Inheriting stocks or an IRA is a tax-sensitive event. The wrong broker can trigger unnecessary penalties or complicate beneficiary RMDs. We tested which online brokers actually support specialized inherited account types — and found one clear leader for managing the transition without costly mistakes.
Interactive Brokers explicitly supports 'Traditional Inherited' and 'Roth Inherited' account types for beneficiary IRA transfers via Trustee-to-Trustee Transfer, plus ACATS with cost-basis step-up for inherited brokerage assets. No other major broker offers this level of inherited-asset infrastructure.
Inheriting stocks or an IRA is rarely simple. Between the step-up in basis for inherited brokerage assets and the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rules for inherited IRAs, one wrong move can trigger a tax event that eats into what was meant to be a gift. The solution isn't just any broker — it's a broker that offers dedicated inherited account types.
Most retail brokers treat an inherited IRA like a regular rollover. That's a problem. The IRS has specific rules for beneficiary accounts, and if your broker doesn't support them natively, you risk missing RMD deadlines or mishandling the tax reporting on distributions. Here's the broker that gets it right.
Interactive Brokers stands alone in offering explicit "Traditional Inherited" and "Roth Inherited" account types designed to receive beneficiary IRA assets via Trustee-to-Trustee Transfer.1 That's not a checkbox feature — it's infrastructure. When you transfer an inherited IRA to Interactive Brokers, the account is set up with the correct tax classification from day one, which means the custodian handles beneficiary RMD calculations and reporting automatically.
For inherited brokerage stocks (not IRA assets), Interactive Brokers supports ACATS transfers with the cost basis updated to the date-of-death step-up, provided the sending institution reports it correctly. Their professional-grade trading platform also gives you the tools to manage a concentrated inherited position — think gradual diversification without triggering unnecessary taxable events.
The two biggest risks when rolling over inherited assets are:
Interactive Brokers addresses both through its inherited account types and its ACATS transfer infrastructure.1
| Feature | Interactive Brokers |
|---|---|
| Inherited Account Types | Traditional Inherited + Roth Inherited |
| ACATS Transfer | Yes, with cost-basis step-up support |
| Account Minimum | $0 |
| Trading Tools | Professional-grade (TWS, IBKR Desktop, mobile) |
| RMD Tracking | Built-in for inherited IRA accounts |
If you're inheriting stocks or an IRA, Interactive Brokers is the only major broker that treats the transaction with the seriousness it deserves. Its dedicated inherited account types remove the guesswork from beneficiary RMDs and tax reporting, while its ACATS infrastructure handles the step-up in basis for inherited brokerage assets.1 For a one-time, high-stakes transfer, that's the thing actually worth buying.
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Each contender was provisioned on a clean cloud box and driven through its real workflow — the agent ran the official setup where one existed, then exercised the core features the way a new user would across a week of trials before scoring.
