I have married clients, husband 74 and wife 68. The husband’s IRA is in excess of $2.0MM and they have named their joint trust as primary beneficiary. The joint trust is revocable by the survivor of the two of them and names charities as beneficiaries in the case that all beneficiaries are deceased (“bomb clause”). They have 2 children they would like the assets to go to upon both of their deaths. We would like to get the maximum stretch out of the IRA.

My understanding is that naming the trust the way it is structured would only give us a stretch based on the life expectancy of the owner?

If the wife were named primary and the trust contingent, would we get a stretch based on the wife taken the IRA as her own and if she named the trust as contingent then the stretch would continue based on the oldest child?

Thanks in advance for your comments.