Trusts and Estates
Ca. Trs. & Estates Quarterly 2020, Volume 26, Issue 3
Content
- Dude, I Inherited a Pot Farm, Man! (Considerations For Marijuana-related Businesses For T&E Lawyers)
- Chairs of Section Subcommittees
- Contested Nonprobate Transfers: When the Estate Plan Trumps
- Editorial Board
- From the Chair
- From the Editors-in-chief
- Inside this Issue:
- Litigation Alert
- The New Ethics Committee of the California Lawyers Association: An Active First Year!
- Tips of the Trade: Pennies From Heaven: Inventorying, Valuing, and Distributing Coin Collections
- Application of "Spousal Consent Rules" To Community Property Individual Retirement Accounts
APPLICATION OF "SPOUSAL CONSENT RULES" TO COMMUNITY PROPERTY INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS
By Paul H. Miller*
MCLE Article
I. INTRODUCTION
This article discusses the application to community property ("CP") Individual Retirement Accounts ("IRAs")1 of sections 5000 through 5032 of division 5 of the California Probate Code, the division governing nonprobate transfers. I refer to these statutes as the "Spousal Consent Rules."2 These statutes ensure that if the vested owner of a CP IRA exercises the right under federal law to transfer 100% of the IRA to the beneficiary that the owner specifies, the other spouse has the right to set aside the owner’s transfer of 50% of the IRA and to transfer the value of that CP interest to different beneficiaries. The spouse may direct the disposition of a CP interest in an IRA, even though federal law does not allow a direct transfer of that interest from the IRA.3