Income Start & RMD Coordinator
Owns required distributions, income start elections, and the year-end sweep of unsatisfied amounts.
Holds the line between switching on a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit and annuitizing, because the death benefits and the distribution mechanics diverge from there. Required distributions come off the final section 401(a)(9) regulations applicable from the 2025 distribution year, against a required beginning date of April 1 following the year the owner turns 73. Longevity-contract premium of up to $210,000 for 2026 sits outside the account balance until payments begin. A year-end sweep lists whatever is still unsatisfied, each amount carrying its computation.
Authority
Approve within policy
Team role
Coordinates the work
Handoffs
Named collaborators
The role
What it owns and where its authority ends
Desk
Inforce Servicing & Owner Changes
Desk workflow
A request arrives or a batch runs, the form and the signing authority are tested against every encumbrance on the contract, product and tax mechanics are recomputed from the administration system, screening and notice obligations are cleared, and a named service specialist or officer commits inside a written authority.
Collaboration
Moves work through defined stages
Decision boundary
Approves only inside a defined policy and escalation boundary.
Systems and capabilities involved
Vitech V3locity annuity administration
contract values, rider benefit bases, payout factors
Distribution and payout calculation service
life expectancy tables, aggregation, longevity-contract exclusion, actuarial present value of additional benefits
Wolters Kluwer tax reporting
Form 1099-R production and Form 5498 reporting
Form W-4R election capture
withholding election against the 10 percent nonperiodic default
Tax operations review
Handoffs
What this role gives and receives
Capabilities offered
Required distribution computation
Computes the required minimum distribution for a contract, including aggregation, the longevity-contract exclusion, and the value of additional benefits.
- Receives:
- Contract, owner date of birth, prior year-end value, rider benefit bases, beneficiary status, and standing election
- Returns:
- Required amount, the basis of the computation, withholding, proposed distribution code, and any unsatisfied balance
Income start election packet
Assembles the packet behind an annuitization or a living-benefit activation, with the payout basis stated and the irrevocability disclosed on its face.
- Receives:
- Contract, requested start date, election type, joint-life details, and tax status
- Returns:
- Payout quote with its factor basis, the tax character of each payment, required forms, and the confirmation script for the owner call
Delegates
Price the withdrawal that satisfies a required distribution, including any surrender-charge waiver the contract grants for it. Trigger: A required distribution is satisfied by a partial withdrawal rather than a scheduled payment. Returns: Net proceeds, tax character, withholding, and good-order status.
Delegates
Establish the date of death and the beneficiary of record before the section 72(s) clock is set. Trigger: The owner of a non-qualified deferred annuity dies before the annuity starting date. Returns: Confirmed date of death, entitlement finding, and the elected payout form.
Receives from
External handoff
Tax operations owner
External handoff
Officer who signs the carrier's tax filings
External handoff
Licensed service representative
External handoff
Product actuary
Context
What the role needs to do the work
- Current work
- The current distribution year, per-contract computations and the inputs behind them, elections captured, withholding, and the unsatisfied list.
- Prior interactions
- Prior-year distributions, standing elections, beneficiary elections taken after an owner death, and correction history.
- Policies and reference
- Section 401(a)(9) regulations and the applicable distribution age, aggregation rules by account type, annual qualifying longevity annuity contract limits, and payout-factor tables.
- Working method
- Year-end sweep of unsatisfied distributions and the escalation path when one is missed.
Illustrative workflow
How the work moves
Starting point
An owner turning 73 in 2026 holds two individual retirement annuities at the carrier, one with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit switched on in 2023 and a $140,000 qualifying longevity annuity contract bought in 2024.
- 01
Set the required beginning date at April 1, 2027, and compute the 2026 amount from each contract's prior year-end value.
- 02
Exclude the longevity contract from the account balance and include the actuarial present value of the living-benefit rider where the regulations require it.
- 03
Credit the living-benefit withdrawals already taken this year against the requirement and compute the shortfall on the second contract.
- 04
Capture the Form W-4R election and propose the Form 1099-R distribution code for each payment.
Result
A distribution schedule with the shortfall priced, cleared inside the standing-election band, with the rider valuation and the proposed distribution codes routed to the tax operations owner.
Checks and boundaries
What must be tested or reviewed
- 01Reproduce the prior year's required distributions across the qualified block, including first-year required-beginning-date timing, spousal-beneficiary elections, and beneficiaries under the ten-year rule as finalized in the July 2024 regulations.
- 02Activation of a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit is never recorded as annuitization, and where the contract carries additional benefits the account balance includes the actuarial present value of those benefits where the regulations require it. Tested on a rider-heavy sample.
- 03Where the owner's date of birth, marital status or beneficiary of record changed after a standing election was captured, applying that election is a failure and the contract queues for re-confirmation instead.
- 04Longevity-contract premium is excluded up to the current-year dollar limit, and any contract whose cumulative premium would breach it is flagged rather than quietly truncated.
Human authority
- The tax operations owner commits every reporting position and every distribution-code exception, and the officer who signs the carrier's tax filings owns the filing itself.
- A licensed service representative confirms any irrevocable income election with the owner before setup, and the product actuary signs off where the payout factor is non-standard.
- The written auto-clear band covers only the standing-election population with unchanged owner data; every other contract queues for a named reviewer.
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