Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: If the account owner owed an RMD for the year of their death and had not taken it, the beneficiary must take it — by 31 December of that same year. It is not deferred into the 10-year window and it is easy to miss in the weeks after a death.
The obligation transfers, the deadline does not move
The year-of-death RMD belongs to the decedent’s schedule, not yours. If they had already taken it, nothing is owed. If they had not, whoever inherits must take the remaining amount before the end of that calendar year.
Someone who dies in November leaves weeks, not months. This is the single most commonly missed distribution in the whole area, because the family is dealing with a death and no custodian statement arrives explaining it.
If it was missed
The shortfall carries a 25% excise tax, reduced from 50% by SECURE 2.0 and reducible to 10% if corrected promptly. There is a relief process for reasonable cause, and a recently-bereaved family missing a deadline is close to the paradigm case for it — but it has to be requested, not assumed.
With several beneficiaries
The amount is satisfied in aggregate rather than per person, so beneficiaries need to coordinate. Two people each assuming the other handled it is a common and expensive pattern.
Sources
Final regulations on required minimum distributions, published 19 July 2024; SECURE Act (2019) and SECURE 2.0 (2022); IRC §401(a)(9). Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses from Kitces, Grant Thornton, Ascensus, Charles Schwab and Kiplinger. Specific IRS notice numbers for the 2021–2024 waivers, and the exact correction window for reducing the missed-RMD excise tax, should be confirmed against primary source before you rely on them.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and inherited account rules turn on facts about the decedent that no page can verify for you.