Non-spouse beneficiary rollover

[SMB]

For a non-spouse beneficiary to be able to roll over a distribution to an inherited IRA, must such a non-spouse beneficiary be a "designated" beneficiary - i.e., had been specifically designated as a beneficiary by the participant?

I have a situation where a deceased participant did not have a beneficiary designation. Benefits are to be paid equally to her parents and a sibling per plan provisions and state probate statute. Since these beneficiaries were not, per se, "designated" as such by the deceased participant, are the distributions eligible for non-spousal rollover?

Thanks for any and all replies and/or comments.

[SMB]

Think I may have found the answer to my question.

Per the EOB, "The designated beneficiary must be an individual...designated either by the participant or by the plan document."

Works for me!

[Bird]

Agreed; the designation may be by form or operation of the plan document.

[My 2 cents]

Each individual encompassed by the plan's definition (i.e., each parent and the sibling, in the case at hand) has, independently, the right to direct that his or her share be rolled over to a non-spousal IRA. It would make no sense to exclude situations where multiple individuals share in some predetermined way in the death benefits.

The right being restricted to individuals would just preclude the estate or other non-natural person entity (such as a charity or perhaps trust) from having access to the right to roll the proceeds over.