You have time to do some planning before deciding what to do with your retirement plan inheritance. If you’re required to start taking distributions, make sure you take a minimum distribution before the end of the year following the year the original account holder died.

This will preserve your chance to take distributions over your lifetime or according to the account holder’s original life expectancy, as specified in charts created by the IRS and available through its website, www.IRS.gov. If you forget or for some other reason don’t take the distribution, you’ll be required to empty the account by the fifth year, potentially giving up a lot of tax benefit.

If you’re the widowed spouse, you can transfer the retirement money inheritance into your own account and continue as if it were originally yours, deferring withdrawals or taking the RMD if you’re over age 70½. If you’re not the spouse, take some time to figure out how to best stretch the tax benefits of the IRA even if you can’t keep the money completely within a retirement fund and must make withdrawals.

If the custodian or the tax law requires you to give up some tax benefit by taking the money out over time, but you’re still working and are not already maxing out your retirement contributions, add more to the retirement accounts you’re eligible for to get the tax benefit. In this case, the living expenses you would have paid with your salary could be covered by your inheritance, and your wages could fund your retirement account.

If the retirement plan you’re inheriting was invested in an annuity instead of something more liquid like a mutual fund or a certificate of deposit, the insurance company trustee will offer you withdrawal options based on the annuity product itself. Carefully compare the convenience of having the insurance company manage the withdrawals with the high cost of staying with them. Also compare the effort of managing the withdrawals yourself to the cost of paying a financial planner or investment advisor to help you.