63 year old man and his IRAs

Well, that's not me.

Anyway, yesterday I had a chance to have a little chitchat with a 66 year
old man (he was a quite funny person, too).  And during our conversation, he
told me about something that I didn't know.  I decided to come here and
verify its truthfulness.

Here's the deal;

He currently has 3 IRA annuity accounts with 3 different
investment/insurance/financial companies.  When I asked him if he had ever
considered consolidating them into one account (rolling two of them over to
the other one), he said he must not.

The reason is, since he is going to be 70 soon (according to him, although I
personally don't think 7 years is that "soon"), and that's the time IRS will
"force" him to make withdrawals.  When the time comes, he will set up
periodic withdrawal schedules for those three IRA accounts differently;
fast, slow, and somewhere in between.  Therefore, he believes he should keep
three different IRA accounts like now.

1)
First of all, is he allowed to do that at all?  It's like he is telling IRS
that he plans on living until age 80, then age 90, and then again age 100
while he only has one life to live.  Obviously I don't know much about the
rules and regulations on IRA, but it just seems very illogical for IRS to
allow anyone to do this.

2)
Even if he's allowed to do so, would it be a wise thing to do?  That man
still has some taxable income even though he's retired, which sounded like
from some properties that he owns (like rents from apartment or retail
building).  So, I guess he figured that it would be too much tax burden if
he takes the all the money out together.   I don't know.  I guess it is
different case by case, and maybe in his case it could be a right thing to
do.

3)
Let's say he's allowed to do have different withdrawal schedules and doing
so is a right thing to do for him.  Then, does this situation still justify
his logic of not consolidating his multiple IRA accounts?  Well, maybe he
must have multiple accounts to do this "trick."  But then, can't he do it
with one company, like having three different annuity accounts in one
company?  He seemed very happy with one company, very unhappy with another,
and somewhere in the middle with the other.  I am wondering if he can move
his money from the other two companies to the one he likes the most.


Thank you for your reply in advance.