Avoiding Spousal Beneficiary Mistakes in 5 Easy Steps
A spouse beneficiary must be married to the account owner at the time of the account owner’s death, and he or she must be named on the beneficiary form (or inherit directly through the document default provisions). A spouse beneficiary has a number of unique options. 1. Split the inherited account if necessary. A spouse beneficiary can take advantage of the special spousal rules if they are the sole beneficiary of an IRA account.