Inherited IRAs

[J Simmons]

Situation: H had an IRA. H died. W survived. She did not rename the IRA into her name as owner. She did not take any MRDs, even for those years she had reached and passed her RBD. W dies. The IRA balance is moved into an "estate account." Then, W dies. Her executor has  the funds in the IRA moved to an "estate account" and then, 1/5th each transferred to five new "inherited IRAs", one each for the five children.

How do we resolve the failure by W to take MRDs?

Were the funds taxable when transferred from the IRA to the estate account (since estates per se cannot be IRA owners)?

[J Simmons]

"Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?"

[Peter Gulia]

How confident are you that W was or became the beneficiary of H’s IRA?

How confident are you that W did not take § 401(a)(9)-required distributions from other IRAs? (For IRAs, a minimum may be taken from any of the holder’s or beneficiary’s IRAs; it need not be taken from a particular IRA.)

If W failed to take one or more years’ § 401(a)(9)-required distributions, does W’s personal representative want to file Form 5329 [https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5329.pdf] and pay each additional tax? For which years, if any, does W’s personal representative have authority to file that tax return?

Might “moved into an ‘estate account’” be a colloquial description of something that happened in the IRA custodian’s records but without creating a non-IRA account?

[Bruce1]

On 12/5/2025 at 1:52 PM, J Simmons said:

The IRA balance is moved into an "estate account." Then, W dies. Her executor has  the funds in the IRA moved to an "estate account" and then, 1/5th each transferred to five new "inherited IRAs", one each for the five children.

Disregarding the RMD situation. If the IRA beneficiary is an Estate then it would need to follow the 5 year distribution rules. You wouldn't set up inherited IRA's for the beneficiaries of the estate