What is the 10-year rule for an inherited IRA?

Most heirs who are not the spouse must withdraw the whole account by December 31 of the year that contains the tenth anniversary of the death. If the owner died in 2026, the account must be empty by December 31, 2036. Some heirs must also take a withdrawal every year until then.

Taxes

What is an inherited IRA?

People ask what an inherited IRA is when a parent or a spouse leaves them one. It is a retirement account you can take money out of but cannot add to, and the law sets a deadline for emptying it.

By Joshua Mangoubi, CFA, MBAPublished November 20267 min read

A river dividing into smaller channels across a green floodplain in morning light

The short answer

An inherited IRA is an IRA left to you by someone who has died. What it is for you depends on who you are. If you are not the spouse, you cannot add to it or move it into your own IRA, and in most cases you must withdraw everything by the end of the tenth year after the death. A surviving spouse has more choices. Withdrawals from an inherited traditional IRA are taxed as income.

On this page

An inherited IRA is an IRA left to you by someone who has died. If your mother named you as the beneficiary of her IRA, the money is yours to take out, but the account is not like an IRA you opened yourself. It stays in her name for your benefit, you cannot add to it, and the law sets a deadline for emptying it. For most heirs who are not the spouse, the account must be empty by the end of the tenth year after the death.¹²

What an inherited IRA is for you depends on who you are to the person who died and how old they were. This page goes through the rules for a spouse, for a child or another heir, and for a Roth account, and then how the withdrawals are taxed. The citations are in the detailed version below.

What is an inherited IRA?

It is a traditional or Roth IRA that passes to the person named as its beneficiary when the owner dies. If that person is you, the firm that holds the account retitles it in the owner's name for your benefit.

If you are not the owner's spouse, three things are different from your own IRA. You cannot put new money into it. You cannot roll it into your own IRA, or roll your own IRA into it. And you cannot leave it alone for as long as you like. You can move it to another firm, as long as the new account is also set up in the owner's name for your benefit.¹

What are the inherited IRA rules for a surviving spouse?

If you are the spouse, you have a choice that no one else has.

You can treat the account as your own. You do that by naming yourself as the owner or by rolling it into your own IRA. From then on your own rules apply. Your required withdrawals start at your own age, and withdrawals before 59½ are generally charged the 10% additional tax.³

Or you can stay a beneficiary. That can fit if you are under 59½ and need the money, because withdrawals paid to a beneficiary are not charged the 10% additional tax. If your spouse died before their own required withdrawals had to begin, and you are the only beneficiary, you generally do not have to take anything as a beneficiary until the year your spouse would have reached that point.³

What is the inherited IRA 10-year rule?

If you are not the spouse, the ten-year rule is the one you will most likely meet. An adult child, a grandchild, a brother or sister more than ten years younger than the owner, and a friend are generally under it.

You must withdraw the whole account by December 31 of the year that contains the tenth anniversary of the death. If your mother dies in 2026, her IRA has to be empty by December 31, 2036.²

The ten years set the deadline for emptying the account. They do not tell you how much to take in each year.

The ten years set the deadline for emptying the account. They do not tell you how much to take in each year.

Within the ten years you can take the money out in any pattern you choose, as long as you take at least what the next section requires and the account is empty at the end.

Do you have to take RMDs from an inherited IRA?

Sometimes. It depends on whether the owner had reached their required beginning date. That is the date their own required minimum distributions, or RMDs, had to start. For many owners today it is April 1 of the year after they turn 73. The age depends on the owner's birth year.⁴

If the owner died before that date and the ten-year rule applies to you, nothing is required until the tenth year. You can take money out in any year, or wait.⁴

If the owner died on or after that date, you generally must take a withdrawal every year, starting the year after the death. The whole account still has to be out by the end of the tenth year.⁴

One more withdrawal can fall to you. If the owner was already taking RMDs and had not taken the full amount for the year they died, the beneficiaries have to take the rest.⁵

Our inherited IRA rules calculator shows which rule applies to you and the year the account must be empty.

How do you calculate the RMD for an inherited IRA?

You divide the account's balance on December 31 of the year before by a life expectancy factor. For the first year, the factor generally comes from the IRS Single Life table, at the age you reach in the year after the death. If you are older than the person who died, the factor can come from their age instead. Each year after that, you subtract one from the factor.⁶

Here is a hypothetical example. Suppose your mother dies in 2026 at 80 and leaves you her traditional IRA. You turn 56 in 2027.

She was past her required beginning date, so you must take a withdrawal every year from 2027 through 2035, and the rest by December 31, 2036.
Her own RMD for 2026 was $20,000, and she had not taken it. You have to take that $20,000, generally by the end of 2026.
The account is worth $382,500 on December 31, 2026. Your factor for 2027 is 30.6, so your withdrawal for 2027 is at least $12,500.
For 2028 your factor is 29.6, and you divide the balance on December 31, 2027, by it.⁶

These are the smallest amounts the rules allow. You can take more in any year.

Who can still use life expectancy instead of the 10-year rule?

Five kinds of heirs can spread withdrawals over their own life expectancy and are not held to the ten years:

the owner's surviving spouse
the owner's minor child
a disabled person
a chronically ill person
anyone who is not more than ten years younger than the owner

For a minor child the exception ends when the child reaches the age of majority, which the regulations set at 21, and the ten years start then.⁷

An estate or a charity named as beneficiary follows other rules, and a trust depends on how it was written. The attorney who drafted the trust is the person to ask.

What about an inherited Roth IRA?

The ten-year rule applies to an inherited Roth IRA too. For this purpose the law treats every Roth IRA owner as having died before the required beginning date, so nothing is required until the tenth year.⁸

The tax is different. Withdrawals from an inherited Roth IRA are generally not taxed, as long as five years have passed since the owner first put money into a Roth IRA. If the five years have not passed, the earnings can be taxed until they have.⁸

How are inherited IRA withdrawals taxed?

A withdrawal from an inherited traditional IRA is generally added to your income for the year you take it. Most of the money in the account was never taxed, and the tax is due when it comes out.⁹ The 10% additional tax on early withdrawals does not apply to you as a beneficiary, whatever your age.³

Because each withdrawal is added to your other income, the year you take the money can change the tax on it. If you leave everything until the tenth year, the whole account lands on one tax return. Can you avoid taxes on RMDs? shows how added income is taxed.

Illinois generally does not tax these withdrawals. Illinois subtracts IRA distributions when it figures your state income tax.⁹ Does Illinois have an inheritance tax? covers what else Illinois does and does not tax when you inherit.

Can you make a QCD from an inherited IRA?

Generally yes, if you are 70½ or older yourself. A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, is a gift paid straight from an IRA to a charity. It counts toward a required withdrawal and is left out of your income. The age that matters is yours on the day of the gift, not the age of the person who died.¹⁰ The QCD limit for 2026 explains the rules for the gift itself.

What happens if you miss a required withdrawal?

A required amount you do not take can be charged an excise tax of 25%. The tax falls to 10% if you take the missed amount and file a return that reports the tax within the correction period the law allows. The same tax applies to anything still in the account after the ten-year deadline.¹¹ Our guide to RMDs explains the penalty and how it is corrected.

What goes wrong with an inherited IRA?

These are the mistakes we see most often.

People move an inherited IRA into their own IRA, or take a check meaning to redeposit it, and the whole amount becomes taxable that year.

People hear "ten years" and take nothing, when the owner was already taking RMDs and a withdrawal was due every year.

People leave the whole account until the tenth year, and it all lands on one tax return.

No one takes the RMD the owner still owed for the year they died.

A surviving spouse under 59½ rolls the account into their own IRA, then needs the money and pays the 10% additional tax.

People treat an inherited Roth IRA as having no deadline, because their own Roth IRA has none.

People who inherited between 2020 and 2023 do not know that yearly withdrawals started in 2025.

Where we fit in. We integrate tax considerations into your investment strategy and collaborate with estate attorneys and CPAs to ensure your plan is coordinated. We are not a law firm or accounting firm, so we do not provide legal or tax advice. Everything in this material is for educational purposes, based on primary sources. Before taking any action, please consult the appropriate professionals to apply these ideas to your situation.

If you have inherited an IRA, the first two things to find out are which rule you are under and whether a withdrawal is due this year. If you would like to go through your own dates with someone, we are glad to have that conversation.

The detailed version

The rules and the citationsFor CPAs, estate attorneys, and anyone who wants the sources: the beneficiary categories, death before and after the required beginning date, the arithmetic of the example, the years 2021 through 2024, and the citations.Show

The beneficiary categories

A designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary must receive the entire interest by the end of the calendar year that includes the tenth anniversary of the owner's death: 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(2); 26 U.S.C. § 401(a)(9)(H).²
The eligible designated beneficiaries are the surviving spouse, the owner's minor child, a disabled individual, a chronically ill individual, and an individual not more than ten years younger than the owner: 26 U.S.C. § 401(a)(9)(E)(ii); IRS Publication 590-B.⁷
For a minor child, the ten-year period runs from the year the child reaches the age of majority: 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(4). The regulations set that age at 21: 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-4(e)(3).⁷
When an eligible designated beneficiary dies, what remains must be out by the end of the year that includes the tenth anniversary of that death: 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(3).⁷
A beneficiary that is not an individual, such as an estate, is under the five-year rule if the owner died before the required beginning date, and under the owner's remaining life expectancy if the owner died on or after it: IRS Publication 590-B.

Death before and after the required beginning date

If the owner died before the required beginning date and the ten-year rule applies, no distribution is required for any year before the tenth: IRS Publication 590-B.⁴
If the owner died on or after the required beginning date, a designated beneficiary bases the yearly distributions on the longer of the beneficiary's own single life expectancy and the owner's: IRS Publication 590-B. The ten-year limit of § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(2) applies as well.⁴
The owner's required minimum distribution for the year of death is figured as if the owner had lived for the whole year, and the beneficiaries are responsible for distributing it: IRS Publication 590-B.⁵
A Roth IRA owner is treated as having died before the required beginning date: IRS Publication 590-B.⁸

The example

The owner was born in 1946 and dies in 2026, the year she is 80. Her required beginning date had passed. The beneficiary is her adult child, who is not an eligible designated beneficiary and who reaches 56 in 2027.

The owner's RMD for 2026 is her balance on December 31, 2025, divided by the Uniform Lifetime Table factor at 80, which is 20.2. A balance of $404,000 gives $20,000.
The beneficiary's first distribution year is 2027. The Single Life Table factor at 56 is 30.6. A balance of $382,500 on December 31, 2026, gives $12,500.
The factor for 2028 is 29.6, for 2029 it is 28.6, and so on. The entire balance is due by December 31, 2036.
The site's inherited IRA engine returns the same rule and dates for these facts: the ten-year rule, yearly distributions from 2027, and an empty account by December 31, 2036.⁶

The balances are chosen so the division is exact. They are hypothetical, and no tax is computed.

The years 2021 through 2024

The yearly distributions inside the ten-year period were first stated in proposed regulations in 2022. The IRS did not assert the excise tax for missed yearly distributions of this kind for 2021 through 2024, most recently in Notice 2024-35, and the final regulations apply from 2025. An heir of an owner who died in 2020 through 2023 after the required beginning date takes yearly distributions from 2025, does not make up the waived years, and still has the original ten-year deadline. This paragraph follows the site's inherited IRA record; Notice 2024-35 is cited there and is not quoted here.

The rules

A beneficiary other than the spouse cannot treat an inherited IRA as their own, contribute to it, or roll amounts into or out of it: IRS Publication 590-B.¹
A surviving spouse may treat the IRA as their own or remain a beneficiary: IRS Publication 590-B.³
Distributions to a beneficiary are not subject to the 10% additional tax on early distributions: IRS Publication 590-B.³
Beneficiaries of a traditional IRA include taxable distributions in gross income: IRS Publication 590-B. Illinois subtracts federally taxed IRA distributions: Illinois Publication 120.⁹
A qualified charitable distribution requires the IRA holder to be at least 70½ when it is made, and it counts toward the required minimum distribution: IRS Publication 590-B; Notice 2007-7, Q&A-37, for a beneficiary's IRA.¹⁰
The excise tax on an amount not distributed as required is 25%, or 10% if corrected within the correction window: IRS Publication 590-B; 26 U.S.C. § 4974.¹¹

Sources & notes (11)

Expand

1."If you inherit a traditional IRA, you are called a beneficiary. A beneficiary can be any person or entity the owner chooses to receive the benefits of the IRA after the owner dies." "If you inherit a traditional IRA from anyone other than your deceased spouse, you can't treat the inherited IRA as your own. This means that you can't make any contributions to the IRA. It also means you can't roll over any amounts into or out of the inherited IRA. However, you can make a trustee-to-trustee transfer as long as the IRA into which amounts are being moved is set up and maintained in the name of the deceased IRA owner for the benefit of you as beneficiary." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. ↩
2."Distributions to a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary must be completed within 10 years of the death of the owner." "The 10-year rule requires the IRA beneficiaries who are not taking life expectancy payments to withdraw the entire balance of the IRA by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner's death. For example, if the owner died in 2025, the beneficiary would have to fully distribute the IRA by December 31, 2035." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. The regulation's limit is "the calendar year that includes the tenth anniversary of the date of the employee's death." 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(2), https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.401(a)(9)-5. The statute is 26 U.S.C. § 401(a)(9)(H), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/401. ↩
3.A spouse may "Treat it as your own IRA by designating yourself as the account owner" or "Treat yourself as the beneficiary rather than treating the IRA as your own." "If the owner died before the year in which they were required to begin receiving required minimum distributions and the surviving spouse is the IRA owner's sole beneficiary, the spouse isn't required to begin receiving minimum distributions until the end of the year in which the IRA owner would have reached their required beginning date." "If you die before reaching age 59½, the assets in your traditional IRA can be distributed to your beneficiary or to your estate without either having to pay the 10% additional tax." "Generally, if you are under age 59½, you must pay a 10% additional tax on the distribution of any assets (money or other property) from your traditional IRA." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. ↩
4."If you reach age 72 after December 31, 2022, you must begin receiving required minimum distributions by April 1 of the year following the year you reach the age 73." "If the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date and the 10-year rule applies, no distribution is required for any year before the 10th year." "If the owner died on or after their required beginning date (defined earlier) and you are a designated beneficiary, base your required minimum distributions for years after the year of the owner's death on the longer of:" "Your single life expectancy shown in Table I in Appendix B; or" "The owner's life expectancy." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. ↩
5."If the owner died on or after the required beginning date, the IRA beneficiaries are responsible for figuring and distributing the owner's required minimum distribution in the year of death." "You figure the required minimum distribution for the year in which an IRA owner dies as if the owner lived for the entire year." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. ↩
6."Generally, a RMD is calculated for each account by dividing the prior December 31 balance of that IRA or retirement plan account by a life expectancy factor that the IRS publishes in Tables in Publication 590-B." IRS, "Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs," Q4, https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plan-and-ira-required-minimum-distributions-faqs. "For each subsequent calendar year, if you are not the surviving spouse, the applicable denominator is reduced by one for each calendar year that has elapsed after the calendar year following the employee's death." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. The factors are from the Single Life Table (30.6 at age 56) and the Uniform Lifetime Table (20.2 at age 80) in 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-9, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.401(a)(9)-9. Example figures: $404,000 ÷ 20.2 = $20,000; $382,500 ÷ 30.6 = $12,500. The rule and the dates are those returned by the engine behind our inherited IRA rules calculator, /tools/inherited-ira-rules. Hypothetical figures for illustration only. ↩
7."An IRA beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary if the beneficiary is the owner's surviving spouse, the owner's minor child, a disabled individual, a chronically ill individual, or any other individual who is not more than 10 years younger than the IRA owner." "For a beneficiary receiving life expectancy payments who is either an eligible designated beneficiary or a minor child, the 10-year rule also applies to the remaining amounts in the IRA upon the death of the eligible designated beneficiary or upon the minor child beneficiary reaching the age of majority." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. The regulation's limits are "the calendar year that includes the tenth anniversary of the date of the designated beneficiary's death" and "the calendar year that includes the tenth anniversary of the date the designated beneficiary reaches the age of majority." 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-5(e)(3) and (e)(4), https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.401(a)(9)-5. "An individual reaches the age of majority on the individual's 21st birthday." 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-4(e)(3), https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.401(a)(9)-4. ↩
8."If a Roth IRA owner dies, the minimum distribution rules that apply to traditional IRAs apply to Roth IRAs as though the Roth IRA owner died before their required beginning date." "If a distribution to a beneficiary isn't a qualified distribution, it is generally includible in the beneficiary's gross income in the same manner as it would have been included in the owner's income had it been distributed to the IRA owner when they were alive." A qualified distribution is one "made after the 5-year period beginning with the first tax year for which a contribution was made to a Roth IRA set up for your benefit" and, among other cases, "Made to a beneficiary or to your estate after your death". IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. ↩
9."Beneficiaries of a traditional IRA must include in their gross income any taxable distributions they receive." "Like the original owner, you generally won't owe tax on the assets in the IRA until you receive distributions from it." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. For Illinois: "You may subtract the amount of any federally taxed portion (not the gross amount) included in your Form IL-1040, Line 1 that you received from" "an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) (including amounts rolled over to a Roth IRA) or a self-employed retirement (SEP) plan reported on your U.S. 1040 or 1040-SR, Line 4b." Illinois Department of Revenue, Publication 120, Retirement Income (R-12/25), https://tax.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/tax/research/publications/pubs/documents/pub-120.pdf. The publication describes the subtraction by the kind of income, not by who first owned the account. ↩
10."A QCD is generally a nontaxable distribution made directly by the trustee of your IRA (other than an ongoing SEP or SIMPLE IRA) to an organization eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. You must be at least age 70½ when the distribution is made." "A qualified charitable distribution will count towards your required minimum distribution." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. IRS Notice 2007-7, Q&A-37, states that the exclusion is available for a distribution from an IRA maintained for a beneficiary who has reached 70½ before the distribution is made, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-07-07.pdf. ↩
11."you may have to pay a 25% excise tax for that year on the amount not distributed as required." "You may be subject to a reduced additional tax rate of 10% of the amount not distributed, if, during the correction window, you take a distribution of the amount on which the tax is due (the excess accumulation) and submit a tax return reflecting this additional tax." "If the 10-year rule applies, the amount remaining in the IRA, if any, after December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner's death is subject to the excise tax detailed in Excess Accumulations (Insufficient Distributions), later." IRS Publication 590-B, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b. The statute is 26 U.S.C. § 4974, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/4974. ↩

Questions people ask

What is an inherited IRA?: It is an IRA left to you by someone who has died. The account stays in the name of the person who died, for your benefit. If you are not the spouse, you cannot add money to it or roll it into your own IRA, and the law sets a deadline for withdrawing everything.
What is the 10-year rule for an inherited IRA?: Most heirs who are not the spouse must withdraw the whole account by December 31 of the year that contains the tenth anniversary of the death. If the owner died in 2026, the account must be empty by December 31, 2036. Some heirs must also take a withdrawal every year until then.
Do you have to take RMDs from an inherited IRA?: It depends on the owner. If the owner had reached the date their own required withdrawals had to begin, you generally must take a withdrawal every year, starting the year after the death. If the owner died before that date and the ten-year rule applies to you, nothing is required until the tenth year.
How do you calculate the RMD for an inherited IRA?: Divide the balance on December 31 of the year before by your life expectancy factor. The factor comes from the IRS Single Life table for your age in the year after the death, and it goes down by one each year after that. A factor of 30.6 on $382,500 gives $12,500.
Can you make a QCD from an inherited IRA?: Generally yes, if you yourself are 70½ or older when the gift is made. The IRS has said the rule for gifts paid from an IRA to a charity also covers an IRA held for a beneficiary. The gift counts toward a required withdrawal and is left out of your income.

A first conversation

When you are ready, this is worth an unhurried conversation.

A first call with an advisor, just to get to know each other. No preparation needed, and no obligation on either side.

Schedule a conversation See if you're a fit

Continue exploring

Related pieces

Browse archive

An old oak and younger oaks on an Illinois prairie in morning light

Taxes

Does Illinois have an inheritance tax?

A small stream branching from a wide river and winding through a green meadow in morning light

Taxes

Can you avoid taxes on RMDs?

A stone-lined channel carrying water from a pond straight into a green orchard in warm afternoon light

Taxes

The QCD limit for 2026.

Important information

Please read carefully. The full text is also available on the Disclosures page and in our Form ADV Part 2A.

Considerate Capital, LLC ("Considerate Capital") is a Registered Investment Adviser. Registration does not imply any level of skill or training. Advisory services are available only to United States residents. For information pertaining to our registration status, the fees we charge and how we are compensated, additional costs that may be incurred, our conflicts of interest, any disclosed disciplinary events of the Firm or its personnel, and the types of services we offer, please contact us directly or refer to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website (www.adviserinfo.sec.gov) to obtain a copy of our disclosure statement, Form ADV Part 2A. In addition, our Privacy Notice outlines how we handle your non-public personal information. Please read these documents carefully before you make a decision to engage Considerate Capital.

This material is limited to the dissemination of general information about Considerate Capital's investment advisory and financial planning services that is not suitable for everyone. Nothing herein should be interpreted or construed as investment advice, nor as legal, tax or accounting advice, nor as personalized financial planning, tax planning, or wealth management advice. For legal, tax and accounting-related matters, we recommend you seek the advice of a qualified attorney or accountant. This material is not a substitute for personalized investment or financial planning from Considerate Capital. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed herein will come to pass, and the information herein should not be considered a solicitation to engage in a particular investment or financial planning strategy. The statements and opinions expressed in this material are relevant as of the date of publication and are subject to change without notice based on changes in the law and other conditions.

Investing in the markets involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Information herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered a solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage in a particular investment or financial planning strategy. Individual client asset allocations and investment strategies differ based on varying degrees of diversification and other factors. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or guarantee against a loss.

Some content on this website is produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and is reviewed by a Considerate Capital adviser prior to publication. We make reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy but cannot guarantee that all AI-assisted content is free from error. References to third-party authors, books, tools, custodians, or other external sources are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement. If you identify an inaccuracy, please contact us so we can review and correct it.

Calculators and reference pages on this website are educational tools for your own use. They apply published rules and official figures to the numbers you enter, produce hypothetical estimates under stated assumptions, and are not personalized advice or a guarantee of any result. Figures change when the law changes. Do not rely on a result without consulting a qualified professional. Their use, and any website's permission to link to or display them, is governed by the Terms for the Tools at consideratecapital.com/tools/terms.

Considerate Capital does not solicit, publish, or use client testimonials or endorsements. Any quotation, story, or reference to an individual on this website is illustrative or educational in nature and is not a testimonial regarding the firm's advisory services. Mention of a third-party author, podcast guest, or public figure is not an endorsement of Considerate Capital by that person, nor an endorsement of that person by Considerate Capital.

Any social media account operated by Considerate Capital is intended for general communication and educational content. Social platforms are not a secure channel and should not be used to share personal financial information or to give instructions about your account. Comments, replies, or messages posted by third parties do not reflect the views of the firm and are not reviewed for accuracy.

What is an inherited IRA?

What is an inherited IRA?

What are the inherited IRA rules for a surviving spouse?

What is the inherited IRA 10-year rule?

Do you have to take RMDs from an inherited IRA?

How do you calculate the RMD for an inherited IRA?

Who can still use life expectancy instead of the 10-year rule?

What about an inherited Roth IRA?

How are inherited IRA withdrawals taxed?

Can you make a QCD from an inherited IRA?

What happens if you miss a required withdrawal?

What goes wrong with an inherited IRA?

The beneficiary categories

Death before and after the required beginning date

The example

The years 2021 through 2024

The rules

Questions and answers

Related pieces

Does Illinois have an inheritance tax?

Can you avoid taxes on RMDs?

The QCD limit for 2026.