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Inflexible Rules Frustrate FamiliesInflexible Rules Frustrate Families

Retirement accounts can be valuable assets, but passing them to beneficiaries can be frustrating. Brokers and other custodians of individual retirement accounts can cause problems by insisting on following their own inflexible rules, rather than the family's wishes. Internal Revenue Service regulations have gaps and ambiguities that create practical problems. What's more, four recent IRS private letter

Marcia Chadwick Holt, Senior Of Counsel

October 1, 2003

11 Min Read
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Marcia Holt

Retirement accounts can be valuable assets, but passing them to beneficiaries can be frustrating. Brokers and other custodians of individual retirement accounts can cause problems by insisting on following their own inflexible rules, rather than the family's wishes. Internal Revenue Service regulations have gaps and ambiguities that create practical problems. What's more, four recent IRS private letter rulings have exacerbated problems. Fortunately, there are strategies to cope with some of the more vexing difficulties.

IRA BENEFICIARIES

Brokers and other custodians and trustees of individual retirement accounts have developed their own fixed rules, to the frustration of many planners. For instance, some IRA custodians and trust...

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About the Author

Marcia Chadwick Holt

Senior Of Counsel, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP

Marcia Chadwick Holt joined Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in 1974. Ms. Holt’s areas of expertise are employee benefits, estate planning, estate and trust administration, and gift and estate tax.

Ms. Holt has extensive experience in ERISA-related work including drafting a regional prototype defined contribution plan for use of the firm’s clients. She advises clients on the impact of the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA on the administration of employee benefit plans. She consults on ERISA issues in mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Ms. Holt is a nationally-recognized expert on advising individuals regarding planning for distributions from retirement plans and IRAs. Ms. Holt has been a frequent lecturer nationally and locally and has published several articles on distribution issues.

Ms. Holt is also a nationally-recognized expert in the field of trust and estates. She drafts sophisticated wills and trusts designed to meet the client’s personal planning and tax objectives. She also advises clients regarding guardianships, conservatorships, decedent’s estates and gift and estate tax issues.

Ms. Holt is a Fellow, former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, former member of its Executive Committee and is the former chair of its Employee Benefits Committee. She is a former member of the Adjunct Faculty of the University of Miami School of Law Graduate Program in Estate Planning. She is an Academician and former member of the Executive Committee of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. Ms. Holt is a former member of the Retirement Board for the City of Aurora and a member of the Western Pension Conference. She has been named in The Best Lawyers in America® by Woodward/White, Inc. in the fields of Tax Employee Benefits Law and Trust and Estate Law since 1989. Ms. Holt has also been named as a Colorado Super Lawyer, which is published by Thomson Reuters, since 2006.

Ms. Holt is a member of the Bars of the State of Colorado, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, and the United States Tax Court. She is a member of the Tax Section and Probate and Trust Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Colorado Bar Foundation.