The Look Through Rule For Trusts August 12, 2026

August 12, 2026

**The Look-Through Rules for Trusts 

Wednesday, August 12, 2026 

By Sarah Brenner, JD Director of Retirement Education 

The SECURE Act, the SECURE 2.0 Act, and subsequent regulations have brought us a complex set of rules for IRA beneficiaries, including trusts. Only individuals who are named on the IRA beneficiary form (or named through the IRA custodial document if no beneficiary is named on the beneficiary form) can be considered non-eligible designated beneficiaries (NEDBs) who qualify for the 10-year rule, or eligible designated beneficiaries (EDBs) who qualify for the stretch.

 A trust is not an individual. But if the trust qualifies as a “look-through” (also known as a “see-through”) trust, then the individual beneficiaries of the trust can qualify as NEDBs or EDBs for IRA distribution purposes. However, if one of the trust’s beneficiaries is not a living, breathing person (like a charity), there may still be no NEDB or EDB for IRA distribution purposes, even if the trust qualifies as a look-through trust.

 If a trust qualifies under the look-through rules, then the shorter payouts required for non-designated beneficiaries (i.e., the 5-year rule) can be avoided. Instead, payouts to the trust can be made using the SECURE Act’s 10-year rule or even stretched over the life expectancy of the trust beneficiary if the trust beneficiary is an EDB.

 To qualify as a look-through trust for IRA distribution purposes, the trust must meet the following technical requirements:

 1. The trust must be valid under state law.

2. The trust must be irrevocable, or the trust must contain language to the effect that it becomes irrevocable upon the death of the employee or IRA owner.

3. The beneficiaries of the trust who are beneficiaries with respect to the trust’s interest in the IRA owner’s benefit must be identifiable; i.e., specifically named people or a specific group of relatives (“my grandchildren”), not a vague group (“my friends”).

4. For employer plans, the plan administrator can require that the trustee provide either a list of trust beneficiaries with a description of the conditions on their entitlement or the actual trust document, by October 31 of the year following the year of death. For trusts that are IRA beneficiaries, there are no documentation requirements.    Copyright © 2026, Ed Slott and Company, LLC Reprinted from The Slott Report, [August 12, 2026], with permission [https://irahelp.com/the-look-through-rules-for-trusts/] Ed Slott and Company, LLC takes no responsibility for the current accuracy of this article.

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