Yardley CPA Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 A lawyer friend asked me this question: "Had a quick question about IRA rollovers. I have a client who has numerous retirement accounts (he is retired as well – 82 years old). Incident to his divorce, to equalize the assets, we are transferring some of the retirement accounts to Wife. Do I need to do these by QDRO or can we do 3-4 direct rollovers to an IRA(s) in her name without tax consequence? I know we can do the direct rollover to IRA in her name, but I had heard somewhere that this is limited to the transfer of one account per year and if there are additional rollovers, then they can be taxable." My understanding is that you can transfer the IRA from husband to ex-wife but thought it needed to be done via a QDRO?. I wasn't sure if there are restrictions on the number of accounts you can transfer. Thoughts please. Quote
jklcpa Posted March 26, 2019 Report Posted March 26, 2019 (edited) QDRO covers qualified plans that should also be referenced in the divorce decree. IRAs aren't covered by QDROS and their division used to settle the split of marital assets must be covered in the divorce decree. It should reference the mechanics of division and may be labled as "transfer incident to divorce" or may mention "rollover." Either way, if this is referenced in the document in either way, it would be considered a transfer incident to divorce and would not be taxable, AND someone should make darn sure that the custodian handles and labels this properly! I would have to look up whether this is an exception to the one-rollover-per-year rule, but my gut says 'yes'. ETA - keep in mind that trustee-to-trustee transfers don't count toward the once-per-year rule, and multiple transfers are allowed. Edited March 26, 2019 by jklcpa add custodial handling/reporting & last sentence 2 1 Quote
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