IRA Owner dies, leaves IRA to trust, where Surviving Spouse is bene. Residual benes of trust are deceased owner’s kids from a prior marriage. Assume neither spouse had passed RBD.

With SS as EDB, a lifetime stretch can be offered to the trust (right?). What happens when the SS dies? Technically, the trust is still bene, so we don’t have a successor beneficiary situation where we have to shift to an out-in-10 window.

My thought is that where the sole designated bene is now deceased (or at least, the lifetime used to attain designated bene status is now deceased), the trust would have to flip to a 5-year payout window, yes? Or is there some way to preserve the stretch payout? I know that’s a long shot.

Of course, if the custodian is never informed that the SS died, they’d have no reason to stop the stretch payments. But what’s supposed to happen under SECURE?