Any IRA titled as "estate of ..." is not *your* beneficiary IRA, it's the estate's beneficiary IRA and the estate must remain open as long as the IRA is still titled in the name of the estate. With the estate being the beneficiary of the IRA, RMDs from this account are *not* based on your life expectancy and cannot be combined with IRAs on which you were the designated beneficiary. It should be possible to transfer the estate's beneficiary IRAs to the estate beneficiary(s) as successor beneficiary(s) (not designated beneficiary(s)), allowing the estate to be closed, but some IRA custodians resist, not understanding that the tax code allows for the transfer of the IRA to the successor beneficiary. As long as the beneficiary is kicking out RMDs to the estate (which are and will continue to be based on the age of the deceased on the deceased's birthday in the year of death), the estate must file estate income tax returns (assuming that the amount exceeds the estate income tax exclusion amount of $600).
