Classify the inherited account before touching the 2026 balance
Distribution rules depend on the owner's date of death, whether death occurred before or after the required beginning date, account type, beneficiary relationship, and whether the beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary. A surviving spouse may have choices unavailable to other beneficiaries. A minor child, disabled or chronically ill person, or someone not more than ten years younger can require specialized analysis.
The post-2019 ten-year rule generally requires certain designated beneficiaries to empty the account by the end of the tenth year after death, but annual RMD treatment can also depend on whether the owner died after the required beginning date. Enter only classifications supported by the custodian, plan record, and current IRS guidance. A mistaken class changes both timing and the factor path.
An original owner's non-inherited 2026 obligation uses a different table pathway in the owner RMD calculator and should not be substituted for beneficiary Table I treatment.
Calculate the inherited IRA's 2026 annual minimum on Table I
When the supported branch requires an annual 2026 amount, divide the December 31, 2025 balance by the applicable Single Life Expectancy factor. Beneficiary factors can be reduced in later years rather than recalculated from current age, depending on the governing rule and starting year. The workbench uses its explicit branch contract; it should not be generalized to every trust, estate, spouse election, or pre-2020 death.
Preserve the prior-year statement, factor source, beneficiary date of birth, owner death date, and prior distribution history. If the owner had an unpaid year-of-death RMD, treat that as a separate obligation. A custodian's displayed amount may omit another inherited account or use facts not visible here, so discrepancies require a record-level reconciliation rather than averaging the two numbers.
To illustrate how a declared withdrawal affects account duration after the legal minimum is known, use the money-longevity calculator without treating its smooth return as tax or compliance advice.
Plan the ten-year inherited IRA endpoint independently of the minimum
An annual RMD is not necessarily the amount needed to empty the account by the deadline. Taking only minimums can leave a large final-year distribution, while a larger earlier withdrawal can alter taxes and future growth. The calculator should show the outside deadline separately and avoid describing the minimum as a complete drawdown plan. Investment returns and tax rates remain assumptions outside the legal timing screen.
Modeling equal withdrawals can help visualize cash flow, but it does not choose a tax-efficient strategy or account for state rules, Medicare premiums, credits, estimated tax, or charitable options. Inherited Roth IRAs can still face beneficiary distribution timing even when qualified withdrawals may be tax-free. Confirm account character and basis with records before interpreting net cash.
A beneficiary who also funds a personal Roth IRA can model that unrelated accumulation with the Roth IRA calculator, but an inherited distribution does not automatically create eligible compensation or contribution room.
Read the result, compare branches, and stop on edge cases
Start with the annual-status sentence and the large 2026 amount, then read the deadline separately. A supported before-RBD ten-year branch can show a $0 annual minimum while still requiring the account to be empty by December 31 of the tenth year after death. An on-or-after-RBD ten-year branch can instead combine annual Table I distributions with that same outside deadline. A tested $298,000 balance divided by a 29.8 factor produces a $10,000 annual minimum, but that illustration does not establish anyone's beneficiary class or divisor.
Next, check the divisor, post-death year, balance legend, and inputs-and-assumptions panel against the account records. Use the adjusted December 31, 2025 balance for this inherited IRA—not today's value or the beneficiary's personal IRA—and keep any owner year-of-death RMD separate. Do not use this individual workflow for trusts, estates, charities, successor beneficiaries, unseparated multiple-beneficiary accounts, undocumented eligible-designated-beneficiary status, or a spouse election that changes the account pathway. If any confirmation remains unknown, reconcile it with the custodian or a qualified tax or estate professional before acting; the page cannot validate documents, determine penalties or relief, prepare a tax return, or give legal advice.