Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: A charitable remainder trust named as IRA beneficiary can pay an income stream over a beneficiary’s lifetime, which approximates the stretch the SECURE Act removed. The price is that whatever remains goes to charity rather than to the family.
What it reconstructs
The IRA passes to the CRT, which is tax-exempt, so no income tax is due on the transfer. The trust then pays your beneficiary a stream for life or a term of years, and whatever remains goes to charity.
The beneficiary gets something close to the old stretch: spread income, no ten-year cliff, no compressed decade.
The price is real
The remainder is genuinely gone to charity — this is not a technique for maximising what the family keeps in total. It is for families who intend meaningful charitable giving AND want a beneficiary’s income spread. If you are not already giving, the arithmetic rarely favours it.
Where it fits
- Large IRA, beneficiary who would be pushed into top brackets by a 10-year emptying.
- Genuine charitable intent already present.
- A beneficiary who benefits from a structured stream rather than a lump.
It is a specialist instrument with setup cost and ongoing administration, and it is irrevocable. Worth pricing against simply converting to Roth over several years, which is simpler and keeps the remainder in the family.
Sources
SECURE Act (2019); SECURE 2.0 (2022); final RMD regulations published 19 July 2024; IRC §401(a)(9); IRC §1014 (basis of property acquired from a decedent); IRC §664 (charitable remainder trusts). Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses from Kitces, Grant Thornton, Ascensus, Charles Schwab and Kiplinger. Indexed figures and state-specific rules are flagged rather than asserted.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax or legal advice, and beneficiary planning turns on family facts and state law that no page can see.