Beneficiary as Trust

[Nassau]

If a participant designates a trust as his beneficiary and the participant dies. Can the trustee (i.e., one of the beneficiaries of the trust) rollover/transfer the trust to an IRA?

[ETA Consulting LLC]

Typically not. While the trust must meet the death distribution rules, it will govern the use of the funds. That does not involve assigning ownership of the entire account to another individual so they can roll it over. What, exactly, are you trying to do? There is nothing precluding a trustee transfer of the assets, but your question implies they want to change the entitlement of the assets from the trust to another individual.

Good Luck!

[Belgarath]

See a good planning attorney. Is the beneficiary of the trust a spouse? There are a stack of PLR's allowing a rollover in such a situation for a spousal trust beneficiary, assuming of course all the i's and t's are handled properly, and the moon is in the proper section of the zodiac.

I don't know if there are any similar rulings if you have a non-spousal beneficiary.