How to Claim 401(k) and IRA Accounts

Contact the plan administrator for each retirement account — the HR department for employer 401(k) plans, or the financial institution (Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, etc.) for IRAs. Request a beneficiary claim form and submit it with a certified death certificate and your government-issued ID. Processing typically takes 2 to 6 weeks.

Your options depend on your relationship to the deceased. Surviving spouses have the most flexibility: you can roll the account into your own IRA (treating it as if it were always yours), keep it as an inherited IRA with distributions based on your own life expectancy, or take a lump sum. Rolling it into your own IRA is usually the best option because it allows the money to continue growing tax-deferred and you can delay required minimum distributions until your own retirement age. Non-spouse beneficiaries (children, siblings, friends) must generally distribute the entire account within 10 years of the death under the SECURE Act rules. You can take the money out in any pattern within that 10-year window — all at once, annually, or in the final year — but the account must be fully distributed by December 31 of the tenth year.

The tax implications of inherited retirement accounts are significant. Traditional 401(k) and IRA distributions are taxed as ordinary income. Taking a large lump sum can push you into a much higher tax bracket for that year. Spreading distributions over the 10-year window allows you to manage the tax impact. Inherited Roth IRA distributions, by contrast, are completely tax-free (as long as the account was open for at least 5 years), though the 10-year distribution rule still applies. If you inherit multiple retirement accounts or face a complex situation, consulting a tax advisor or financial planner before making distribution elections can save you thousands in unnecessary taxes.