What Happens to a Precious Metals IRA When You Die

Editorial disclosure: This page is educational. White Metal Resources is not a financial or tax advisor. Consult a licensed professional before making retirement or estate decisions.

Last updated: August 6, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial

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This page answers the plain question account owners ask when they update their estate plan: what actually happens to a precious metals IRA on the day the owner dies. The answer touches beneficiary law, IRS retirement rules, and one estate quirk that surprises almost everyone. Every figure below traces to IRS Publication 590-B, 26 U.S.C. section 401 or 408, or the SECURE Act 2.0 (Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, Division T).

What actually happens the day the owner dies?

The account does not close. The metal does not get shipped anywhere. And nothing is taxable until a distribution happens. Three parties act in sequence: the custodian, the depository, and the named beneficiary.

Step one is administrative. The IRA custodian receives a certified death certificate and freezes the account against new transactions. The self-directed IRA custodian is the entity in the paperwork chain (companies like Equity Trust, STRATA Trust, or Preferred Trust). They are not the dealer that sold the metal and not the depository that stores it.

Step two is inventory. The depository confirms what is actually in the vault under the account title, coin by coin and bar by bar. This is standard because inherited IRAs are audited more often than the owner's account was during life.

Step three is retitling. Once the beneficiary comes forward with the death certificate and identification, the custodian retitles the account into an inherited IRA structure or into the surviving spouse's own IRA. The physical metal never leaves the depository during this process (source: IRS Publication 590-B).

Why the beneficiary form beats your will

An IRA is a contract with the custodian, not a probate asset. The beneficiary form you filed when you opened the account, or the most recent one on file, decides who inherits. Your will is not consulted unless the form is blank, ambiguous, or names only beneficiaries who died before you.

This is not a quirk of one custodian. It is how every retirement account works under federal law. A well-drafted will that says "everything to my daughter" does not override an old IRA form that names your former spouse.

The practical outcome is that people who go decades without updating their beneficiary form often send retirement assets to the wrong person. Divorce is the most common miss. See precious metals IRA and divorce for how a QDRO differs from an IRA split and why the divorce decree does not update your form.

Why there is no step-up in basis on an inherited IRA

This is the biggest surprise for heirs who inherit a mix of taxable brokerage assets and a traditional IRA in the same estate. Regular assets like stocks in a brokerage account get their cost basis reset to the fair market value at the date of death, so the built-in gain vanishes. Traditional IRA assets do not.

The technical label is income in respect of a decedent, or IRD. The IRS treats a traditional IRA balance as untaxed income the owner earned but never distributed, so someone still has to pay tax on it. That someone is the beneficiary.

The metal inside the account is not the issue. The issue is the wrapper. A gold coin held in a taxable safe deposit box passes to an heir at a stepped-up basis; sell it the next day and there is no gain. The same gold coin held inside a traditional IRA distributes as ordinary income at fair market value on the distribution date. The tax difference can run into thousands of dollars per ounce.

Roth IRA metals sit differently. Qualified distributions from an inherited Roth come out with no income tax, so the step-up question is moot. The Roth account has to be at least 5 years old at the owner's death for the distribution to qualify (source: IRS Publication 590-B, "Distributions from a Roth IRA").

Sources: 26 U.S.C. section 691 (income in respect of a decedent); 26 U.S.C. section 1014 (basis of property acquired from a decedent); IRS Publication 590-B. Checked for 2026.

SECURE Act 2.0: what changed for heirs

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act 2.0 was enacted December 29, 2022 as Division T of the Consolidated Appropriations Act. It kept the SECURE Act's core inheritance rule (the 10-year window) and adjusted two things that matter to metals IRA owners planning for death.

Section 107 pushed the required beginning date. An owner turning 73 in 2026 has an RBD of April 1, 2027. An owner not turning 73 until 2033 has an RBD tied to age 75. The RBD matters after death because it decides whether annual RMDs continue inside the 10-year window. If you die on or after your RBD, most non-spouse designated beneficiaries have to take annual RMDs each year on top of clearing the account by year 10.

Section 302 cut the excise tax on missed required minimum distributions from 50 percent of the shortfall to 25 percent. Correcting the shortfall inside the correction window brings the tax down to 10 percent. The change applies from the 2023 tax year forward and reduces the fear factor of a mistimed distribution, though the tax is still substantial (source: SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022).

Source: SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, sections 107 and 302; IRS Publication 590-B. Checked for 2026.

The 10-year rule under 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(9)(H)

The 10-year rule is the default outcome for most adult non-spouse heirs of an IRA opened by an owner who died in 2020 or later. The statutory home is 26 U.S.C. section 401(a)(9)(H), added by the original SECURE Act and preserved by SECURE 2.0.

What it requires is simple to state and easy to miss in practice. The whole account must be at zero by December 31 of the year that contains the 10th anniversary of the owner's death. Miss that deadline and the remaining balance is a deemed distribution taxable at ordinary income rates, with an excise tax added on top.

What complicates the rule is the question of annual withdrawals inside those 10 years. The IRS final regulations from 2024 confirmed that:

• If the owner died before their required beginning date, no annual RMD is required inside the 10-year window. The beneficiary can wait until year 10 and take the whole balance at once, or spread withdrawals over any pattern they prefer.
• If the owner died on or after their required beginning date, most non-spouse designated beneficiaries do owe an annual RMD in each year inside the window, calculated on the beneficiary's own single life expectancy.

An eligible designated beneficiary (spouse, minor child of the owner, disabled or chronically ill individual, or a person not more than 10 years younger than the owner) can bypass the 10-year rule and take life-expectancy payments. For the full test of who qualifies, see the inherited precious metals IRA deep dive.

Spouse vs non-spouse: two different playbooks

The surviving spouse is the only beneficiary who can pull the assets into their own retirement wrapper. IRS Publication 590-B lists three spouse routes and one non-spouse route.

A spouse can (a) treat the IRA as their own by designating themself owner, (b) roll the assets into their own IRA or an eligible plan, or (c) stay a beneficiary and keep the inherited-IRA title. Each has different RMD and early-distribution tax consequences.

A non-spouse must open an inherited IRA in the deceased owner's name for the benefit of the beneficiary. IRS Publication 590-B is explicit: "you can't treat the inherited IRA as your own. This means that you can't make any contributions to the IRA. It also means you can't roll over any amounts into or out of the inherited IRA." The only permitted move is trustee-to-trustee, into another inherited IRA in the same beneficiary's name.

That single distinction is why beneficiary designation planning matters. A surviving spouse can defer the tax bill for decades. An adult child, sibling, or friend has 10 years at most, and often faces annual RMDs inside that window.

What if no beneficiary was named?

If your beneficiary form is blank, or all named beneficiaries died before you, or the form was never valid (missing signature, unwitnessed where required), the account defaults into your probate estate. The estate is a non-designated beneficiary for RMD purposes.

The consequences are almost always worse than a named individual would face:

• Owner died before the required beginning date: the estate follows the 5-year rule. The account must be at zero by December 31 of the fifth year after death.
• Owner died on or after the required beginning date: the estate follows a "ghost life expectancy" using the owner's remaining life expectancy at death, which is often a compressed schedule.
• The estate itself has to open a probate account, obtain a taxpayer ID, receive the distributions, and pass them out to heirs, all before the deadline.

This is one of the strongest reasons to keep the beneficiary form current. Even a simple contingent beneficiary line (spouse first, adult children equally if spouse predeceases) preserves designated-beneficiary treatment and the 10-year window.

What happens to the physical metal itself?

Nothing physical happens to the metal at the moment of death. The coins and bars stay in the same segregated or commingled storage account at the depository, under the account title the custodian assigns. Common depositories in the sector include Delaware Depository, Brink's Global Services, IDS of Texas, and A-M Global Logistics.

The IRS fineness rules keep applying while the metal sits inside the IRA. Silver still has to be at least .999 fine, gold at least .995, and platinum or palladium at .9995. Coin exceptions listed under 26 U.S.C. section 408(m)(3) (American Gold Eagles, and other United States mint issues) also carry over.

Any attempt by an heir to take physical possession before the account is properly retitled and a formal distribution is processed is treated by the IRS as a taxable distribution of the whole balance. Home storage of inherited IRA metal is not permitted while the account remains open (source: IRS collectibles snapshot).

An in-kind distribution is available when the account is ready to be distributed. The depository ships the actual coins or bars to the beneficiary, and the fair market value on the shipment date is the taxable amount for a traditional IRA. This can be efficient in year 10 of the window if the beneficiary wants to hold the metal personally.

Common mistakes that turn inheritance into a tax bill

Most inheritance mistakes on a precious metals IRA are process failures, not investment failures. The metal usually holds its value; the paperwork usually costs money. The most damaging errors show up during the retitle step and in the first two years of the 10-year window.

• Never updating the beneficiary form after divorce. The former spouse can still inherit, even if the divorce decree awarded the assets to the account owner. State laws vary and federal preemption often trumps state revocation-on-divorce statutes for retirement accounts.
• Rolling an inherited IRA into a personal IRA as a non-spouse. The IRS treats the whole balance as a distribution. This is the single most expensive filing mistake in the SECURE Act rulebook.
• Waiting too long to retitle. If a required annual distribution passes without being paid, or the year-10 deadline arrives with the account still open, the excise tax applies to the shortfall (25 percent, reduced to 10 percent if corrected in time).
• Assuming step-up in basis applies. Heirs plan sales around a phantom step-up that does not exist for traditional IRA assets, and are surprised at the tax bill.
• Naming an estate or a non-qualifying trust as beneficiary by default. The 5-year rule or ghost life expectancy usually applies, which is faster than the 10-year window and less flexible.
• Taking physical delivery before the retitle is complete. A deemed distribution of the whole balance kills the IRA and the tax shelter in one step.

Common questions from account owners planning ahead

Does my will control who inherits my precious metals IRA?

Usually not. The beneficiary designation form on file with the custodian controls the account. Your will only steps in if the form is blank, invalid, or all named beneficiaries predeceased you. Keep the form current and the will only handles other assets (source: IRS Publication 590-B).

Do my heirs get a step-up in basis on inherited IRA metals?

No. Traditional IRA assets are income in respect of a decedent under IRC section 691 and do not receive the section 1014 step-up. Distributions to the beneficiary are ordinary income at fair market value on the distribution date. Roth IRA distributions are usually tax-free instead, which sidesteps the question.

How long do my heirs have to empty the account?

Most non-spouse designated beneficiaries have 10 years from the date of your death, per 26 U.S.C. section 401(a)(9)(H). Eligible designated beneficiaries can stretch payments over a life expectancy. An estate or non-qualifying trust usually has 5 years if you die before your required beginning date.

Can I name a trust as beneficiary?

Yes, and a properly drafted "see-through" trust can qualify as a designated beneficiary. A non-qualifying trust is treated as a non-designated beneficiary and pushed into the 5-year rule or ghost life expectancy. Trust drafting for this outcome is technical; consult a licensed advisor before naming a trust.

Does the 10 percent early-distribution tax apply to my heirs?

No for non-spouse beneficiaries. Distributions from an inherited IRA are exempt from the 10 percent additional tax under IRC section 72(t) regardless of the beneficiary's age. A surviving spouse who elects to treat the IRA as their own loses this exemption and reverts to the age 59.5 rule.

What paperwork should I keep handy for my beneficiaries?

Keep the current beneficiary designation form, the custodian's contact information, the depository's account statement, and a written note explaining the IRA structure. Your beneficiaries will need a certified death certificate and personal identification to complete the retitle after your death.

Can my spouse keep the same metals in the same depository?

Yes. A surviving spouse can retitle the account to themself and keep the coins or bars in the same segregated or commingled storage at the same depository. Only the account title changes. The metal itself does not move.

What if I forget to take my own RMD in the year I die?

Your beneficiary is generally required to take the year-of-death RMD you missed, by December 31 of the year of your death. Under SECURE 2.0 the missed-RMD excise tax is 25 percent, reduced to 10 percent if the beneficiary corrects and files Form 5329 inside the correction window.

Sources

1. IRS, Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (inherited IRA sections, beneficiary tables, RMD rules). Checked for 2026.
2. IRS, Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (beneficiary designation and Roth 5-year clock). Checked for 2026.
3. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. section 401(a)(9)(H) (10-year rule for designated beneficiaries). Checked for 2026.
4. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. section 408 (IRA rules, collectibles test, fineness references). Checked for 2026.
5. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. section 691 (income in respect of a decedent, no step-up). Checked for 2026.
6. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. section 1014 (basis of property acquired from a decedent). Checked for 2026.
7. U.S. Congress, SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, Division T), sections 107 (RBD age) and 302 (excise tax reduction). Checked for 2026.
8. IRS, Required Minimum Distributions FAQs. Checked for 2026.
9. IRS, Investments in collectibles in individually directed qualified plan accounts (Issue Snapshot). Checked for 2026.
10. SEC investor.gov, Individual Retirement Account (IRA) glossary. Checked for 2026.