Make sure your beneficiaries have the information they need to deal with your traditional IRA's.
Not many of us like to face the fact that the day will eventually come when our beneficiary or beneficiaries will inherit at least a portion of our traditional IRA accounts. These accounts maintain some beneficial tax-saving attributes while we live and some very firm distribution guidelines that take effect after we die.
An informative letter to your beneficiaries indicating the location of your IRA beneficiary forms, the decisions required of beneficiaries within nine months of your death, distribution information, and how to initiate distributions during the year of your death will help ease this transition and could help your beneficiaries save on taxes and penalties as well.