Combine Inherited IRAs

Submitted by Jonathan Sard on Tue, 2013-04-09 16:55

A 60 year old is the beneficiary of his sister’s IRA and 401k. She died at the age of 62. Can he combine both accounts to one Inherited IRA for himself or does he have to maintain two separate Inherited IRAs?

Also, if the beneficiary (age 60) dies this year, does the first RMD still not have to be taken until 2014 based on the life expectancy of the beneficiaries beneficiary?

Thank you!



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2013-04-09 17:40

  1. The beneficiary can combine the inherited IRA accounts if they have the same divisors. They might not have the same divisors if separate accounts were not created by the deadline. But even if the two accounts cannot be combined due to different divisors, the RMDS could still be aggregated since the accounts were inherited from the same decedent.
  2. If both IRA owner and beneficiary died this year, the first RMD does not have to be distributed until the end of 2014. If IRA owner died before 2013, the first RMD must be taken by the end of 2013.
  3. The above scenarios do not contemplate election of the 5 year rule for either inherited account, but that remains an option.


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