Tax Q&A;: IRA Rollovers

Q: My mother died in April 1998. All her assets were held in a living trust, including her individual retirement account and an IRA that was rolled over to her after my father’s death. How shall I deal with the IRA distribution? Since all sources to date say I cannot roll either IRA over, is it possible to treat the distribution to the four beneficiaries of the trust as a lump-sum distribution and amortize those proceeds over five years?

A: You are correct that you cannot roll over your mother’s IRAs; that can only be done by a spouse. But whether you can distribute the IRAs in a lump sum, over five years or over the lifetime of the beneficiaries depends on several factors, including the IRA beneficiary designation, the terms of the trust, the age of your mother at her death and the elections she made regarding calculation of minimum yearly distributions.

To determine exactly what your options are, you will need to provide to your tax advisor a copy of the trust, a copy of your mother’s IRA agreement, a copy of the beneficiary designation, information regarding IRA elections made by your mother and your mother’s age.

--MICHAEL B. ALLMON and NELSON HANDY, Marina del Rey

For more information on taxes and to see other questions and answers in this series, go to The Times’ Web site at https://ww.latimes.com/taxes. To find a CPA, visit the California Society of CPAs at https://www.calcpa.org.