Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Two sets of rules apply at once. The inherited-IRA rules set your distribution schedule; the annuity contract sets what the insurance company will actually permit. Where they conflict, the contract can make the tax schedule expensive or impossible to follow cheaply.
Where the conflict shows up
| Set by the IRA rules | Set by the contract |
|---|---|
| How fast the account must empty | Whether you can withdraw that fast without a charge |
| Whether annual distributions are required | Surrender schedules and free-withdrawal amounts |
| Nothing about death benefits | Guaranteed death benefit, sometimes above account value |
A surrender charge can make satisfying a required distribution genuinely costly. Get the contract’s free-withdrawal amount and surrender schedule in writing before planning a drawdown — the tax deadline will not move to accommodate it.
Ask about the death benefit before doing anything
Some contracts pay a guaranteed death benefit that exceeds the account value, and some require it to be taken in a particular form — occasionally as a stream rather than a lump — to be paid at all. Moving or surrendering the contract first can forfeit it.
The order of operations
Establish the death benefit and how to claim it. Then the surrender schedule. Then the tax schedule. Doing it in the other order is how people give up money that was contractually theirs.
Sources
Final regulations on required minimum distributions, published 19 July 2024; SECURE Act (2019) and SECURE 2.0 (2022); IRC §401(a)(9); IRC §2518 (qualified disclaimers); IRC §408(d)(8) (qualified charitable distributions). Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses from Kitces, Grant Thornton, Ascensus, Charles Schwab and Kiplinger. Where a deadline or dollar figure is indexed or was not read in primary source for this page, the text says so rather than asserting it.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and inherited account deadlines turn on facts about the decedent and the plan that no page can verify for you.