Coordination Library

Required minimum distributions.

"RMDs are just paperwork, aren't they?"They're the end of a decision that began fifteen years earlier.

At 73, the IRS begins deciding how much you withdraw. RMDs feel like paperwork. They're the visible end of a decision that should have started fifteen years earlier.

The ripple

An RMD is one number. Everything that makes it painful, or painless, was decided in the quiet years before it began.

At 73, required minimum distributions begin
Each year forces taxable income out of the IRA, like it or not
That income sets the bracket, the IRMAA surcharge, and how much Social Security is taxed
Whether Roth conversions were done in the quiet 60s changes all of it
A QCD can satisfy the RMD tax-free, straight to charity
The surviving spouse will face the same income in a single bracket
And the heirs inherit a 10-year withdrawal window of their own
What you keep

One birthday. A decade of bracket, decided years earlier.

Same accounts, two outcomes
Uncoordinated
  • The low-income years in the 60s pass with no Roth conversions.
  • RMDs then spike income, IRMAA, and the tax on Social Security.
  • Charitable gifts are made with cash while the IRA keeps growing.
  • The surviving spouse is later pushed into a steep single bracket.
Coordinated
  • Roth conversions fill the low-bracket gap years before 73.
  • QCDs satisfy the RMD straight from the IRA, tax-free.
  • The drawdown is smoothed to protect IRMAA and the survivor's future.
  • The heirs' 10-year window is planned for, not discovered.

Same accounts. A decade of bracket, managed.

In the room, starting in your sixties: CPA and the investment plan, long before 73.

Financial decisions should not surprise one another.
More from the library: All coordination cases · The $600,000 conversation · Why family offices win
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Illustrative and educational — not investment, tax, or legal advice. This is a hypothetical scenario. Outcomes depend on your own facts and on current law; RMD rules, Roth conversions, qualified charitable distributions, and IRMAA thresholds carry their own rules, trade-offs, and deadlines, and require individualized tax and legal advice. Driftwood coordinates with your CPA and attorney; it does not provide tax or legal advice. Driftwood Wealth is a registered investment adviser; Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS are available directly; the firm’s public record is at adviserinfo.sec.gov. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use.