Yes I am winding down any involvement (roll over top to Ira or withdraw $) for my wife and I in tsp so my kids don’t get stuck being a non spouse beneficiary and subject to the forced liquidation. In NY tsp withdrawals are considered federal benefits so I get their withdrawals state tax free. Not sure if my surviving spouse would though.As a widow with $250k income prior to RMDs, mom is likely already in the 32% tax rate, unless her deductions are quite large. Unless her sons are also in the 32% rate or higher, Roth conversions are probably a bad idea. RMDs will only exacerbate the problem of excess income, especially if her TSP is large.We understand that her RMD must be taken as taxable income and **cannot** be rolled directly back into a retirement account or sent directly to charitable institutions. The question is how best to handle the RMD if you want it sent to charitable institutions and you want tax efficiency for her heirs.
Should she withdraw *more than the RMD* and convert the excess to a Roth IRA or is it better to simply invest the RMD amount in a taxable brokerage account?
The trade-off as I understand it is withdraw only RMD and invest in taxable account or withdraw more and invest the excess in a Roth.
Given her already high income, I’m unsure whether Roth conversion above RMD makes sense for tax efficiency over the long term.
https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/fede ... -brackets/
As Makefile noted, she can use Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) from an IRA to satisfy her RMD & avoid paying taxes on her RMD. QCDs are only available to those >70.5. How old is your mother & when is her RBD?
Another wrinkle is whether your mom owns her own TSP account or if she is a TSP "beneficiary participant" as the widow of the TSP participant.
Her status has important implications for her TSP beneficiaries (you & your brothers), due to the wonky TSP rules in place for death benefits paid to non-spouse beneficiaries.
"Non-spouse beneficiaries have 90 days to request payment from their temporary TSP account. If a non-spouse beneficiary does not initiate payment within 90 days, we will automatically send the payment on the 90th day or the next business day. "
https://www.tsp.gov/for-beneficiaries/b ... ributions/
If her heirs miss the 90 day deadline, you & your brothers could each receive a large lump sum check from the TSP, with unpleasant tax consequences.
If the original TSP owner was her husband, it might be prudent to perform a rollover of most of her TSP to a Trad IRA at the brokerage of your choice. That would allow QCDs once RMDs begin & provide a much, much longer time window to set up inherited IRAs after mom's eventual death.
Edit- great minds, etc.- Makefile posted about the two reasons to perform a rollover while I was typing.
Statistics: Posted by Parkinglotracer — Sat Nov 29, 2025 12:48 am — Replies 6 — Views 428