If you don't, the decision may be taken out of your hands and placed into the hands of another authority, depending on the particular state. An IRA is already considered a trust and can be owned only by an individual. However, you can name a trust as a beneficiary. People who inherit an IRA cannot name new beneficiaries. To make new designations after your beneficiaries inherit your IRA, they should call our retirement specialists and ask for a beneficiary change form.
Distribution rules depend on several factors.
This means your spouse can treat the IRA as if it were his or her own IRA, with all the standard rules in effect. Anyone other than your spouse generally must either completely redeem the inherited assets by December 31 of the fifth year following the year of your death or begin taking lifetime distributions by December 31 of the year following your death. However, if you had begun taking RMDs on your non-Roth IRA, the beneficiary must continue taking those distributions. He or she must generally deplete the assets at least as rapidly as you would have under your chosen RMD method. For accounts with more than one primary beneficiary, the distribution rules on inherited IRAs can get even more complicated.