Inherited Gold IRA Rules: Spouses, 10-Year Rule and Options
When an IRA owner dies, the account passes to the named beneficiary, and what that person must do depends on who they are. A surviving spouse has extra choices, including treating the IRA as their own. Most other beneficiaries must empty the account within 10 years, and some must also take yearly withdrawals.
Inheriting a Gold IRA feels different from inheriting cash. The account may hold coins or bars, not stocks or a bank balance, and a tax deadline can arrive before anyone has decided what to do with the metal. This page explains the main federal rules for beneficiaries of a Traditional IRA that holds metals. The IRS rules we cite are written for IRAs generally, and we found no separate federal rule for metals, but that is our reading. It is one part of the broader Gold IRA Withdrawal Rules.
The rules were changed by the SECURE Act and the final regulations published in 2024. Where this page gives a reading of the rules rather than a plain statement from the IRS, it says so. Your own facts, such as who you are and when the owner died, can change the answer. That is a question for a tax professional.
What happens to a Gold IRA when the owner dies?
The IRA goes to the beneficiary the owner named on the account paperwork. Publication 590-B says: "A beneficiary can be any person or entity the owner chooses to receive the benefits of the IRA after the owner dies" (Publication 590-B). Naming and updating beneficiaries is covered in naming beneficiaries on a Gold IRA.
The IRA does not stop being an IRA. The beneficiary generally becomes responsible for taking required withdrawals on a schedule set by law. Which schedule applies depends mainly on three things:
- Who the beneficiary is (a spouse, a person in a special group, or anyone else).
- Whether the owner died before or after reaching their "required beginning date," the date when yearly withdrawals had to begin. See Gold IRA Required Minimum Distributions for how that date works.
- Whether the beneficiary is a person at all. An estate or other non-person gets different treatment.
What is the 10-year rule for inherited IRAs?
For the legislative background, see SECURE Act changes. The IRS describes it this way on its beneficiary page: "Empty the entire account by the end of the 10th year following the year of the account owner's (or eligible designated beneficiary's) death" (IRS).
Publication 590-B gives the same idea with a date: "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" (Publication 590-B).
For example, if an owner died in 2026, the 10th anniversary falls in 2036. The account would need to be empty by December 31, 2036. The statute, 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(9)(H), is where the 10-year period is written into law.
Do you have to take withdrawals every year during the 10 years?
It depends on when the owner died. This is the part most readers find confusing.
- Owner died before the required beginning date. Publication 590-B says: "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" (Publication 590-B). The beneficiary may still choose to withdraw earlier.
- Owner died on or after the required beginning date. The final regulations published in 2024 say: "If an employee dies after the required beginning date, distributions to the employee's beneficiary for calendar years after the calendar year in which the employee died must satisfy section 401(a)(9)(B)(i) as well as section 401(a)(9)(B)(ii)" (Federal Register). Our reading is that this means yearly minimums during the 10 years, in addition to emptying the account by the deadline. Confirm this with a tax professional for your case. The regulation itself is at 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-5.
The IRS also said that for 2024 it would not assert the excise tax for certain missed distributions. Notice 2024-35 states: "To the extent a taxpayer did not take a specified RMD (as defined in section IV.C of this notice), the IRS will not assert that an excise tax is due under § 4974" (Notice 2024-35). We did not find similar relief for later years in the sources we opened, so check the current IRS position. The notice's text defines who is covered, so read it or ask a professional.
The Federal Register says the amended regulations, including 1.401(a)(9)-1 through 1.401(a)(9)-9, "apply for purposes of determining required minimum distributions for calendar years beginning on or after January 1, 2025" (Federal Register).
Who are eligible designated beneficiaries?
Some beneficiaries are not limited to the 10-year rule. Publication 590-B says: "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" (Publication 590-B). The statute defines the group in 401(a)(9)(E).
| Beneficiary type | General treatment, per the IRS sources reviewed |
|---|---|
| Surviving spouse | Extra choices, described in the next section |
| Eligible designated beneficiary other than a spouse (minor child of the owner, disabled, chronically ill, or not more than 10 years younger than the owner) | May be able to take withdrawals over life expectancy instead of the 10-year rule (401(a)(9)(B)(iii); Publication 590-B) |
| Other individual (for example, an adult child or a friend more than 10 years younger) | 10-year rule |
| Estate or other non-person | Different rules; the 5-year rule applies if the owner died before the required beginning date |
On the life expectancy option, the IRS says: "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" (Publication 590-B). In other words, the 10 years can start later for those beneficiaries.
The 5-year rule is described in Publication 590-B: it "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 fifth anniversary of the owner's death" (Publication 590-B). The estate case and the details are technical. Ask a professional if the beneficiary is an estate or trust.
What can a surviving spouse do with an inherited Gold IRA?
A spouse has more options than anyone else. Publication 590-B says that if you inherit a traditional IRA from your spouse, you "generally have the following two choices": treat it as your own IRA by naming yourself the account owner, or treat it as your own by rolling it over into your IRA. It also says a spouse may "Treat yourself as the beneficiary rather than treating the IRA as your own" (Publication 590-B).
The IRS beneficiary page also lists, for a death in 2020 or later, options such as keeping the account as an inherited account and taking distributions based on the spouse's own life expectancy, or rolling it into the spouse's own IRA (IRS). That page describes the delay in terms of an older starting age, so we have not relied on it for ages. See the RMD guide for current ages and check the current rule with a professional.
| Spousal choice | What the IRS sources say | Things to weigh with a professional |
|---|---|---|
| Treat as your own | You become the account owner | Timing of required withdrawals; ask a professional |
| Roll over to your own IRA | Treated as your own | Rollover mechanics and the metal itself; see the rollover guide |
| Stay a beneficiary | Withdrawals follow beneficiary rules | Timing and age differences between spouses |
What about metal that stays in the account?
For a non-spouse, Publication 590-B says: "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..." (Publication 590-B)
Two points follow for metals. First, a move to another custodian is done as a transfer, not as a rollover. Second, we found no IRS guidance on whether a given custodian will keep inherited metal in kind. That is a custodian policy question. Ask it in writing before deciding.
Can a beneficiary take the metal itself or take cash?
Whether a custodian will distribute the metal itself or sell it and pay cash is a custodian policy question, so ask the custodian. The tax treatment is the same idea as for the owner. Distributions from a traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income, subject to the nondeductible-contribution exception (Publication 590-B). When property is distributed, the instructions for Form 1099-R say to include in box 1 "the FMV of the securities or other property on the date of distribution" (IRS instructions). "FMV" means fair market value.
Taking coins in kind and selling inside the IRA are compared in in-kind distributions.
| Sell inside the IRA, take cash | Take metal in kind | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount taxed (Traditional IRA) | Cash distributed | Fair market value on distribution date |
| Beneficiary ends up with | Cash | Coins or bars, owned personally |
| Practical points | Dealer buyback spread; custodian fees | Shipping, insurance; the metal's later value is not the same as the value taxed |
Hypothetical example
These numbers are made up to show how the rules fit together. They are not advice.
A parent dies in 2026 with a Traditional Gold IRA valued at $300,000. Suppose the adult child is the named beneficiary, is not disabled or chronically ill, and is more than 10 years younger than the parent. The child would not fall into the eligible designated beneficiary group, so the 10-year rule would apply, and the account would need to be empty by December 31, 2036. Whether yearly withdrawals are required before then depends on whether the parent had passed the required beginning date. If so, our reading of the final regulations is that yearly minimums apply in 2027 through 2035. If the parent died on or after the required beginning date and had not yet taken that year's required minimum distribution, the child would also be responsible for the 2026 amount (Publication 590-B). Each year's amount is a tax-planning choice for a CPA, because withdrawals in the same year add to taxable income.
Common mistakes
- Missing the year-of-death withdrawal. Publication 590-B says: "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."
- Assuming no deadline for a non-spouse. Most non-spouse individuals face a hard end date.
- Trying to roll an inherited IRA. A non-spouse can't roll amounts into or out of it, per Publication 590-B.
- Mixing up accounts when totaling RMDs. Publication 590-B says an owner of several traditional IRAs figures each IRA's amount separately and may total them, and "the same rule applies if you are a designated beneficiary of more than one IRA that was owned by a single decedent." We did not verify whether inherited and personal IRA amounts can be totaled, so ask a professional.
- Forgetting Roth IRAs. The IRS says RMD rules do apply to the beneficiaries of Roth IRAs (IRS FAQs).
- Waiting to sort out the metal. Selling or shipping metal takes time, so ask the custodian about its process early.
Related questions
What happens to a Gold IRA when I die?
It goes to the beneficiaries you named on the account forms, so check them. See naming beneficiaries on a Gold IRA.
Do RMD rules apply to Roth IRA beneficiaries?
The IRS says beneficiaries of Roth IRAs are subject to RMD rules. We did not verify how the year-by-year details work for Roth accounts, so ask a tax professional.
Who should I talk to?
A CPA, enrolled agent or tax attorney can review the owner's date of death, the beneficiary's category and the account paperwork. Your custodian can explain its own forms and timing.
This page is general education, not tax or legal advice. Rules on inherited IRAs are technical and were changed by the SECURE Act and the 2024 final regulations. Consult a CPA, enrolled agent or attorney about your situation.
Sources
- Retirement topics - Beneficiary, Internal Revenue Service. Accessed Invalid Date.
- Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), Internal Revenue Service. Accessed Invalid Date.
- 26 U.S.C. 401, Qualified pension, profit-sharing, and stock bonus plans (see (a)(9)), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (U.S. Code). Accessed Invalid Date.
- Required Minimum Distributions (final regulations), Federal Register. Accessed Invalid Date.
- 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-5, Required minimum distributions from defined contribution plans, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR). Accessed Invalid Date.
- Notice 2024-35, Certain Required Minimum Distributions for 2024, Internal Revenue Service. Accessed Invalid Date.
- Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs, Internal Revenue Service. Accessed Invalid Date.
- Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 (2026), Internal Revenue Service. Accessed Invalid Date.
This guide is general education, not personalized financial, tax or legal advice. See our financial disclaimer, editorial policy and advertising disclosure.