An IRA was opened without a beneficiary. The owner of IRA is deceased. His Will states everything goes to his wife. The RMD was mailed and payable to the deceased owner for 2010 in December. His date of death was 4/7/10. She does not have any executor papers through the courts. All other accounts were joint. Does she need to go to the court and be elected as the Executor of the estate for this IRA? Does the IRA need to be closed and reopened as an inherited IRA? How would it be worded on the new IRA? How would the RMD be handled on the new account? She is 83 yrs old.

The bank has no authority to determine whether a specific will is valid - that is the job of the court. Read the IRA agreement. I'm sure the default of the IRA is to pay over to the estate of the decedent which means she needs to probate the will. You can consult bank counsel, but I suspect you would be assuming full liability to handle any other way.