Inheriting Money:
The First 90 Days

Nobody is at their financial best in the weeks after losing someone. That's not a character flaw — it's how grief works. And yet that's exactly when the money shows up, along with paperwork, well-meaning advice from relatives, and sometimes a surprisingly friendly call from someone who'd love to "help you put those assets to work."

So here is the most important sentence I can offer someone who just inherited: almost nothing has to happen right away.

Money is patient. It will sit in a boring, insured account earning interest for months without being harmed. Nearly every deadline you feel is imagined, and the few real ones are measured in months and years, not days. Here's how I'd pace the first ninety.

Days 1–30: Park it. Grieve. That's the whole list.

• Put any cash somewhere safe and dull — a high-yield savings account or money market fund. If the amount is large, spread it across banks so it stays within FDIC limits.
• Make no irreversible moves. Don't sell the house, don't pay off the mortgage, don't invest a lump sum on a tip, don't quit your job. All of those can be great decisions later. None of them has to be made now.
• Be quiet about it. You're under no obligation to tell anyone — and people who hear about inheritances tend to develop opinions about them.
• Start a folder. Death certificates, account statements, the will or trust, beneficiary forms, insurance policies. You'll be glad it's all in one place.

Days 30–60: Take inventory — because each piece has its own rulebook.

An "inheritance" is usually several different things wearing one name, and the tax treatment is wildly different by account type:

• An inherited IRA or 401(k). This is the piece with real rules. Most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account within ten years, and withdrawals from traditional accounts are taxed as income — so when you withdraw becomes a genuine planning decision. One warning worth underlining: the account must be retitled as an inherited IRA. Getting this wrong (like cashing it out or rolling it into your own IRA when you're not eligible) can be expensive and, in some cases, impossible to undo. Slow down here.
• A regular brokerage account. Usually kinder than people fear: holdings generally receive a "step-up" in cost basis to their value at death, which can wipe out decades of built-up capital-gains tax. Document that stepped-up basis now, while the records are easy to get.
• Life insurance. Generally income-tax-free. Its main risk isn't taxes — it's sitting in checking for two years slowly evaporating into daily life.
• Taxes overall? Usually less than people fear. There's no federal tax on receiving an inheritance itself; what matters is how each account is handled from here.

Days 60–90: Do the few real tasks.

• Get the inherited IRA titled correctly and sketch a withdrawal strategy that respects your tax bracket — spreading withdrawals thoughtfully across the ten years instead of taking one giant taxable gulp in year ten. (Depending on the original owner's age, small required withdrawals along the way may apply — this is exactly the detail worth checking with a professional.)
• Confirm the stepped-up basis is recorded on inherited taxable holdings.
• Update your own beneficiaries. The most skipped step in all of this. You just saw firsthand how much these little forms matter.
• Only now, start the bigger conversation: what should this money do? Pay down debt, fund retirement, a home, something they'd have loved to see you do? That's not a 90-day decision — that's the beginning of a plan.

The mistake I see most

It isn't a tax mistake. It's speed. Someone feels the weight of "doing right" by the person they lost, so they act fast — new investments, big payoffs, a hired salesperson — inside the exact window when they're least equipped to judge any of it. The people who navigate inheritances well are almost never the fastest. They're the ones who bought themselves time.

If you're carrying one of these right now: I'm sorry, and I mean the first sentence of this piece sincerely. Bring the folder — we'll sort the real deadlines from the imagined ones together. And if you want the fuller picture of how we help with inheritances specifically, it's here.