The Listen to Lawrence Letter: confusion that needs further discussion

CLIENT QUESTION:

I thought that RMDs were not required from a Roth IRA. Is this correct?

MY RESPONSE:

This is correct from your own Roth IRA, during your lifetime, for tax purposes. This is NOT CORRECT for Medicaid purposes. Medicaid will exempt your Roth IRA from being treated as an asset ONLY if you are taking out money from the IRA based on Medicaid’s life expectancy tables.

I hope this helps.