Sorry; I get a PTSD reaction to flippant comments regarding the severity of the covid-19 illness and its potential. You don't know what it feels like to be that sick, unless you get that sick; and then you consider yourself one of the lucky ones that didn't die from it. I have empathy for anyone who gets ill.

I don't think anyone will care that someone wants to leverage removing their own investments from their retirement account now, and hopes to skip the penalty. Because reducing their own retirement funds only really impacts their future and not ours. This client can decide to do whatever they want; I doubt the IRS will show up with a lie detector.