An individual retirement account (IRA) is the mechanism where most individuals accumulate the largest percentage of their wealth. Proper estate planning can help you prepare for the possibility that you die leaving assets in your IRA. If you die leaving money in your IRA you want to make sure that your beneficiaries handle properly the nest egg that you worked so hard to save. Since the assets that are in that IRA are going to be taxed when they are withdrawn, you may want to spread out the time over which those assets can be accessed by your beneficiaries.

You can accomplish this in through a traditional trust, or you can set up a specific stand alone IRA inheritance trust. These trusts can allow your money to continue to grow tax free and a portion of your assets to grow tax free over the life of your beneficiaries.