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Change an IRA beneficiary
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October 19, 2000: 1:45 p.m. ET
You can change the person, but you can't change the distribution schedule
By Ed Slott
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - So you've changed your mind.
One of the most common questions I get is whether you can change your IRA beneficiary after your required Beginning Date (RBD).
The answer is yes. You can always change your IRA beneficiary to anyone you like -- anytime you like -- even after your RBD, which is April 1 of the year after you turn 70-1/2.
 But what you cannot change after your RBD is the calculation of required distributions, which is based on the life expectancy of you and/or the life expectancy of the person who was your IRA beneficiary at your RBD.
Understanding the rules
Let's say on your RBD, you named your spouse your designated beneficiary. Later, after your RBD, you realize that it would be better to name your 40-year old child as your IRA beneficiary in order to use his life expectancy and lengthen the distribution schedule. You can make the change.
But what you cannot change is the required distribution calculation, which will continue to be based on your spouse's life expectancy as the beneficiary, even though your child is now the named beneficiary on the IRA.
Visit Ed Slott's irahelp.com
Assuming no other changes in beneficiary, at your death, your child will inherit the IRA, but must begin distributions by Dec. 31 of the year following the year of your death, based on the remaining joint life expectancy of you and your spouse.
Your child cannot use his or her own life expectancy and is bound by the shorter life expectancy of the spouse. Your child also cannot roll over, even though the child for purposes of calculating required distributions is the spouse's age. A non-spouse can never roll over.
Read Ed Slott's columns on the three most important decisions you'll make with your IRA: Choosing a beneficiary, picking a life expectancy and picking a distribution method.
Let's continue the example. Let's say you and your spouse elected the "dual recalculation" method for distributions. Your spouse dies shortly after you. Since your new beneficiary - your child - has to use your spouse's life expectancy, your child has to withdraw the entire IRA by Dec. 31 of the year following your spouse's death.
Here are some numbers to show you what I mean.
- The husband, (the IRA Owner) is 70. The wife is 67 and was the designated beneficiary at RBD. They chose dual recalculation as the distribution method.
- You change the designated beneficiary to child during year 2 (the second distribution year).
- You die in year 3
- Your spouse dies in year 6
- The child must withdraw entire IRA by Dec. 31 of year 7, even though he is still living.
So although you can indeed change your IRA beneficiary after your RBD, you cannot lengthen the distribution schedule based on the new younger beneficiary's life expectancy. 
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