IRA Beneficiary Designation: How to Turn a Modest Inheritance Into Millions for Your Family

How would you like to turn your modest tax-deferred account into millions for your family? Depending on whom you name as beneficiary, you can keep this money growing tax-deferred for not only your and your spouse’s lifetimes, but also for your children’s or grandchildren’s lifetimes. That can turn even a modest inheritance into millions.

1) Don’t I have to use this money for my retirement?

When you reach a certain age, usually 70 1/2, Uncle Sam says you must start taking your money out. (This is called your required beginning date.) But if you don’t use all this money before you die, naming the right beneficiary can keep it growing tax-deferred for decades.

2) How much will I have to take out?

Calculating the amount you must withdraw each year (your required minimum distribution) is much easier now than it used to be. Each year, you divide the year-end value of your account by a life expectancy divisor from the Uniform Lifetime Table (provided by the IRS). The result is the minimum you must withdraw for that year. You can always take out more.

For example, the divisor at age 70 is 27.4. If your year-end account balance is $100,000, you divide $100,000 by 27.4, making your first required minimum distribution $3,650. Each year the divisor is smaller, but it never goes to zero. Even at age 115 and older, the divisor is 1.9. “To recalculate or not to recalculate” is no longer an issue. Everyone now gets the benefit of recalculating their life expectancy.

3) Doesn’t my beneficiary affect my distribution?

Not any longer. Now, almost everyone uses the same chart to calculate distributions, even if you have no beneficiary. After you die, distributions are based on your beneficiary’s life expectancy (or the rest of your life expectancy if you die without one.) Naming the right beneficiary is still critical to getting the most tax-deferred growth. That’s much easier to do now, because you are no longer locked into the beneficiary you name when you take your first distribution.

Additional questions regarding IRA beneficiary designation will be posted in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact our Estate Planning Attorney in Woodland Hills, CA today.
Published in: on November 18, 2011 at 11:21 pm  Comments (1)  
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