What is the 10-year rule for an inherited IRA?
It is a deadline for emptying the account, not a schedule for withdrawing from it. Where it applies, the inherited account must be fully distributed by December 31 of the tenth calendar year following the year of the owner's death.
It generally applies to a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary, for owners who died after 2019. A surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner, a disabled or chronically ill individual and someone not more than ten years younger than the owner are treated differently.
The phrase "you have ten years" is where most summaries go wrong. Meeting the deadline is one obligation; whether something must also be withdrawn in the years before it is a separate one, and for some beneficiaries both apply.
Classification comes before every deadline
Beneficiary rules are not one rule. Which framework applies depends on what kind of beneficiary was named, what kind of account it is, when the owner died, and whether the owner had already reached the required beginning date.
Any explanation that starts with a deadline has skipped the step that determines whether the deadline applies at all. An estate or other non-individual beneficiary, for example, is generally not on the ten-year rule at all.
A deadline and an annual requirement are two different obligations
The ten-year rule sets a date by which the account must be empty. Whether something must also come out in the years before that date is a separate question with a separate answer.
Under the final regulations, that second question turns largely on whether the owner had reached the required beginning date at death.
What a general answer cannot tell you
A general explanation can name the variables and show how they interact. It cannot establish your beneficiary classification, confirm which regime applies to your account, calculate an amount, or tell you when to withdraw.
Those determinations rest on the account documents, the beneficiary designation in force at death and your own tax picture, and they belong with the custodian, a tax professional and, where a trust or an estate is involved, an attorney. Nothing here is individualized tax, legal, investment or estate advice.
Reviewed by Bay Area Wealth Advisors. Last reviewed 2026-09-18. Educational information only — not individualized financial, tax or legal advice.