Owner of 1-person plan dies - how to terminate?

Never encountered this - one person plan and the owner died.  Spouse survives him, though she was never in the plan.  Does she sign the plan termination paperwork?

The executor should generally be able to handle the affairs for a sole proprietor (the business owner and decedent are one and the same). If it's a corporation and there are no other officers then likewise, the executor should be able to stand in where the owner did previously.

On 11/22/2022 at 9:58 PM, TPApril said:

Never encountered this - one person plan and the owner died.  Spouse survives him, though she was never in the plan.  Does she sign the plan termination paperwork?

No successor owner of the business? There was a spouse but business went to the estate?

This is why I always recommend having successor issues like this documented so that surviving spouse (or whoever is taking over) can step in and handle affairs. 

Seems the beneficiary would claim all of the plan assets, and that would empty the plan. Next step should be to file a final 5500-EZ and that should do it. My guess is the executor could sign the 5500-EZ.

You might get pushback on the asset payout, depending on how the account was set up.  Some individual brokerage accounts that were set up with no beneficiaries will make everyone jump through a bunch of hoops to get things done.

 You may want to look at the August 2022 discussion of a similar question.

                  Best wishes,

                  Albert