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If the beneficiary of an inherited IRA dies before exhausting the inherited IRA or qualified retirement plan (QRP) through distributions, how are the ongoing distributions to be handled?
In this case, there is no Eligible Designated Beneficiary, regardless of your status with regard to either the original IRA owner or the beneficiary.
As a successor beneficiary (the beneficiary of an original inherited IRA’s beneficiary), upon the death of the original beneficiary you would continue to use the same distribution plan as the original beneficiary, with a new 10-year time period to fully distribute the account.
This means that by December 31 of the year that includes the 10th anniversary of the death of the original beneficiary, the entire account must have been fully distributed.