Required minimum distributions look simple until something goes wrong: a missed deadline, the wrong amount, uncoordinated accounts or a beneficiary who misreads the rules for an inherited IRA. I was quoted on this in Parade and MSN in May 2026, and the questions those reporters asked are the ones families should ask before year end.
Distributions begin at 73, and the first can be delayed to April 1 of the following year. IRAs can be aggregated, employer plans cannot, and inherited accounts stand alone. A missed amount carries a 25 percent excise tax, reduced to 10 percent if corrected within the correction window and waivable for reasonable error on Form 5329. An owner over 70 and a half can send up to $111,000 in 2026 directly to charity, excluded from income and counted toward the distribution. The fix is coordination among the custodian, the preparer, the advisor and any trustee in the fall, not a discovery in April.
The full piece is at turnipseed.law.
