Another "who is the beneficiary?”

[Guest AFRICA6796]

Another "who is the beneficiary?”

An IRA plan document has the following default provision, if the IRA owner died without designating a beneficiary for the IRA.

The IRA owner’s spouse, is any.

If there is no spouse, the IRA owner’s children, per stirpes, in any

If there are no children, the IRA owner’s estate

The Participant designated his spouse as the beneficiary of the IRA. No contingent beneficiary was designated.

The spouse now wants to disclaim the IRA assets. Who should the assets go to?

I’m thinking, since a beneficiary was in fact designated, the default provisions do not apply, therefore, the assets are passed to the deceased’s estate, not the children.

[John G]

Good question. I could see some arguement that the wife disclaiming is equivilent to beni being left blank. In which case the default rules would prevail and kids are next in line. Unless someone steps up an objects, I don't see why this path would not be taken.

A non-lawyer opinion only.

[Appleby]

John,

I agree with you

According to the disclaimer provision under IRC 2518, a beneficiary who disclaims the assets are treated as not having been a beneficiary of the IRA. Therefore, this means that by the spouse disclaiming the assets, the IRA now has no designated beneficiary.

[BPickerCPA]

I also vote with John.

[david rigby]

Unfortunately, those answers sound quite reasonable. However, if there is any doubt, I volunteer to be the beneficiary.

Just doing my civic duty.