The mechanical recap of RMDs lives in section “Required Minimum Distributions: Navigating the Maze”. The strategic recap for this chapter is simpler: at age 73 (or 75 for those born in 1960 or later), the IRS forces a distribution from every pre-tax account you own, computed as the prior-year-end balance divided by an IRS table factor that starts near 26 and shrinks each year. A $3M pre-tax balance at the first RMD year generates a roughly $113,000 distribution. By age 85 the divisor is around 16 and the same balance—if it has grown—forces correspondingly larger distributions. There is no opt-out.
If you have done the conversion-window work, the wall is shorter. If you have not, the levers are:
The cheapest reduction is the one you did before RMDs began. Once RMDs start, you cannot convert the RMD itself—the RMD must be taken before any remaining balance can be converted.
Under IRC §408(d)(8), “Distributions for charitable purposes”, past age 70½, a QCD routes IRA money straight to charity, satisfies the RMD up to its amount, and never appears in AGI. Strategically it is the dominant lever for a charitable household—a couple can discharge $200,000 or more of pre-tax balance every year at zero AGI cost, far better than taking the RMD as income and giving from taxable.
Under Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-6, “Required minimum distributions”, you may transfer up to the flat $200,000 limit from a pre-tax IRA into a deferred income annuity that begins payments as late as age 85. The amount transferred to the QLAC is removed from your RMD-base capital until payments begin. A married couple can defer $400,000 of RMD-base capital to age 85, shrinking the early-RMD forced income meaningfully. The trade is illiquidity (you cannot get the principal back) and counterparty risk (relying on the insurer for 20+ years). For a household that can afford the illiquidity, the QLAC functions as an RMD-suppression tool.
Under SECURE 2.0, Roth designated accounts within employer plans are exempt from lifetime RMDs starting in 2024. However, rolling them over to a personal Roth IRA remains best practice. personal Roth IRAs never have lifetime RMDs and escape the plan-specific administrative delays common to employer-sponsored platforms. Consolidate soon after retirement.
An RMD is computed against the owner’s age. A surviving spouse who inherits and treats the IRA as their own resets the calculation to their own age; an inherited IRA treated as an inherited IRA stays on the decedent’s schedule. Choose deliberately, particularly when there is a meaningful age gap.