After losing your husband or wife, it’s tempting to simplify all of your financial assets and consolidate them. However, it’s ill-advised to do this if you are younger than 59.5 years old. IRS rules allow you to make withdrawals from your late husband’s retirement accounts with no penalty (although you will have to pay income taxes on the withdrawal). You can also file your taxes as married filing jointly in the year that he or she died and get a better tax rate than filing as single.
