SECURE – Successor beneficiary

I read somewhere (can’t remember the publication) that new 10-year payout impacts successors beneficiaries too.

For example, lets say an “eligible designated beneficiary” inherits an IRA post 2020 and is taking payouts based on his/here life expectancy. Under the prior rules (pre 2020) the successor beneficiary could continue the stretch using the original (first) beneficiaries remaining life expectancy

Post SECURE – would the 2nd generation beneficiary now be subject to maximum payout of 10 years? could they continue using the life expectancy of the original beneficiary?
Does is matter if the 2nd beneficiaries is an “eligible” beneficiary?

All guidance is appreciated.



  • Yes, the successor beneficiary would be subject to a 10-year payout.
  • § 401(a)(9)(H)(iii) If an eligible designated beneficiary dies before the portion of the employee’s interest to which this subparagraph applies is entirely distributed, the exception under clause (ii) shall not apply to any beneficiary of such eligible designated beneficiary and the remainder of such portion shall be distributed within 10 years after the death of such eligible designated beneficiary.
  • Notice that with regard to the successor beneficiary it says *any* beneficiary.


bene inheriting when the original benficiaries remaining life expectancy is less than 10 years?  Would the 10 year still apply? or the remaining life expectancy (of the now deceased  original bene)?



The successor beneficiary to an eligible designated beneficiary gets 10 years to complete the distribution regardless of the remaining life expectancy of the eligible designated beneficiary.  Although the statute doesn’t say it, I assume that the IRS will implement this as requiring the distribution to be completed by the end of the 10th year following the year of the eligible designated beneficiary’s death, not within 10 years from the actual date of death, since only the cumulative total of distributions is reported for any given year, not the actual dates of distributions.



Note that Sec 401(b)(5) also applies the 10 year rule to successor beneficiaries of current designated beneficiaries who inherited before the effective date, but pass after the effective date.



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