electing cash out of approx $2500 each. the custodial carrier indicates in their instructions: "XX will follow the UTMA guidelines set by the minor's state of residence to determine requirements. A court appointed guardian or conservator of the minor's ... estate may be required. If the child's estate is under the dollar amount set by the respective state UTMA requirements, the child's parent or guardian may sign the form, indicating their capacity to receive the funds in behalf of the child." NY state if that helps. thanks!

thank you all for the advice. he did have a will, everything goes to mom (house, contents, bank accounts, etc.). unfortunately so do all the headaches of updating accounts into her name. but still looking for old documents...

my dad passed a few months ago, somewhat unexpectedly after a brief but serious illness, so my siblings and I are dealing with the aftermath of not having everything wrapped up in a neat little ribbon. he had an IRA that was paying him a small monthly installment to cover his annual RMD. my mom wanted to transfer the IRA to her own and continue getting the monthly installments, but the custodian is telling us there was no beneficiary designation on file (what? hard to believe my dad didn't do this!) and the only default is to an Estate, and taxable. why wouldn't it be to a spouse? I deal mostly with qualified 401k and retirement plan distributions so an IRA is out of my field of expertise. we continue to search for old documents at the house, but in the meantime am looking for some guidance. is this normal for an IRA? it doesn't make sense that mom will have to get an attorney and set up an estate, go thru probate, have to pay taxes (and legal fees!), etc. thanks!

I regularly have to force automatic rollovers from a qualified plan to an IRA on balances between $1k and $5k when participants don't respond and we have a good-faith address on file. periodically a rollover request will get kicked back by the prospective new custodian because they find evidence the participant is deceased (as a TPA we don't always have access to the best software sources for this knowledge, and the plan sponsor doesn't have a clue). so I think if the new custodian has access to this kind of data, they will likely not take it for auto rollover. we have had a few situations over the years where a terminated participant is considered "lost" and has reached 70.5 at some point, but because the balance is not forcible and no one comes forward to claim, the balance stays in the plan until such time either the participant or beneficiary(s) is found, or the plan terminates and the Plan Sponsor is forced to make a decision. we have not seen any penalties as a result of audit where RMDs were not paid under these circumstances.

thanks, I wondered about that.

has anyone had a situation where the named beneficiary is not a US citizen or resident? I'm not sure what to use for a taxpayer ID number or whether I should be advising this person that they will have to file a US income tax return, as the funds being paid out are coming from a qualified retirement plan (not individual) where the participant lived/worked in the US and had an SSN. unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly following retirement and we didn't have a chance to pay him out directly. now dealing with a family member outside the US who is non-english-speaking and I have no direct contact information other than thru the prior employer.

I would still use the last known address for the lost participant. very rare we have absolutely nothing to start with, but I guess in that rare event I'd have no choice but to use the client's address. definitely still have to file one anyway, more for the IRS than anybody else.

thanks for this. of course this particular situation wasn't brought to our attention until after 12/31/19, so there was nothing we could do to get the RMD paid out by then. but this is helpful should the situation ever arise again and we can catch it in time.

A QDRO alternate payee has left their transferred balance in a qualified group 401k plan, essentially becoming a non-contributing participant. assets were transferred during 2018, and the alternate payee was already over 70 1/2. does the alternate payee take a 1st RMD from the plan for 2019, by 12/31/19 or by 4/1/20? thanks for any guidance!

taking this question a step further, the alternate payee has left their transferred balance in the group plan, essentially becoming a non-contributing participant. assets were transferred during 2018, and the alternate payee is already over 70 1/2. does the alternate payee take a 1st RMD from the plan for 2019, by 12/31/19 or by 4/1/20? thanks for any guidance!

It hasn't been 5 years yet, but that is something we were keeping an eye on, until they decided to terminate the plan altogether. thanks for your input.

I have a deceased participant, no designated beneficiary, and no spouse/child/parent. We have been making RMD payments to the Estate for several years, and the participant’s brother is the executor (and plan trustee), so he gets the RMD checks and deposits to an estate account. I should probably say this is for a qualified retirement plan, not an IRA. The Plan is now terminating, so the financial advisor is looking to help him roll over the full balance , but is having trouble with what type of rollover account is acceptable (his own firm is questioning). Most literature indicates that non-spousal beneficiaries may only roll to inherited IRA. How does one establish an "inherited" IRA when no designated beneficiaries exist in the first place? Thanks for any input!

thanks for the input. program I used did not reject if the code box wasn't filled in. it reflects the original contributions only. gains were included in the rollover amount. the problem now is , my company has merged with another and I had to turn over this task to another department. they use a different program and are insisting there needs to be a code , where I never used any before.

does anyone have experience with 1099R coding when old post-tax contributions are cashed out of a qualified retirement plan? I have always been under the impression that there is no code and leave Box 7 blank, adding the post-tax contribution amount in Box 5, and the taxable field would be 0.00. any push back on this? I have submitted several 1099Rs to the IRS over the years like this. now being questioned that there should be a code in Box 7. thanks!