Are there any hurdles to jump through before a trust may be designated as a beneficiary of a Roth IRA? Is it easier to name the trust beneficiaries directly as the Roth beneficiaries?

In my case, it was a simple matter of replacing the existing beneficiary with the trust. It was handled by a lawyer, so guess it is OK.

The issue isn't whether a trust can be named as a beneficiary of an IRA. Any yokel can do that. The trick is to get the trust to be a 'designated beneficiary' so that the trust beneficiaries life expectancies can be used in computing required distributions. That's where many people get screwed up (including lawyers). For that, there are a bunch of hoops to jump through.

Sorry I misinformed you Eve. Bpicker is right, hiring the right lawyer or accountant is important. My trust was put together for a disabled son and it was very complex. Part of the trust goes to my siblings who are much older and I am very concerned that the disabled son will have to take payments based on THEIR life expectancy rather than his. I still have not decided on how to resolve the problem and I should not have responded to your inquiry. He is also right about the difficulty in located a professional who is acquainted with such issues. I hope he will advise both of us. Good luck