My DH inherited a $10k IRA from his dad last year. At the time, instead of cashing out, he elected to keep it where it was (local small town bank) and turn it into an beneficiary IRA, taking the RMD based on his lifetime starting in December 2015.
It's in a money market account, earning a pittance.
We're retired and we need a certain amount of income to make sure we don't fall into Medicaid territory. Can we, at this point almost a year after his Dad's death, after it's been turned into a beneficiary IRA, cash out the account and take that as income for 2015 (without penalty)? Too late? I think there was a 5 year option as well.
Otherwise I guess we'll sell other stuff to create income and fill out the 9 pages of forms to move this IRA to Vanguard, stuff it in their S&P500 fund and see what happens.