Death & Taxes - Spouse Beneficiary wants to roll to her K plan!

[Guest JimJ]

Situation:

Husband deceased, beneficiary is spouse, spouse wants to do a direct rollover to her 401(k) plan.

I know she can rollover to an IRA, but can she rollover to her K plan? If not, can she roll to an IRA, and then roll the IRA into her K? Were there any changes with the new laws that will take effect soon to allow for other options?

Thanks in advance,

JimJ

[Guest kowen]

I believe the new tax law allows a surviving spouse to roll over distributions from their deceased spouse's qualified plan to a qualified plan of their own.

[R. Butler]

Under current law a surviving spouse may rollover a distribution only to an IRA, but as Kowen points out EGTRRA does permit a surviving spouse to rollover to a qualified plan (See §641 of the Act).

The EGTRRA rollover provision does not take effect until plan years ending after 12/31/01 and the spouse's plan would have to allow the rollover.