Form 1041 needed ?

[RWG1950]

My customer, a single person, died 11-21-19 leaving a 1 mill estate in mutual funds and annuities - mostly to churches & charities.
Her accounts were all T/O/D & beneficiary - so no probate estate. I've never done a 1041 but it looks as if one will be needed in this case.
The mutual fund tells me the full 1099-div (including a $15k cap gain distribution from 12-20-19) will be issued to the decedent.
Reviewed IRS pubs and TTB but still have trouble understanding how taxable income after 11-21-19 will be handled on the 1041 vs the 1040.e Dec.
The beneficiaries seem unlikely to have claimed their share of the account by 12-31. Does this dividend income all go on the taxpayer's 1040 ?
If so, how is this income reconciled with taxable 1041 income ?
Thanks for comments.

[Rapid Robert]

I'm not an expert on trust/estate taxation, but I am pretty sure income received after data of death does not go on decedent's 1040, so yes a 1041 will be needed. But there is also a way to use a fiscal year for the estate so that you can do an initial and final 1041 in the same year, someone with more experience on this will hopefully chime in.

[WICPA]

If the accounts were set up as TOD, the fund companies should have transferred ownership accordingly. I run into this quite often in which they fail to do this. Who actually received the distributions? If they are paid to the decedent you may have to do a 1041 but like said above do a first and final return so that the income passes on the the beneficiaries. If the beneficiaries received the distributions then you should be able to skip the 1041 and provide a schedule with the final 1040 matching the 1099 to the decedent and showing the amounts that passed through to the beneficiaries. You would do the same schedule if you had to file a 1041.

[Kram BergGold]

The purpose of TOD is to avoid probate and 1041. Someone needs to tell the brokerage the date of death for step up purposes. Then if the brokerage does not issue a 1099 to the named beneficiary or beneficiaries you will need to do a nominee distribution from the decedent to the beni's.

[Burke]

If they were all TOD accounts, they should have been paid out to the benes, or transferred into their names as of the date of death or as soon as possible after that. For 2019, you can show income after 11/21/19 on final return and nominee it out to them. For any account not TOD or named beneficiary, the income after 11/21/19 goes on 1041 and K-1's to bene's -- if distributions were made -- using DNI to determine amount taxable. How is estate going to pay last expenses (including you) if nothing is in the estate? And this estate is over $1M? Who is executor and how many bene's? Do you have a copy of the will? Even if most were charities and churches, you still show the income going to them for tax purposes.