Do not change the ownership of these to your living trust. You can name your trust as the beneficiary, but be sure to consider all your options, which could include your spouse; children, grandchildren or other individuals; a trust; a charity; or a combination of these. Whom you name as beneficiary will determine the amount of tax-deferred growth that can continue on this money after you pass away.
Most married couples name their spouse as beneficiary because 1) the money will be available to provide for the surviving spouse and 2) the spousal rollover option can provide for many more years of tax-deferred growth. (After you pass away, your spouse can “roll over” your tax-deferred account into his/her own IRA and name a new beneficiary, preferably someone much younger, as your children and/or grandchildren would be.) A non-spouse beneficiary can also inherit a tax-deferred plan and roll it into an IRA to continue the tax-deferred growth, but only a spouse can name additional beneficiaries.
Of course, any time you name an individual as beneficiary, you lose control. After you pass away, the beneficiary can do whatever he or she wants with this money, including cashing out the account and destroying your carefully made plans for long-term, tax-deferred growth. The money could also be available to creditors, spouses and ex-spouses, and there is the risk of court interference at incapacity.
Naming a trust as beneficiary will give you maximum control because the distributions will be paid not to an individual, but into a trust that contains your written instructions stating who will receive this money and when. After you pass away, distributions will be based on the life expectancy of the oldest beneficiary of the trust. You can also set up separate trusts for each beneficiary so that each one’s life expectancy can be used.
The rules for these plans have recently been made simpler, but it is still easy to make a costly mistake. Because there is often a lot of money at risk, be sure to get expert advice.