Trusts as contingent beneficiary–elderly clients
Given the cautions discussed at the 2-day IRA Workshop around the Secure Act and trusts as beneficiaries, is it important to ask clients or their attorneys if they still want to keep the trust as the contingent beneficiary? In particular, we have multiple mutual clients with one attorney, and several of these clients are in their 80s now with adult children or nieces/nephews. Is it still important to double check the trust with the 10-point IRA checklist since they all have their trust as the contingent beneficiary? Also, are we able to get permission to share the 10-Point IRA Trust Checklist with the attorney?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2024-10-23 14:57
I don’t have access to the 10 pt checklist, but because the trust will inherit if the primary bene pre deceases the IRA owner OR if the primary bene disclaims, the trust should be checked at least annually to make sure that it is qualified for look through and contains provisions that the owner decides are needed. Since most of these trusts will be subject to the 10 year rule resulting in fairly rapid distribution of the inherited IRA, if the funds are accumulated in the trust, they will be subject to the higher trust marginal rates.
Since trusts normally provide the trustee of the trust with broad discretion regarding distributions, the trust must also have a competent trustee.
Permalink Submitted by kathleen adams on Mon, 2024-10-28 17:12
Thank you Alan. I’m going to contact my clients attorney regarding this as they asked me too and hoping she is very aware of the recent 2.0 final regulations.