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Originally posted by bob ramberg:

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Originally posted by btanchors:
Bob, were any of the funds inside of an IRA or 401(k), or were they just in a standard brokerage account or bank account? The right answer partially depends on the answer...

I don't know off hand. My wife did say that it was tax free. Could I stick it in a Roth IRA?

Bob,

You're going to need to find out BEFORE you take possession of the money. If it is in a Traditional IRA, for example, AND the person it belonged to had already started taking annual distributions from it, then you will be required to take annual distributions from it amoritized over your life expectancy. I do not know exactly what the rules are for all the other possible cases. I would suggest you contact a tax expert or financial planner before doing ANYTHING. I would also contact whoever is holding the funds - like if it is a brokerage, contact the brokerage.

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It is a shame you don't have a good advisor and your investments are spread across multiple accounts and probably at various brokerages.

I had sort of skipped over this thinking he meant that he had several IRAs under one firm/management that he had rolled over to IRAs from several past employers. If in fact you still have these funds just scattered to the wind at a bunch of prior employer plans get those things rolled over to IRA(s) at the investment house of your choosing.

There are schools of thought that recommend keeping each employer's rollover in a distinct IRA in the unlikely event that that employer's plan is somehow tainted. If these are from long ago (5+ years) then probably safe to roll all of them into a single IRA. Whatever the case, get these into easily manageable IRAs at one firm for your benefit and most definitely your eventual heirs.

Also, if you're not already you're about to be taking RMDs if not pulling that much out at a minimum, and having them in one account or at least one firm will help make this easier too. Administratively AND for managing balance of asset allocations.