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I am the beneficiary of my deceased mothers IRA acct at BoFA.

 
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  • Answered by:socrateaser
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Customer Question

I am the beneficiary of my deceased mother's IRA acct at BoFA. Their claim form does not have an option to move the IRA valued at $65,000 to an IRA at another bank. I use Wells Fargo for all my banking.
If I take the entire lump sum payment, can I then move the funds to a new Wells Fargo IRA without 2012 income tax consequences.
BoFA will of course allow me to keep the IRA there in my name and then I could transfer it. I would rather avoid this needless step.

 

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State/Country relating to question: New York

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call to BOFA and branch visit. They will not even tell me that I am the beneficiary. Just keep repeating fill out the claim, you may not be correct.

Submitted: 280 days and 2 hours ago.
Category: Estate Law
Value: $25
Status: CLOSED
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Expert:  socrateaser replied 280 days and 2 hours ago.

Only a surviving spouse can rollover an IRA without incurring tax liability for the distribution of assets.

You can transfer the account to an account in your name, but you are still required to distribute the assets to yourself according to the IRS regulations, which generally requires that the IRA be distributed according to a "required minimum distribution" RMD schedule. To minimize the tax effect, you may want to simply ask the bank's investment group to calculate the RMD applicable for the account and then start distributions. Otherwise, you may end up having to hire an actuary or CPA to do the calculations for you.

Note: If you want to transfer the IRA to another investment institution, contact the receiving institution and let them handle the transfer. The transfer is not a taxable event as long as you do not take constructive receipt of the account assets (bank-to-bank transfer, not a taxable event).

Hope this helps.

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Customer replied 280 days and 1 hours ago.

If I prove to be wrong and my father, the spouse is the beneficiary, does he then per your first sentence get to take five year certain distributions from the acct without income tax consequences.

Accepted Answer

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Expert:  socrateaser replied 280 days ago.

No. A surviving spouse is liable for the taxes, the same as any other beneficiary and as was the original account holder (decedent spouse).

The difference is that the surviving spouse can rollover the account into his own IRA and delay distributions and any tax liability until he reaches age 70.5.

Hope this helps.

Expert TypeAttorney
Category: Estate Law
Pos. Feedback: 99.1 %
Accepts: 1759
Answered: 8/9/2012

Experience: Retired (mostly)

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