If you own a Roth 401(k), the IRS quietly stopped forcing you to drain it in retirement. Starting with tax years beginning in 2024, required minimum distributions no longer apply to designated Roth accounts inside employer plans during the owner’s lifetime. That means the standard scramble to roll your Roth 401(k) into a Roth IRA before age 73 to dodge RMDs? You don’t have to do it anymore. And plenty of retirees still have no idea, because payroll and plan portals never spelled it out.
The Buried Rule Inside Your Workplace Roth
Before 2024, Roth 401(k)s carried a strange quirk: even though the money was already taxed, the IRS still made you take annual withdrawals once you hit RMD age. Roth IRAs never had that rule. So savers routinely rolled their Roth 401(k) into a Roth IRA the year before RMDs started, purely to keep the money compounding tax-free. SECURE 2.0 eliminated required minimum distributions during the owner’s lifetime from designated Roth accounts inside employer plans, effective for tax years beginning in 2024. The rollover workaround is now optional, not mandatory.
The Statute Behind It
The change comes from Section 325 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which amended Internal Revenue Code §401(a)(9) to exclude designated Roth accounts from pre-death RMD rules. The IRS confirmed the treatment in Notice 2024-2. This is a settled rule, not a proposal, and it has been in effect through every tax year since 2024.
Who This Actually Touches
Almost every 401(k) saver with a Roth balance. Fidelity’s Q4 2025 data shows 96.5% of plans on its platform offered a Roth option, up from 74.4% in Q4 2020. If you have a Roth 403(b) or Roth 457(b), the same lifetime-RMD relief applies. If you hold a traditional pre-tax 401(k), nothing changes: those RMDs still start at age 73. And critically, if you inherit a Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA, the beneficiary distribution rules still apply. This relief is for the original owner during life only.
How to Put It to Work
- Confirm the account type. Log into your plan portal and verify which bucket is “Roth” versus “pre-tax.” Many participants split contributions and don’t realize it.
- Call your plan administrator. Ask directly: “Are you coding my designated Roth balance as RMD-exempt for lifetime distributions?” Some recordkeepers were slow to update systems after 2024.
- Decide whether to roll to a Roth IRA anyway. Reasons people still do it: broader investment menu, lower expense ratios, easier consolidation of multiple old Roth 401(k)s, and cleaner beneficiary handling.
- Mind the five-year clock if you roll. The Roth IRA five-year holding period runs from your first Roth IRA contribution, not from the rollover date. If you’ve never funded a Roth IRA, opening one with even $1 starts that clock now, so the vintage is there when you need it.
- Keep contributing Roth if it fits your tax picture. Since the money never has to come out, it becomes a true tax-free bucket for late-life spending or heirs.
The Catch Most People Miss
Two traps. First, the five-year rule for Roth 401(k)s and Roth IRAs runs on separate clocks. Regular Roth accounts and 401(k) Roth accounts use separate clocks, so a 20-year-old Roth 401(k) does not automatically make earnings from a brand-new Roth IRA tax-free. If you roll, the receiving Roth IRA’s own five-year clock governs earnings withdrawals.
Second, if you already turned RMD age before 2024 and were taking Roth 401(k) distributions, those historical withdrawals stand. The relief is prospective. And inherited Roth accounts still face the 10-year rule under SECURE for most non-spouse beneficiaries, so estate-planning conversations shouldn’t assume “no RMDs ever.”
Given that the personal savings rate sat at 2.8% in Q2 2026, keeping every dollar compounding tax-free matters more than it did a few years ago. If your plan never flagged this change, you’re not alone. Check the box yourself.
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