Retirement Plans (i.e. IRAs, roll-over IRAs, 401(k) plans, deferred compensation and savings plans, 403(b) plans) are counted as part of your estate for federal Inheritance Tax purposes, but you do not transfer the "title" of a Retirement Plan to your trust. You do not transfer the "title" of a Retirement Plan to your trust because a Retirement Plan does not go through probate if you have a "beneficiary" listed on the plan. Moreover, transferring the "title" of a Retirement Plan to your trust would cause you to have to pay income tax on the entire plan content since the IRS would view that transfer as a lump-sum distribution. Most commonly, a married person would list their spouse as the "primary" beneficiary on a Retirement Plan and then list the children as "contingent" beneficiaries in the event both spouses were to die at the same time. If you are single or widowed, you would list your children as the "primary" beneficiaries on your Retirement Plan. If you are married and have minor children, you would list your spouse as the "primary" beneficiary and the trust as the "contingent" beneficiary on your Retirement Plan.

If you are single or widowed and have minor children, you would list the trust as the "primary" beneficiary on your Retirement Plan.