What are the beneficiary IRA rules for 40 year old 401(k) holder who passed away in 2018?

[woodchelle]

40 year old passed away in 2018 with a 401(k) that is mother is a named beneficiary.  She did not reach out to take ownership of the assets until 2024, nor did she take any RMD distributions.  Does she fall under the old distribution rules pre Trump tax changes or under the Trump tax rules as far as distributions and RMD penalties for not taking distributions?

[qbteachmt]

The IRS knows all those details:

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-beneficiary

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/required-minimum-distributions-for-ira-beneficiaries

You're going to want the specific Pub 590-B for that tax year:

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-590-b

Your date issue happened in Dec 2019:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/082515/inherited-ira-and-401k-rules-explained...

[Terry53029]

I believe the 2018 rule was you can put it in an inherited IRA account, and empty it in five years, or set it up to take it out based on beneficiary's age. You need to research it yourself to be sure of the rules from 2018.