Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: It depends on the drafting. A trust meeting the see-through requirements generally lets the underlying beneficiary’s own schedule apply. A trust that fails them is treated as a non-designated beneficiary — often a five-year emptying, and income taxed at compressed trust rates.
Conduit versus accumulation
| Conduit | Accumulation | |
|---|---|---|
| Distributions | Pass straight through to the beneficiary | May be retained in the trust |
| Taxed at | The beneficiary’s rate | Trust rates if retained |
| Control | Little — money passes out | Substantial |
Trust income tax brackets compress far faster than individual ones, so an accumulation trust that retains a large inherited distribution can face a high effective rate on a modest amount. The control has a price and it is worth quantifying before choosing.
Why people name a trust anyway
Protection from creditors or a divorce, control over a beneficiary who should not receive a large sum at once, and provision for a special-needs beneficiary whose benefits are means-tested. Those are real reasons, and the tax cost is the trade.
If a trust is already named, the drafting decides the outcome and it is worth reading before any distribution is taken. See also what a living trust costs.
Sources
Final regulations on required minimum distributions, published 19 July 2024; SECURE Act (2019) and SECURE 2.0 (2022); IRC §401(a)(9). Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses from Kitces, Grant Thornton, Ascensus, Charles Schwab and Kiplinger. Specific IRS notice numbers for the 2021–2024 waivers, and the exact correction window for reducing the missed-RMD excise tax, should be confirmed against primary source before you rely on them.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and inherited account rules turn on facts about the decedent that no page can verify for you.