Bypass a Trust?

A participant in one of our client's 401(k) plans has died.  The beneficiary form lists her trust as the beneficiary.  The decedent's daughter is the sole beneficiary of the trust.

The trust's administrator is asking if it is possible for the plan to pay the daughter directly to an inherited IRA, rather than pay to the trust.

The plan document does not have any language pertaining to this particular request.

Has anyone run into a similar request? 

Our thinking, as the TPA, is to have the Plan Administrator refer to their legal counsel.

Thanks very much.

The plan administrator has no choice.  The funds must be paid as designated.  Reformation at the trust level is up to her counsel and the trust's counsel  and is not a plan level question.  

John H.W. Cole, Esq.

l 

Hello John, thank you for the confirmation.