Estate Received IRA Full Distribution

Beneficiary if IRA was named as the Estate of the decedent, DOD was in Fall, 2019.
Custodian was directed by executor to issue a small RMD before year end 2019 for a decedent who was over 70 1/2 and had begun receiving RMD a few yrs ago. Instead it issued a [u]complete distribution of the IRA's balance payable to Estate of Deceased and closed the account in last week of December. Looks like the estate is stuck reporting the complete distribution because it is not a "qualified beneficiary" and therefore is not eligible to "roll-over" the mess up to an IRA at another custodian's institution.
Thoughts ? otherwise?

If nothing can be done to fix this (i.e. you return the check and do it again, but more favorably)…and if none of the money will remain in trust, but will get distributed out pretty quickly, then you ought to do that using the 65-day rule to (1) get a better overall tax rate and (2) to spread that tax consequence over multiple beneficiaries, assuming there are multiple beneficiaries.

It's hard to say if the Custodian screwed up here or if this is just the Custodian’s policy. You’d have to read the fine print in the IRA Agreement. Even though an immediate cash out isn’t required, and even though the 5-year rule might not apply, many Custodians, through the Agreement the IRA Owner signed, will default to an immediate cash out or the 5-year rule.

65 Day rule ??? what is that?

65 Day rule ??? what is that?

Punch it into Google and find out.

§663(b). Also, the estate should file using fiscal year. Now you get until the fall of 2020 plus the add'l 65 days to distribute the funds to the bene's.