Do grandchildren get the stretch on an inherited IRA?

No. Only the deceased's own minor children qualify for the minor-child stretch. Grandchildren and other young relatives are subject to the standard 10-year rule, unless they qualify under a different eligible designated beneficiary category.

Are annual RMDs required for a minor child inheriting an IRA?

Yes. The child takes annual life-expectancy RMDs during the stretch years, and the annual RMDs continue through the 10-year period that follows age 21. The RMDs are small when the child is young and grow as the divisor shrinks.

Inherited IRA Rules for Minor Children: The Stretch That Ends at 21

Q: What happens when the minor child turns 21?

At 21 the child stops being an eligible designated beneficiary and the 10-year rule takes over for the remaining balance. The account must be fully emptied by December 31 of the 10th year after the year the child turns 21, with annual RMDs continuing during that period.

Guides · Updated October 2026

The SECURE Act killed the stretch IRA for nearly everyone in 2020. Minor children are the interesting exception. A child of the deceased who is under 21 can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy, the last surviving pocket of the old rules. But the exception has an expiration date, and it is earlier than most people expect. At 21 the stretch ends and a 10-year clock starts, which means a child who inherits young can face a compressed distribution schedule right as they enter their highest-earning years.

How the minor child exception works

Of the five eligible designated beneficiary categories, the minor child is the only one defined by youth. Surviving spouses, disabled and chronically ill individuals, and people not more than ten years younger than the deceased keep their stretch indefinitely. A minor child keeps it only until the IRS's definition of majority for this purpose: age 21, regardless of the state the child lives in.

During the stretch years, the child takes annual required minimum distributions based on their life expectancy from the IRS Single Life Table, recalculated downward by one each year. A young child has a long life expectancy and a tiny divisor, so the RMDs are small and most of the balance keeps growing. The catch is what happens at 21. The child stops being an eligible designated beneficiary, and the remaining balance falls under the 10-year rule: fully emptied by December 31 of the tenth year after the year the child turns 21. Annual RMDs continue through that 10-year window.

Worked timeline: a 15-year-old inherits a $400,000 IRA

Ages 15 through 20: six years of life-expectancy RMDs. The divisors are large (a 16-year-old's life expectancy factor is in the high 60s), so the annual withdrawals are a few thousand dollars and the balance keeps compounding.

Age 21: the 10-year clock starts. Annual RMDs continue on the stretch schedule, but now there is a hard deadline. If the balance has grown to, say, $450,000 by age 21 and grows 6% a year, the required total withdrawals across the 10-year window average roughly $60,000 to $70,000 a year, all taxable as ordinary income.

Age 31: the account must be empty. The back half of the distributions lands squarely in the child's early career years, when their own salary is pushing them into higher brackets. That bracket collision is the real tax cost of the exception's expiration.

What families should actually plan for

The trap is treating the stretch years as the whole story. Six years of small RMDs feel painless, and the 10-year deadline at 21 feels far away when the beneficiary is a teenager. But the back-loaded distributions are the expensive ones, because they arrive when the child is 21 to 31, earning real money and getting taxed on the withdrawals at their marginal rate.

A few moves soften this. If the child is in a low bracket during the stretch years, taking more than the RMD before 21 shifts income into cheap years. Roth conversions inside the inherited account are not allowed for non-spouse beneficiaries, so that door is closed, but voluntary extra distributions are not. And if the original owner is still alive and planning, leaving the IRA to the spouse first (who can roll it over) and naming the child as successor beneficiary produces a cleaner tax picture than naming a minor child directly.

Only the owner's own children. This exception applies to minor children of the deceased, not grandchildren, nieces, or nephews. A grandchild who inherits is a designated beneficiary under the standard 10-year rule from day one, unless they qualify as disabled or chronically ill. Custodial accounts and UTMA money have their own rules entirely and do not interact with this.

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Frequently asked questions

Can a minor child stretch an inherited IRA?

Yes. A minor child of the deceased is an eligible designated beneficiary and can stretch distributions over their own life expectancy. The stretch lasts only until age 21, the IRS's definition of majority for this purpose, regardless of state law.

What happens when the minor child turns 21?

The child loses eligible designated beneficiary status and the 10-year rule takes over for the remaining balance. The account must be empty by December 31 of the tenth year after the year the child turns 21, with annual RMDs continuing in the meantime.

Do grandchildren get the minor child stretch?

No. Only the deceased's own minor children qualify. Grandchildren follow the standard 10-year rule unless they fit another eligible category, such as disabled or chronically ill.

Are annual RMDs required during the stretch years?

Yes. The child takes annual life-expectancy RMDs from the start, and they continue through the 10-year period after age 21. When the child is young the RMDs are small; they grow as the divisor shrinks.

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