A Standalone Retirement Trust (SRT), also know as an IRA Beneficiary Trust, is a trust that acts as a qualified designated beneficiary for retirement accounts.  Typically the SRT does not own any assets during your life, but will receive retirement accounts (or part of the retirement account), at your death, through beneficiary designation.  By having the trust qualify as a designated beneficiary, the beneficiary you name under the SRT receives the benefit of tax-deferred growth of the retirement account, creditor and/or divorce protection, or delaying certain distributions due to the beneficiary being a minor or having certain needs or limitations that would likely result in poor management or spending of the retirement accounts, if he/she were named outright as a beneficiary.

Our typical clients who create an SRT often have some or all of the following:

1. 1. have retirement accounts that make up more than 50% of their total wealth
   2. have saved a large amount of retirement assets
   3. want to provide generation-skipping transfer tax planning
   4. want to protect their beneficiaries from the retirement accounts being subject to their creditors or divided in the event of divorce
   5. want to ensure that their beneficiaries take advantage of the tax-deferred savings structure of an inherited retirement account
   6. have beneficiaries with special needs (financial or education), who may not be savvy with money, or may need guidance in preserving their inheritance