another IRA inherited question

[taxmom34]

girlfriend died last month, she would have been 70 this month. husband is 77 inherited her IRA. she was taking monthly distributions, and he wants to continue. does he use his life expectancy and if so will that mean he needs to increase the monthly distribution? or does he use her life expectancy chart?

[bgiez]

Since girlfriend was already taking distributions

he must continue taking distributions starting the year after her death. He begins with his life expectancy for the first distribution, then each year subtracts 1 for the new portion for that year. There must also be a distribution for the year the girlfriend died. Too bad they weren't married, then he could roll it in to his IRA. Since they weren't, he will have to have a beneficiary IRA. (Name of deceased for benefit of name of beneficiary). He could also take out an amount greater that the required distribution.

[bgiez]

oops - reread your post

First you say girlfriend died, then you talk about husband - were they married?

[taxmom34]

sorry, i wasn't clear enough. my girlfriend died last month , her husband is 77

trying to bump this up, after i clarified info

[taxmom34]

tried to bump this up, after clarify my original post

[bgiez]

page 13-24 in TTB seems to answer

the questions. Since decedent was under 70 1/2, I would guess that the distributions she was taking would not be classified as RMD. So here's what TTB says:
"If the decedent was not yet receiving RMD at the time of
death, the beneficiary must take out the distributions over his
or her own life based on the Single Lifetime Table, page 13-8. If
the beneficiary was the surviving spouse, RMD does not begin
until the decedent would have turned age 70½."
So this would slow down the beginning of husband taking distributions from his wife's IRA, but not by much.

Here are the other options, again on p 13-24 in TTB:
"If the beneficiary is an individual, the beneficiary can elect
to take the entire account balance in the IRA by the end of
the fifth year following the year of the participant’s death. No
distributions need to be made before the end of the fifth year.
This election is only available when the participant dies before
the date RMD begins."
OR
"If the beneficiary is the surviving spouse of the deceased IRA
participant, the beneficiary can treat the IRA as his or her own.
This allows the beneficiary to make additional contributions
to the IRA (including rollover contributions). It also allows the
beneficiary to use RMD rules based on the beneficiary’s life."
OR
"If the beneficiary is the surviving spouse of the deceased IRA
participant, the beneficiary can treat the IRA as his or her own
by rolling it over to his or her own IRA, or the taxable portion
of the IRA can be rolled over to his or her employer-sponsored
pension plan."

It looks like no matter what option is chosen, other than the 5 year option, the RMD would be based on the husband's life.