Do separate custodians create separate 10-year deadlines?

No. The inherited-IRA terminal deadline is generally tied to the original owner’s year of death and the beneficiary rules, not to the date each custodian opens an inherited account. Three IRAs inherited from the same person can therefore share one December 31 year-10 endpoint even if transfer and claim paperwork is completed on different dates.

Can I take all inherited IRA RMDs from one account?

Generally, inherited traditional IRA RMDs can be aggregated only among IRAs inherited from the same decedent, after each account’s required amount is calculated separately. You can then generally withdraw the combined amount from one or more of those eligible inherited IRAs. Inherited Roth IRAs have a separate same-decedent aggregation rule.

Can an IRA inherited from my mother satisfy an RMD for one inherited from my father?

No. The IRS instructions limit inherited IRA aggregation to accounts inherited from the same decedent. Keep a separate RMD ledger for each deceased owner even when all accounts are held at one financial institution. Mixing the two can leave one inherited IRA with an unpaid RMD and create an excise-tax issue.

Can I aggregate an inherited 401(k) RMD with an inherited IRA?

Generally no. Qualified retirement plans must normally satisfy their own RMDs from the specific plan. A 403(b) has a special aggregation rule within that category, but qualified plans do not simply join an IRA aggregation pool. A later direct rollover to an inherited IRA can change administration, but any required plan distribution must first be handled correctly.

What happens to the deadline when I transfer custodians?

A trustee-to-trustee transfer does not restart the inherited-IRA clock. Keep both custodians’ statements for the transfer year because the receiving institution may not know every prior distribution or year-end balance. Your tax tracker should preserve the original owner’s date of death, RBD status, and terminal deadline across every custody change.

Inherited IRA Held at Multiple Custodians: How to Track Separate Accounts and One 10-Year Clock

If the same decedent left you IRAs at Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, or other custodians, opening the beneficiary accounts on different dates does not create different federal 10-year clocks. The terminal deadline is tied to the original owner’s year of death and beneficiary classification, not to when each financial institution finishes its paperwork.

RMD accounting is more nuanced. IRS Form 5329 instructions say inherited traditional IRA RMDs may generally be aggregated only among IRAs inherited from the same decedent. Inherited Roth IRAs have their own same-decedent aggregation rule, and qualified employer plans generally cannot be aggregated with IRAs.

One decedent means one death-based 10-year endpoint for comparable interests

Assume your mother dies in 2026 and leaves you three traditional IRAs held at three institutions. If you are a non-EDB designated beneficiary subject to the 10-year rule, each inherited interest is governed by a deadline measured from her 2026 death. The accounts do not receive a 2037 deadline merely because one custodian does not establish your inherited registration until 2027.

The normal endpoint for a 2026 death is December 31, 2036. Separate accounts can have different balances and investment results, but the federal calendar is anchored to the same decedent.

Calculate the required amount separately before using aggregation

IRS guidance requires the RMD to be figured for each account before aggregation rules are applied. If the accounts are inherited traditional IRAs from the same decedent and the applicable rule permits aggregation, you can generally withdraw the combined required amount from one or more of those inherited IRAs.

This flexibility does not mean you can ignore an account in the calculation. Each prior-year-end balance and applicable denominator must be included. A spreadsheet should show account-level calculated RMD, distributions actually taken, and the combined same-decedent total.

Different decedents cannot be pooled

If you inherited one IRA from your mother and another from your father, distributions from the mother’s inherited IRA cannot generally satisfy the father’s inherited IRA RMD. Form 5329 instructions specifically limit beneficiary aggregation to IRAs inherited from the same decedent.

This remains true even if both accounts are at the same financial institution and both parents died in the same year. The decedent identity is a tax boundary. See can you combine RMDs from multiple inherited IRAs for the existing aggregation rules.

Inherited Roth IRAs stay in a separate aggregation bucket

Roth IRA beneficiaries are subject to post-death RMD rules even though a Roth IRA owner generally has no lifetime RMD. The Form 5329 instructions say only withdrawals from Roth IRAs inherited from the same decedent can be combined to satisfy inherited Roth IRA RMDs.

Do not use a traditional inherited IRA distribution to claim an inherited Roth RMD was satisfied, or vice versa, without verifying the specific rule. Maintaining separate traditional and Roth columns in the tracker prevents this mistake.

401(k) and other qualified plans usually cannot join the IRA pool

Qualified retirement plans generally require their RMDs to be calculated and withdrawn from the specific plan. A 403(b) has its own aggregation exception, but a 401(k) inherited from the same person does not simply merge into the inherited IRA RMD calculation.

If a non-spouse beneficiary makes a permitted direct rollover from an employer plan into an inherited IRA, the account type and subsequent RMD administration can change. The rollover should be completed only after identifying any plan RMD that is not eligible for rollover.

Example: three custodians, one payment

Assume Clara inherited three traditional IRAs from her father: $90,000 at Custodian A, $140,000 at Custodian B, and $70,000 at Custodian C. Her separately calculated 2027 inherited RMDs are $3,600, $5,600, and $2,800, for a total of $12,000. If all three are aggregable inherited traditional IRAs from the same decedent, Clara can generally take the full $12,000 from one or more of those inherited IRAs.

She should still record each calculated amount. If she withdraws only $10,000 because one portal showed a smaller “RMD due” number, the combined same-decedent requirement can remain short by $2,000.

Transfers between custodians do not restart or erase deadlines

A trustee-to-trustee transfer from one inherited IRA custodian to another can preserve inherited status if the receiving account remains in the decedent’s name for your benefit. The transfer date does not create a fresh ten-year period and does not erase the distribution history from the old custodian.

Keep year-end statements from both institutions in a transfer year. The receiving custodian may not have all prior RMD data, so relying only on its portal can omit a distribution or balance that occurred before the transfer.

Build a decedent-centered tracker

Instead of organizing your spreadsheet only by financial institution, use the decedent as the top-level key. Record the original owner’s name, date of death, RBD status, your beneficiary class, terminal deadline, and account type. Under that record, list each custodian, account suffix, prior-year-end balance, calculated RMD, actual distributions, and transfer dates.

If you inherit from another person, create a separate decedent record even if the account is held at the same broker. This mirrors the IRS same-decedent aggregation rule.

Annual checklist

Collect December 31 prior-year balances from every inherited account before calculating RMDs.
Group accounts by decedent and then by traditional versus Roth status.
Calculate each account RMD separately before deciding where to withdraw the total.
Do not combine qualified-plan RMDs with IRA RMDs unless a specific rule permits it.
Record trustee-to-trustee transfers and preserve statements from the sending custodian.
Reconcile total annual withdrawals by December rather than trusting each portal in isolation.
Keep the common terminal 10-year deadline visible even when annual RMDs are fully satisfied.

Why annual compliance does not satisfy the year-10 endpoint

Taking every annual RMD can still leave a large balance near the end of the 10-year period. The terminal rule requires the applicable remaining interest to be fully distributed by the deadline. A multi-custodian tracker should therefore show both this year’s minimum and the projected balance that must disappear by year 10.

For withdrawal pacing beyond the minimum, see cash out versus spread over 10 years and the tax-bracket framework.

Track by decedent first, custodian second

A spreadsheet is most reliable when the first grouping field is the person who died, not Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, or another custodian. For each decedent, record date of death, whether death occurred before or after the required beginning date, beneficiary class, terminal deadline, each inherited account, prior-year December 31 balance, calculated RMD, distribution actually taken, and transfer history. Custodian names can change; the decedent-based tax history does not.

Aggregation is an optional payment mechanism, not permission to ignore the individual calculations. When aggregation is allowed for inherited IRAs from the same decedent, calculate the RMD attributable to each account first. Then document which account paid the combined amount. If one account is later transferred or closed, you still have a record showing how the total was derived.

Keep separate pools for inherited traditional IRAs and inherited Roth IRAs when the rules require it, and do not blend qualified-plan RMDs into the IRA spreadsheet merely because the same person left both accounts. Employer plans can have plan-specific distribution procedures and generally are not satisfied by taking an IRA distribution instead.

At year end, reconcile the spreadsheet to Forms 1099-R and the December 31 statements. A transfer between custodians should show as a movement of the same inherited interest, not a new date of death or fresh 10-year period. If a custodian’s portal displays a generic “10 years from account opening” date, compare it with the statutory deadline based on the decedent rather than trusting the software label.

One annual file can prevent double counting

Store each custodian’s RMD worksheet, year-end balance, transfer confirmation, and Form 1099-R under the same decedent-year folder. When you aggregate a permitted RMD into one account, add a note showing which other account obligations that payment satisfied. Otherwise, a future preparer may look at an account showing no distribution and incorrectly conclude its RMD was missed.

At the year-10 endpoint, verify the aggregate balance is actually zero across every account tied to that decedent. Closing one inherited IRA does not satisfy the terminal rule if another custodian still holds part of the same inherited interest.

Practical note: If one custodian calculates an RMD using a different beneficiary classification from another, do not simply average the numbers. Reconcile the underlying facts—decedent RBD status, beneficiary type, life-expectancy factor, and year-end balance—and correct the inconsistent calculation before choosing where to take the aggregate payment.

This is general information, not personalized tax or legal advice — a CPA or estate attorney can confirm how this applies to your specific inherited account.