Advantages of the revocable trust as a beneficiary  6. If IRA death benefits are payable to a trust for the benefit of a minor, it avoids the jurisdiction of the probate court or a similar court that has jurisdiction over the minor's assets, posting of bonds and appointment of custodians.      7. If IRA death benefits are payable directly to a minor, then the probate court or a similar court is involved. The probate court or a similar court may not go along with an extended payout period of IRA distributions.      8. The trustee may reimburse the estate of the deceased IRA owner for the estate tax liability attributable to the IRA. (In most cases, estate taxes due on the IRA should be paid from another source if available.) This protects the executor of the estate and avoids problems in obtaining reimbursement from a designated beneficiary who may have otherwise dissipated the IRA assets.      9. Multiple IRAs should be established and each may have a different designated beneficiary. This permits income splitting between children and/or grandchildren.      10. A trust for a child or grandchild may be necessary if he or she cannot handle money or would not otherwise reimburse the executor of the estate for the estate tax liability attributable to the IRA on a voluntary basis.      11. The life expectancy of a grandchild will generally result in a greater deferral of income then if a child was the designated trust beneficiary of the IRA.      12. Grandchildren have a greater benefit from the growth of IRA insteade of a child because of their longer life expectancy. This should save a considerable amount of estate taxes on the subsequent death of a child.      13. The revocable trust is not an irrevocable beneficiary. The IRA owner may change his/her beneficiary or designated beneficiary at any time during his/her lifetime. The IRA owner must continue to take distributions from his/her IRA commencing at the required beginning date and as always may acclerate distributions according to his/her date of birth. Disadvantages of the revocable trust as a beneficiary      1. The legal costs of establishing the revocable trust.      2. The annual costs of preparing trust income tax returns after the death of the IRA owner.      3. The cost of informal or formal accounting of the trust transactions.

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