If I inherit a 401(k), can I roll it into my own IRA?

By Kaz · Published 28 September 2026 · How this site checks figures

Summary

Only if you were married to the person who died. The IRS lists "Roll over the account into their own IRA" as an option for a surviving spouse, and Fidelity states that only a spouse can move inherited 401(k) assets into their own retirement account. Everyone else can move the money, but only into an inherited IRA, by a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer.

Who can do what

Beneficiary	Into your own IRA?	Deadline to empty the account
Surviving spouse	Yes, or keep it as an inherited account	Depends on the choice and on whether death came before the required beginning date
Minor child, disabled or chronically ill person, or someone not more than 10 years younger than the deceased	No; inherited IRA only	Can use life expectancy (the longer of your own and the deceased's remaining)
Any other individual, such as an adult child	No; inherited IRA only	End of the 10th year after the year of death

The spouse row assumes death in 2020 or later. The other two rows are the IRS's "eligible designated beneficiary" and "designated beneficiary (not an eligible designated beneficiary)" categories.

The nonspouse route

Fidelity's page on inherited 401(k) rules puts it this way: "Non-spouse beneficiaries can also do a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer of inherited 401(k) funds into an inherited IRA, following rules similar to inheriting someone's IRA." IRS Publication 590-B is just as direct about the limits: "If you inherit a traditional IRA from anyone other than your deceased spouse, you can't treat the inherited IRA as your own." That also means "you can't make any contributions to the IRA."

Order matters here. Fidelity warns: "Once a lump sum is taken, the 401(k) balance can't be rolled over." A 45-year-old who asks the plan for a check, planning to deposit it in an IRA later, has taken a distribution instead of a transfer. The IRS says beneficiaries "must include any taxable distributions they receive in their gross income," so the taxable part of that check goes into the beneficiary's gross income. The plan document, not the beneficiary, sets which payout options exist, and the IRS tells beneficiaries to contact the plan administrator for distributions from a qualified plan.

Why some spouses wait

Treating the money as your own isn't free of trade-offs. Distributions made "after death of the participant/IRA owner" appear on the IRS list of exceptions to the 10% additional tax, for 401(k)s and IRAs alike. Fidelity notes that a spouse younger than 59 1/2 who rolls the funds into their own account and then withdraws "may be subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty." For a 52-year-old widow who expects to spend some of the money before 59 1/2, keeping it as an inherited account, one of the two options the IRS gives her, keeps those withdrawals outside the 10% tax.

Sources

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