If you inherit an individual retirement account (IRA) from your spouse, you can generally treat it as your own, roll it into your own IRA, or keep it as an inherited IRA. The first two follow your age for required withdrawals and can carry a 10 percent penalty before age 59½. An inherited IRA has no such penalty.
Rules and figures in this guide were checked against Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Treasury, and California Franchise Tax Board sources on October 16, 2026.
After a spouse dies, the firm that holds their IRA sends a form asking what you want to do with the account. It is easy to worry about checking the wrong box during the hardest weeks of your life and learning later that the choice cannot be undone.
It helps to see the three options as steps you can take over time. Keeping the account inherited leaves every option open, and you can make it your own later. Making it your own is generally permanent. So the question to answer is which option fits this season of your life. Your spouse saved this money for a life you planned together, and it can now support the life you are living today.
The Three Options in Plain English
IRS Publication 590-B describes two basic choices for a surviving spouse, make the IRA your own or remain a beneficiary. You can make it your own in two ways, which is why most guides list three options.
Treat it as your own. The firm holding the account retitles it in your name, and from then on it is your IRA, with your own beneficiaries and your own rules. Publication 590-B allows this when you are the only beneficiary and can withdraw from the account freely.
Roll it into your own IRA. You move the money into an IRA in your name, or into a workplace plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b) that accepts it. A direct transfer from one account firm to the other is the simplest way to do it. If a check is made out to you, you have 60 days to deposit it, and a required withdrawal can never be moved this way. This option also works for your share when you are one of several beneficiaries.
Keep it as an inherited IRA. You stay a beneficiary, and the account stays in your spouse's name for your benefit. Withdrawals made because of the owner's death are free of the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty, according to IRS Topic 557.
Two actions can make the choice for you. If you are the only beneficiary and you add money to the inherited account or skip a required withdrawal, the IRS treats the account as your own from then on. It helps to know this before you move any money.
Three Options for an IRA Inherited From a Spouse
How Required Withdrawals Work for Each Option
Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are the yearly withdrawals the IRS requires from most IRAs at a certain age, and our glossary explains how required minimum distributions work. For a surviving spouse, the option you choose sets when they start and how large they are.
If you make the account your own
You follow the same RMD rules as any IRA owner, based on your own age. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (short for Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) and Treasury's 2024 regulations, RMDs start at 73 for people born 1951 through 1959 and at 75 for people born in 1960 or later. Your first one can wait until April 1 of the following year.
If your spouse had already started RMDs, any amount they had not yet taken for the year they died still has to come out first, and that amount cannot be moved into your own IRA.
If you keep it as an inherited IRA
The timing depends on whether your spouse had reached the date they had to start their own RMDs, generally April 1 of the year after reaching RMD age.
If your spouse died before that date and you are the only beneficiary, you generally do not have to withdraw anything until the end of the year your spouse would have reached RMD age. Publication 590-B gives the example of a spouse who died in 2022 at 65, where the survivor owes nothing until December 31, 2030, the year the deceased would have turned 73. Once withdrawals begin, the IRS lets a surviving spouse in this position use the same table owners use, which sets smaller yearly amounts. This comes from a SECURE 2.0 provision for surviving spouses, and some of the details are in rules the IRS proposed in July 2024. Some IRAs also let you choose to empty the account within 10 years, with no withdrawals required before the tenth year.
If your spouse died on or after that date, RMDs generally start the year after death, figured each year from your own life expectancy or your spouse's, whichever is longer, and any amount your spouse had not taken for the year of death still has to come out.
Missing an RMD can bring a 25 percent IRS penalty on the amount you missed, reduced to 10 percent when you correct it in time, so a written calendar of deadlines helps from the first week.
How your ages change the start date
When your spouse dies before their RMD start date, an inherited IRA follows your spouse's age and your own IRA follows yours, so the age difference between you decides which option starts RMDs later.
Take a hypothetical survivor born in 1964 whose spouse, born in 1958, died in 2026 at 68. Kept inherited, RMDs must start by the end of 2031, the year the spouse would have turned 73. Made their own, the first RMD is for 2039, the year the survivor turns 75.
A second hypothetical survivor, born in 1955, has a spouse born in 1962 who died in 2026 at 64. Made their own, the first RMD is for 2028, the year the survivor turns 73. Kept inherited, RMDs can wait until 2037, the year the spouse would have turned 75.
How Your Ages Change When Required Withdrawals Start
The Age 59½ Question
If you are under 59½, this question often carries the most weight. The IRS generally adds a 10 percent penalty to IRA withdrawals taken before 59½, on top of regular income tax, and withdrawals made because of the owner's death are one of the exceptions. Treasury's July 2024 proposed rules confirm that a surviving spouse who keeps the account inherited under the SECURE 2.0 provision owes no penalty, even before 59½.
Once the account is yours, that exception ends, because the money comes out of your own IRA. A hypothetical 56-year-old who withdraws $40,000 after making a spouse's IRA their own could owe a $4,000 federal penalty, plus $1,000 more as a California resident, since California adds its own 2.5 percent penalty on early withdrawals with its own list of exceptions. Both come on top of regular income tax, unless another exception applies.
If you are already past 59½, this rule matters much less, and the other factors below carry more weight.
Which Option Tends to Fit Which Situation
Each option fits some situations better than others. These are common ways to frame the question, and your own numbers decide the answer.
Making it your own tends to be considered when you are past 59½ and do not need the money soon. You set your own beneficiaries, and if you are younger than your spouse, required withdrawals can start later. The cost is the 59½ rule and a choice that is generally permanent.
Keeping it inherited tends to be considered when you are under 59½ and may need income from the account, or when you are older than your spouse and want a later start for required withdrawals. You cannot add money to an inherited IRA.
Rolling over tends to be considered when you want your accounts in one place, which can simplify things as you settle an estate. It carries the same 59½ rule and the same permanence as making it your own.
Doing both in sequence is an option for younger spouses. Keep the account inherited during the years you may need access, then decide after 59½ whether to make it your own. The IRS allows that later move.
A few other questions can change the answer. Your tax filing status changes after a spouse's death, which can push the same income into higher tax brackets. Larger required withdrawals later can also raise Medicare premiums, which go up at higher incomes. Some households look at converting part of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in lower-income years, and our guide to Roth conversion strategy for pre-retirees walks through that analysis. Each of these is part of your tax planning.
What Changes for a Roth IRA
The same three options apply. Roth IRA owners do not have to take RMDs, so making a spouse's Roth IRA your own generally means no required withdrawals during your lifetime. If you keep it inherited and you are the only beneficiary, you can generally wait until the year your spouse would have reached RMD age, and from then on it follows the same RMD rules as an inherited traditional IRA.
Withdrawals of contributions from a Roth IRA are tax free, and most withdrawals of earnings are too. Earnings can be taxed if the Roth account is less than five years old at the time of the withdrawal, so confirm the dates before taking money out.
Details That Can Decide for You
The year of death has its own RMD. If your spouse had started RMDs and had not taken the full amount for that year, the rest still has to come out and cannot be moved into your own IRA. Under the 2024 final rules, the IRS waives the penalty automatically if you take it by your tax filing deadline for that year, including extensions, or by the end of the following year if that is later.
Only beneficiary means the only one. Treating the account as your own requires being the only beneficiary, and the IRS settles that question by September 30 of the year after death. If children, a trust, or other people are also named, you have fewer options and the details matter.
How This Fits the Rest of What You Inherited
Money that went into a traditional IRA before tax is taxed as regular income when it comes out, on every option. An IRA does not get the step-up in basis, the reset to today's value, that a home or brokerage account usually gets at death. In California, community property can receive that reset on both halves when the first spouse dies, which makes how each asset was titled worth checking. If you also inherited accounts from a parent or someone else, our guide to inherited IRA rules and the 10-year rule for non-spouse beneficiaries covers those.
This is also a good time to review your own plan, since your beneficiaries, documents, and accounts all changed when your spouse died. Owning the IRA means naming your own beneficiaries, which connects this choice to your estate plan.
How We Think About This
At Up Capital Management, we start with the person and then the portfolio. An inherited IRA comes with a set of rules, and it is also part of the life you are now designing on your own. Our work is to help you see that life clearly as it is today and design your money around it. We also believe the kindest thing a person can do for the people who will grieve them is make the transfer of their money as painless as possible. For a surviving spouse, that work continues with the choices in this guide, made at the pace grief allows. We are a fee-only fiduciary wealth management firm in Roseville, paid only by the families we serve, with no commissions or product sales.
Where You Might Stand
You may have room to take your time if you have not moved any money yet, you have confirmed you are the only beneficiary, you know when your spouse died and whether their required withdrawals had begun, and you have a calendar with any year-of-death withdrawal on it.
Slow down and get a second opinion before signing anything if the account firm is pushing a form you do not fully understand, you are under 59½ and may need the money, a required withdrawal for the year of death has not been taken, more than one person is named on the account, or you added money to the inherited account. Each of these is easier to address before a form is signed.
I have been through grief myself, and I know how much it can cloud judgment. Research supports this. Studies have linked bereavement to weaker memory and thinking in older adults, and a 2018 study of middle-aged and older people found that prolonged grief was tied to faster cognitive decline. It helps to learn what grief does to the mind, and The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller and The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O'Connor helped me understand what I was going through. That is why my view is that when nothing forces the timing, the option you can change later deserves the first look. The weeks after a death are a hard time to make a permanent decision, and an inherited IRA leaves room to make that decision later with a clearer head.
Be patient with yourself through all of this, and lean on the people you trust. Some of them may be the right guides for these decisions too. If your situation is simple, you are past 59½, and your tax preparer has already walked you through it, that may be all the help you need. If you are under 59½, the account is large, or the money has to fund the next chapter of your life, it helps to see the whole picture before anything is signed. When you are ready to look at that picture, the Wealth Score is a simple place to start.
See Where You Stand With the Wealth Score
The Wealth Score is a 12-question assessment that measures how well your life is designed and whether your money is serving it. It looks at four areas, how your financial life is structured, how you experience it, what it is anchored to, and what it is for. Your scores arrive by email when you finish, and an Up Capital advisor can review them with you and use them to plan your next steps, including the choice in this guide. A good time to take it is a few months after a loss, once the first forms are signed and there is room to think about what comes next. It is built to be retaken, so you can come back to it as your life settles.
Common questions
What are the inherited IRA rules for a spouse?
A surviving spouse can generally treat the IRA as their own, roll it into their own IRA, or keep it as an inherited IRA. Treating it as your own requires being the only beneficiary. The first two follow the rules for owners, including the 10 percent penalty on withdrawals before 59½. An inherited IRA allows withdrawals at any age with no penalty.
Can I roll an IRA inherited from my spouse into my own IRA?
Generally yes, and the IRS treats that as making the IRA your own. A direct transfer between account firms is the simplest route. If you take a check, you have 60 days to deposit it, and a required withdrawal can never be rolled over. The rollover also works for your share when you are one of several beneficiaries.
Do I have to take RMDs from an IRA inherited from my spouse?
It depends on the option you choose and on when your spouse died. If you make the account your own, RMDs start at your own RMD age, currently 73 for people born 1951 through 1959 and 75 for people born in 1960 or later. If you keep it inherited and your spouse died before their RMD start date, you can generally wait until the year your spouse would have reached RMD age. If your spouse died on or after that date, RMDs generally start the year after death, and you may also owe your spouse's withdrawal for the year of death.
Will I pay the 10 percent penalty on a spouse's inherited IRA?
Withdrawals from an account kept inherited are free of the federal 10 percent penalty, since they are made because of the owner's death. Once you make the account your own, withdrawals before 59½ may owe that penalty, plus California's 2.5 percent penalty for California residents, unless another exception applies.
Can I change my mind after choosing?
You can move from inherited to your own. A spouse who keeps the account inherited can generally roll it over or treat it as their own later, and RMDs then follow the spouse's own age. Once the account is your own, it is your IRA going forward, so plan on that choice being permanent.